“If experience has taught us anything, it’s that nothing is free and living ain’t easy. Life is hard, real hard, incredibly hard. You fail more often than you win, nobody is handing you anything.
It’s up to you to puff up your chest, stretch your neck and overcome all that is difficult, the nasty, the mean, the unfair.
You want more than what you have now, PROVE IT!”

And that is exactly what these riders did this weekend, both on and off the track. Saturday morning approached. Racers began to fill the registration booth in the early morning hours of 7am. All of them eagerly pacing to gear up for the racetrack for the first morning practice sessions. As I walked through the race pits, I noticed specifically over at the SPL race camp that they were unloading what seemed to be a haggard and almost unrecognizable SV650. As I approached Brian Balliet and Racer Justin Mastalka, I asked them their game plan for this poor bike. The answer I heard, which I could not believe, “This is Alan Cunningham’s SV650 and we are going to put it back together so Justin can race it in Safermoto’s SV class.” I wished them luck as I wasn’t too sure between Brian doing tire changes and Justin having to practice and qualify on his R6, that they would have time to get a bike up and running from the ground up. As the morning progressed to 9 am, minutes before the track goes hot, I get a radio call requesting myself to the timing and scoring booth. It turns out the road blocks from July had carried over to our August race event. The timing system for our races was down and the receiver was crashing due to a software update. I immediately became irritated and frantic as for 3 years now we had never had one problem with our timing system and this was the one fear I had always had in the back of my mind. “What if one day, the timing system did fail, what would I do?” My timing tech/partner Jay Reynolds jumped on the phone with IT to see what could be done to resolve this issue quickly. Meanwhile, it was time for me to head to grid and release the riders out on course for their first practice sessions of the day. I figured with the practice sessions, this should give TTP Racing enough time to figure out what gremlin is causing the demise of our timing system.

First session of the day and the riders were coming out of the hot pits aggressive, you could tell they were all here ready to throw down on course. Maybe too aggressive as within the first 30 minutes I heard radio chatter of a few riders running off course, no accidents mind you but you could tell they were anxious and learning the right race line to take for RFR’s C course. Qualifying was around the corner and we still had no timing. I could see through the timing and scoring window from the grid that my partner Jay had a phone to his ear and based off his body language, it was clear that I had to move to a plan B for qualifying. Even if it was fixable, it wasn’t going to happen in time for qualifying. Lunch was approaching which allowed me to buy some time for my plan B. I recruited 4 people with lap timers and a spotter to call out plate numbers for the super pole qualifier. We were going old school on this and treating it like a Supermoto event. Terry our lead flagger was a huge help as he stepped in and instructed his team to communicate with us as to when riders were approaching certain aspects of the track so that we could prepare our timing team. It worked flawlessly, we released 4 riders at a time, they had 3 laps, the first was a warm up, the second was the qualifier, and the third was the cool down. Each person on our timing team had already had assigned riders, the whole roster was divided up and assigned. Nothing had changed in regards to flow when we had our timing system online. It was as if we never skipped a beat.

Open Street Class Super Pole Time
Jon Parisena N/A
Kevin Fanady 02:57.4
Kevin Jones 02:55.2
Warren Reed 02:53.6
Jason Enlund 02:53.2
Dean Miller 02:50.7
Mike Nash 02:49.4
Sean Mckay 02:47.3
Wiles Stapp 02:46.8
Andrei Bustarde 02:46.5
Michael Patterson 02:44.6
Jerry Sample 02:44.1
Derek Jakob 02:43.8

Licensed Racers Super Pole Time
David Labree 02:54.7
Charles Finch 02:52.7
Al McElroy 02:49.9
Peter Dieringer 02:45.8
Steven Daughhtee – SV 02:45.5
Jay Avinsino 02:44.7
Jose Flores 02:41.0
Matt Katter 02:36.6
Justin Mastalka 02:33.6
Shane Muntean n/a
Jimi Mac n/a

The Endurance race seemed to have a small turn out, it was as if everyone wanted to Sprint race this event. Which was completely switched from our previous races as we had an overwhelming amount of Endurance racers the first time.

