2009 AMA Season, round 9 - Heartland Park, July 31 - Aug 2

"Very respectable showing" - John Ulrich

When John Ulrich, the owner of Roadracing World, Team M4 Emgo Suzuki, etc. walks over to you on the grid and asks you how many AMA nationals you have done and then hands you a sincere compliment, it feels pretty darn good. In truth, we had an outstanding weekend in Topeka.

Friday, July 31 - Qualifying

We have recently partnered with Mike "Thermosman" Fitzgerald of Ohlins USA and this partnership really paid dividends this weekend as Mike helped us continue to dial the bike in on the new Ohlins setup. We paid the $275 track fee for 4 precious practice sessions on Thursday in order to get the bike dialed in for qualifying on Friday.

That investment, plus the investment in a new set of Dunlop slicks, paid off with a strong qualifying effort putting us on the 4th row of the grid in 14th position. It felt pretty good to be less than 4 seconds off the pole as opposed to almost 10 seconds at Road America.

It was really fun Friday night and Saturday with rider introductions and autograph sessions, etc. Hanging out with Kevin Schwantz, Jason Britton and hob knobbing with the AMA regulars is kinda cool. Unfortunantly, you quickly learn that some of the riders you have admired from a distance are far less admirable up close as you spend time with them. Of course, there are other riders that are equally surprising in a good way ... and that really makes for a cool experience.

Saturday, Aug 1 - American Superbike Race 1

After all the festivities were behind us, we finally lined up to go racing on Saturday about 2 o'clock or so. The AMA rounds are tough because it seems like you do a lot more waiting than racing. To be honest, I was really not mentally prepared for the war that was about to ensue. The racing at the Road America round had been pretty civilized without your normal club racing "banging" going on. I naively thought it would be the same in Topeka.

It was a war from turn 1 on the first lap. I was on pace and on line, but I was getting dive bombed corner after corner and finding it difficult to be smooth and relaxed on the controls as guys were pushing me wide and shoving their way past. It was a melee, right out of the gate.

I got overly caught up in the aggression and about 6 to 7 laps into the race before I realized it, I got a real bad case of arm pump from the death grip I had on the bars. It was really difficult to smoothly work the front brake and throttle throughout the remaining 13 or so laps as I traded spots back and forth with Dominic Jones and watch Shawn Higbee open up a nice gap on us. As race 1 came to a close I was a bit frustrated because I knew that I could have run better and finished further up the ranks. In addition, a poor tire compound choice did not help at all either.

We managed a solid 16th place finish, but I knew I should have finished better.

Sunday, Aug 2- American Superbike Race 2

I went into race 2 mentally ready for a war. We adjusted the front brake lever to help avoid fatigue and arm pump. We then we put the same tires on the bike that we qualified on (in hopes they would last for all 20 laps). A couple of adjustments to the suspension to try to settle the bike down under hard trail-braking and we were ready to line up on the grid.

The start of race 2 was every bit as furious as race 1, the only difference was that everyone's pace seemed to be up a little bit and I was markedly more relaxed. This time instead of getting into a heated battle, I relaxed and stalked Shawn Higbee and Dominic Jones for the first 7 or 8 laps. As soon as I saw an opening, I took advantage of it and made the pass on Jones. Higbee was up next and though he put up a good fight, once I had some clean air in front of me I was able to put my head down and open up a 3 to 4 second gap on both of them.

For the next 4 or 5 laps, I babied the rear tire worried that the softer compound might not last the race. However, as I started the 18th lap of race 2 the bike felt awesome. Did I mention that I love Dunlops? :-) Our gamble on tire compound had paid off and I was able to run some pretty quick laps all the way to end of the race.

As I took the checkered, I knew that I had accomplished something that required me to forcefully take it away from two seasoned AMA veterans that did not want to give it up. It felt awesome to win the Topeka war, even though I definitely had lost the race 1 battle.

We pulled off an unbelievable 12th place finish in the premier class in only our second ever AMA national!

I want to send out some special thanks.

The Christian Motorcycle Association (CMA) and their sportbike division "Fast Lane" was very active at this event in Topeka. It was great to feel so much love and support from you folks. From feeding us all spaghetti, to bringing over free Gatorade throughout the weekend, to stopping by and praying specifically for me as I prepared to take the grid ... you guys were awesome. Thank you and God bless all of you!

Huge thanks to my pit crew Stephen Hall, Brian Blume and Ricardo Valdez for letting me be a prima donna all weekend. You guys made it possible for me to focus on racing and I absolutely could not have done it without you. Thank you!

I was also blessed with not one, but two hot umbrella girls this weekend! Big thanks to my daughter Rachel Hix and her friend Dani Hosek for keeping me in the shade when we were out baking in the Kansas sun ... and of course my wife Maria and my youngest daughter Bekah for holding the fort down while we run off and play super hero on the weekends.

Thermosman at Ohlins USA and Bruce at Arai, thank you guys for being so giving of your time and talents to me. You guys make me feel like Mladin ... er, check that, I mean Pegram.

And last but not least, a big thanks to all of you for all the encouragement and support. It really means a lot to know that your friends and family are pulling for you!

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CONTACT INFO: ron@ronhix.com or 630.430.7449