When things go wrong, Roadracingworld.com’s Chris Ulrich is quick to point out that when he started racing at age 13, his racer father told him that while the highs of racing are intoxicating, he’d likely have more tough days than good days if he followed racing as a career. Which means he got into road racing–and chose to stay in road racing in the following years–with his eyes wide open. His tenacity has been rewarded with two AMA National wins, two AMA National pole positions, eight AMA National podium finishes and four AMA National season finishes in the top 10 in series points, plus several WERA, CCS, WSMC, ASRA, MOTO-ST race wins, podiums and titles. He’s also suffered through eight surgeries to repair injuries suffered in crashes not all of his own making, including one in which another rider’s bike tumbled through the air and landed on top of him in turn one at Daytona! Last weekend at Road America proved the point. While other riders sat in the pits and waited for a dry track, Ulrich slogged out in wet practice sessions and worked on his wet-track bike set-up and Pirelli tire choice. When AMA Superstock qualifying went off in a torrential downpour Saturday, he traded fast time with friend and WERA endurance teammate Mark Junge and eventually took pole position, ahead of AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies, Vesrah Suzuki’s Junge and M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Geoff May. Ulrich crashed during Saturday’s Superbike race when his bike jumped out of first gear after he turned into the chicane and was on his knee, loading the front tire and sending Ulrich on his head. His leathers instantly wore through an expansion panel above the left knee cup, and the asphalt ground a 1-1/2-inch diameter, 1/2-inch-deep hole in the fleshy part of his left knee, above the kneecap. In Sunday morning practice on a dry track, Ulrich discovered that he could not hang off the left side of his bike with his painful, bandaged knee, but he was still eighth-fastest. His best hope for a good finish would be a wet race. But AMA officials delayed the start of Sunday’s AMA Superstock race instead of sending the field out in heavy rain conditions nearly identical to those encountered in the worst of the Saturday qualifying session, and by the time the race gridded up several hours later the track was still completely wet but under sunny skies with a light breeze. Tire choice was a gamble, with Ulrich picking a rain front and cut slick rear tire, figuring his only chance was to try to make an early break before the track dried; May wanted the same front tire choice but was talked out of it by his crew and gridded up with a slick front, and Ulrich’s Roadracingworld.com teammate Robertino Pietri also switched from a rain front after the sighting lap. Ulrich said he knew he’d made the wrong choice when he arrived at turn one and lost the front as he turned in, and that was reinforced when he started losing positions as the front repeatedly tucked in the carousel as riders with slicks went to the front. Still, Ulrich raced with frequent dicing partner Blake Young until his bike’s throttle started intermittently sticking open and his bike also started refusing to rev normally at high rpm. He dropped out of top-10 contention, and lost 11th to Danny Eslick on the last lap, finishing 12th but maintaining his place in AMA Superstock top-10 in points Year To Date. “I went from steak to bologna in 10 laps,” he said Sunday night. “But hey, I was warned there would be days like this. We’ll go to Miller (Motorsports Park) and try again.” Today Chris Ulrich is seeing a surgeon about repairing his knee, which may require a skin graft.