What can I say? It was drama. It was close racing. It was friendship and family and community banding together. It was personal bests. It was fun. It was bad calls and ridiculous decisions. It was overcoming obstacles. It was broken timing and scoring equipment. It was hard work by volunteers. It was getting to see and hang out with old friends whom I missed.

It was yet another great weekend hosted by Sam & TTP.

You guys know I’m not that great with words. I often spew out whatever froth bubbles from my mind with little to no filter. Some love me for it. Some hate me for it. Either way, pictures don’t lie. So I’ll mostly let the pictures speak on my behalf.

Tho…I do want to point out something: Sam and TTP put on one hell of a fun event.

He offers up something that I’ve never seen before in all my years of being around the track and motorbikes and the likes; He offers a chance for the “little guy” to race.

The weekend warriors. The commuters. The motorcycle enthusiasts. The ones who may be afraid to make that leap from trackdays into actually getting a race license, spending the beaucoup bucks on aquiring a race bike, trailers, suspension, this, that, everything…he gives the guys and gals that want to experience the rush of a race start…of tipping into turn 1 at 100+ mph side by side with their best friend to see who will come out victorious after 6 laps of slidey-puck, knee-racing, poppa-wheelie action. To get a plastic trophy at the end of the day and who will have a memory that will last them the rest of their life, and the life of their son or daughter and those close to them.

pack of riders in turn 1
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This past weekend was supposed to be Kev’s racing debut. A mere 2 weeks ago, he was registered to race with TTP in the Open Street Class…then the unfortunate happened; he fell down while riding with some friends on Wentworth Springs Road. He fractured his L1, 2, and 3, and one of his metacarpals. He was out from the weekend of racing.

“GET OFF MY LAWN!”
kevin is angry
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This past weekend, Tomas the Terrible joined me after a brief hiatus for some 24 Hours of LeMons action up at Reno Fernley Raceway as well as shooting a wedding for a racer friend of ours.

We headed out Thursday night as there was a Friday practice for all the LeMons Racers.

What is The 24 Hours of LeMons? Well, put frankly, it’s a 24 hour endurance race where people buy pieces of shit cars for $500 or less, put all kinds of ridiculous decorations and whatnot on them…

sheen machine lemons rfr
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The sun is out, and the thaw has begun. Its time to dust off your leathers, question the condition of the tires that sat all winter, change your oil, and for some…time to put their engines together again, and back in the frame.

I myself have plans. Big plans. For most of those that know me know that I have not had proper fairings on my motorcycle for a long long time. Not since I had discovered the joy… the ecstasy of riding a superbike with motocross handlebars (THANKS JOE!). Fun is as fun does, and fun got in the way of fairings; wouldn’t let me turn the bars all the way.

This is all changing this season. The bike—my bike—that silly little R1 that I have decided is too much hooligan for the street, is getting new-used custom painted fairings.

I can’t wait.

PaintPlans
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Hey everyone. I just wanted to post a quick update on a few changes for 2011. I’ve been getting a lot of email and phone calls and texts and the likes asking me “ZOMG, IS IT TEH TRUES!@!>?”

Yes, it’s true.

4theriders is no longer shooting for Zoom Zoom. Why? Simply put: we’ve just got different ideas and are headed in different directions. :) We’re still friends. There’s no bad blood. Dito of GotBlueMilk will be shooting for Z2 instead.

Also, something I’ve not yet announced publicly until now: 4theriders will be the official photography company for Reno Fernley Racetrack! Whooooo hooooooo!! For those of you that know me, you know that I freggin LOVE RFR. It’s my favorite track!

And as icing on the cake, RFR has told me that they’re making some big changes to their infrastructure! I hear that there’s going to be new pavement in sections and some other goodies that everyone will love. I don’t have “official word” on what’s been done yet, but I’ll definitely keep you guys posted when I know. :D *STOKED!!*

How about a 24 shot panoramic view of RFR as seen from the bowl? Click for the big picture…I mean BIG!

reno fernley raceway racetrack panoramic
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It started off awesome and ugly all at the same time. Toe, Dove, and myself showed up on Friday around 11am for the first of three days of RFR’ness. The track wasn’t to go hot until noon anyhow. There were 9 people there.

Awesome. Ugly.

From a selfish riding standpoint, it was epic; open format at RFR! My favorite track around! From a financial standpoint…ugh! I was gonna take a serious financial hit!

Regardless, we were there, we were gonna make do best we could.

First thing’s first.. we had to give people a chance to get warmed up and whatnot. We unloaded everything, got the computers all set up, and geared up to ride. :) I did 4 laps and suddenly felt bored. I just wasn’t feeling it like I thought I would, I guess. I pulled off the track, changed back into my photo-clothes, and headed out to shoot for a little bit. Toe and I went out and shot for about 45 mins… running all over the track, covering a TON of ground in a very short amount of time..I mean, there were NINE people on the track.

Bored. But hey, there were birds…

pelicans birds of some sort
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I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t even a little bit depressed.

This weekend was a lot of fun. Back to back trackdays with SBK775 up at RFR where I got in a lot of kickass riding with fast guys and good friends. Sunday ended up being some great racing…especially watching the first timers go out and battle each other. Watching Mike morph from a C-group-panty-waist into a full fledged A-group racer-boi was pretty awesome.

It’s weekends like that that I cherish and don’t forget…This weekend won’t be muddled up and lost in memory as so many of my weekends do given that I’m at the track so much. Toe even got a few shots of me that are now my favorite pics ever!

joe reno fernley gsxr fast

But Monday… Monday had awesomeness written all over it until I had to go and be the dumbass I sometimes regret being… Toe, Han, Kyle, Rob, and myself decided to go shred the gnar in downtown Sacramento on bicycles. I kinda led them around to a few places where Matt and I like to get jukie wit’ it… but since it was only about 6pm and not the usual midnight runs that Matt and I take, we kept getting kicked out of places… finally, we end up by the Pyramid Building where we haul ass down a steep hill and try and drift at the bottom.

Toe set a pretty impressive mark… so I tried to top it… and I did… with about a 25mph highside onto my scaphoid bone wearing only dirtbike gloves for “protection.”. *sigh*

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