In order, here are the results from our Endurance…

Place Endurance Iron Man Racer Laps Last Lap Time
1 Steve Daughtee 20 2.41.0
2 Jerry Sample 20 2.40.3
3 Matt Katter 20 2.51.2
4 Jason Enland 19 2.58.8
5 Mike Nash 19 3.07.2

Place Endurance Team Laps Last Lap Time
1 Gus & Warren 17 03:04.7

Sunday morning was here, race day. You could feel the calming before the storm, all the racers were preparing for their time on the grid. The time was the only thing on their minds, the machine and the strategy to pass the next rider, how to get their hands on the trophy.

The rider schedule on Sunday only permits one full 30 minutes of practice before the heat races. It is a time where you could work out any last minute changes or bugs. Every racer was at grid ready to go out. You could feel the level of competition change from Saturday to Race day. Every rider coming out of the hot pits was heavy handed with the front wheel up in the air from hard acceleration. And what was approaching the grid as one of the first bikes to take the track, Justin Mastalka on an SV 650. Believe it or not, with the help of Jay Avinsino and Jose Flores, the SV was put back together in time to take grid for a practice session.
Some of the noticeable racers that had improved on performance were Matt Katter, Derek Jakob, Michael Patterson and Jerry Sample. These guys brought their game faces. From the previous 2 seasons on the grid, today there was a noticeable difference in riding styles with these racers. It was like something just clicked for them at some point and it showed on the track. They were all ready for their heat races. The heat races dictate what grid placement you get in the main race event, and that’s the event that counts.

Open Street Heat Results
Place Bike# Racer
1 990 Mike Patterson
2 699 Derek Jakob
3 2x Jerry Sample
4 599 Wiles Stapp
5 7 Sean McKay
6 13 andre Bustarde
7 15 Mike Nash
8 21 Kevin Jones
9 87 John Parisena
10 314 Kevin Fanady
DQ 320 Dean Miller

Licensed Heat Results
Place Bike# Racer
1 2 Justin Mastalka
2 28 Jose Flores
3 700 Matt Katter
4 162 Jay Avinsino
5 921 Peter Derienger
6 888 Jimi Mac
7 931 Al McElroy
8 00 Steve Daughtee
9 998 David Labree
10 953 Charles Finch
11 962 Shane Muntean

SAFERMOTO TWINS/SV Heat Results
Place Bike# Rider
1 162 Jay Avinsino
2 931 Al McElroy
3 888 Jimi Mac
4 21 Kevin Jones
DNF 38 Justin Mastalka

You will notice, in the SV Heat results, Justin Mastalka was unable to get the SV to run properly. Thus forcing any chances of winning Safermoto’s contingency money out the window. This was a disappointment as TTP was really looking forward to a SV battle against Jay Avinsino. Those two racing together would have made a great show on the SV’s.

Moving on to our Main Race events. The action only got better and the racing only became closer. And I mean elbow to elbow closer. Some of the most noticeable races were between Matt Katter and Jose Flores for 1st place. Justin Mastalka fell to 3rd place due to mechanical issues, we believe his MR12 fuel was boiling due to heat, therefor vapor locking.
Another great race to watch was in the Open Street Class, where the battle for first place should have been clearly won by Michael Patterson, unfortunately he was DQ’d for jumping the start before the flag dropped. Which put the fight between Derek Jakob and Jerry Sample, all I can say about this race was there was a lot of passing and slamming of doors in each other’s faces through out the track. It was one of the best races to watch. One for the books however was the battle of 3rd place between Sean Mckay and Andre Bustarde. These guys were neck and neck every single time they went down the front straight. In the end, Sean McKay pulled it off by a front tire. That was some great racing!!

