Corey Baum
Miller National – 05/24/09
Salt Lake City, UT
Friday practice was plagued with tire and suspension problems as I ruined any tires that even got near the bike within only a few laps. Later in the day, After talking with Barry Wressell from KFG / GP Suspension North back home in Seattle, I was able to begin cleaning up the issues and focus on bringing down my times for Saturday practice.
Sunday morning started off with rain which was a welcome sight being from Seattle where it rains almost nonstop. After mounting up a set of 5yr old Dunlop rains I went out for the first morning practice and spent some time getting acquainted with Miller in the rain. After finishing the morning practices i was putting down some respectable times and felt pretty confident in my abilities in the rain and stood a good chance at doing well in the upcoming races, especially if the rain kept up !
Come the start of the first race 600 Super Stock the rain was still coming down in buckets. The board dropped, the flag flew and we were off ! After some hard fought battles with the competition, I started 22nd and finished 18th “Come to find out these guys DO know how to ride in the rain”, they just don’t practice.
As the second race 750 Super Stock started the rain had nearly cleared up and definitely would have been a race for my Dunlop NTEC’s, but I had left my rains mounted up with indecision in the air for everyone. Fortunately, everyone else had made the same choice. I Started 20th and finished 13th. By the end of the race the track had dried enough to make the swap back to my Dunlop NTEC’s during the gap before the next race.
By start of the third race 600 Super Bike, I had just barely enough time to get the dry tires mounted up, but not enough time to get the tires warmed up. So here I was, on the grid for the start, with cold tires, but wasn’t going to let that deter my objective. I started 20th and finished 17th.
For the last race of the day 750 Super Bike, I started 17th and finished 16th ! Whew, I made it !
Come to find out the road to recovery is a little longer than first thought to be. With everything said and done I finished the weekend without any incidences and gained some very valuable seat time and confidence back in the bike. I look forward to the next race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA on 8/23
Id like to thank my sponsors for their unparalleled support.
ClimaCover, Performance-Source.com, Studio819, Flowering Warrior Ent., Adrenaline Freaks, GSXR-Tech, Paulsons, Dunlop, KFG, GP Suspension North, WoodCraft, Armour Bodies, Braking USA, Vortex, Kicker, SIDI, SPY, OGIO, LockHart Phillips, PowerStands.