Open Street Class Main Race Results
Place Bike# Rider
1 699 Derek Jakob
2 2x Jerry Sample
3 7 Sean McKay
4 13 Andre Bustarde
5 15 Mike Nash
6 320 Dean Miller
7 21 Kevin Jones
8 87 John Parisena
DNF 314 Kevin Farady
DQ 990 Mike Patterson

Licensed Racer Class Main Race Results
Place Bike# Rider
1 700 Matt Katter
2 28 Jose Flores
3 2 Justin Mastalka
4 888 Jimi Mac
5 921 Peter Derringer
6 931 Al McElroy
DNF 162 Jay Avinsino

SaferMoto Twins/SV Main Race Results
Place Bike# Rider
1 162 Jay Avinsino
2 931 Al McElroy
3 888 Jimi Mac
4 21 Kevin Jones

Middle Weight 600 Class Main Race Results
Place Bike# Rider
1 699 Derek jakob
2 921 Peter Dieringer
3 888 Jimi Mac
4 931 Al McElroy
5 7 Sean McKay
6 15 Mike Nash

TTP Racing would like to thank Safermoto for the contingency on the race class for the SV’s. Because of your presence, we did get a few SV’s that we would normally not see. Congratulations to Jay Avinsino for taking 1st place. So thank you again and I hope we can work together at some point in the future!

Last but certainly not least was the Da$h 4 Ca$h races, in which this year we featured one for each class. We did run them together (Open Street & Licensed Racers). It was a great battle by all those involved, and ultimately Michael Patterson and Justin Mastalka became the victors for 1st place in each of their own classes.

Licensed Race ClassD4C
Place Bike# Rider
1 129 Justin Mastalka
2 700 Matt Katter
3 921 Peter Dieringer

Open Street ClassD4C
Place Bike# Rider
1 990 Mike Patterson
2 2x Jerry Sample
3 699 DerekJakob

TTP Racing would like to thank Zooni Leathers for their contingency in the Dash 4 Cash race. All 3rd place winners received a $150 gift certificate towards the purchase of their very own custom race suit. Thank you again for your involvement in our race event Zooni’s!!

The time has come to thank everyone involved with our event. Without all of you working as a UNIT, TTP Racing could not function!!

SPL Racing
Alan Cunningham from Safermoto
Dan Sewell
Ethan from ARC
Steve from 2WCP
4theRiders
Tony from Boulevard Pizza (Thanks for helping out with the trophies)
Zooni Leathers
Performance Friction Brakes
Jodi Katter
Rebecca Patterson
Terry Migliozzi
Tamara Nessman
Jay Reynolds
And of course my wife Amber Britt (The hot blonde in registration)

Thanks again to everyone, and a big thanks to all the racers who stuck through this for the last 3 seasons!

Prices will be up shortly, Any questions please contact us.

The cost is $110!

Any questions please let me know

TTP 2012 Teaser

See you in 2012!!!

On another note, Precision had a awesome weekend, their staff and coaching was friendly and inviting, the professionalism could not be any better. We loved seeing various vendors there, all whom were very professional at what they brought to the table as far as their particular jobs;

Joe- 4theriders, great seeing you out there as usual doing your thing with your crew, wouldnt be a fun event without your wise crack comments and of course your photos.

Brian-SPL Racing, good to see you were being kept on your toes in reference to selling tires, looks like everyone made you work as the stack of Pirellis I saw from the morning, was not there sunday afternoon.

Ethan-Arc Trackademics, Was awesome to see you do free coaching lessons, was great to see your students drop 20-30 seconds off their lap times from your coaching. I will see you out there again!

Over all I think the effort put in by the Precision crew was amazing for the first season. I and everyone else will be looking forward to future days with them at RFR. Because of people like them, it keeps the support of our local track days in Northern Nevada alive. We also look forward to running our timing and scoring equipment in future track days.

Thanks for the amazing experience.

Sam
TTP Racing