Championships, Race Wins, and a lot of rider/machine improvement highlighted RPS customer experiences at Second Creek Raceway…
Racing Performance Services journeyed
to Second Creek Raceway for the MRA season finale. On the line for RPS customers
were several championships while several riders wanted to reach the “next
step” of riding. With final results not
posted at the time of this story, this is the known RPS customer/sponsored rider
list of successes.
The weekend started with an 18-hour
drive for Marcus McBain. Arriving at SCR Thursday morning, Marcus setup shop and
immediately was approached by Rich Deeming who said, “Setup my bike as well as
Dennie Burke’s, I want to win!” Marcus talked to Rich and explained the
setup Dennie had was a standard RPS configuration. Rich was somewhat surprised and
had Marcus install a compression upgrade package and would work with Marcus through the
weekend to ensure machine setup was optimized.
Marcus continued to work with Ryan Burke. Ryan & Marcus were still trying to tame the ex-AMA formula extreme horsepower monster. The tight and twisty short Second Creek Raceway circuit only amplified problems with rear traction as the front end was flawless after the initial re-working of the Ohlins Superbike kit forks. After many changes, no suspension solution was achieved. With the help of local fast guy (and nice guy) Shane Turpin, Ryan was convinced to work on smoother throttle control and gear selection. Ryan demonstrated his riding skills by adapting quickly and consequently improving the performance of his machine through the weekend and finishing on the box too!!!
Securing the first championship of the weekend was RPS customer/sponsored rider Glenn Conser. Glenn has utilized RPS for custom shock valve stack configurations and finite setup on his GSXR-750. Glenn wrapped up the Heavyweight Solo Endurance championship on Saturday with a smart and controlled top-10 finish. Glenn also wrapped up a few top-5 championship positions on Sunday. GREAT JOB. Congratulations to Glenn on a great season. RPS was glad to be part of it.
Up next was Tyler Jones. Tyler is a young and very talented racer. At stake this weekend were the Novice GTO and GTU championships. Tyler road extremely well this year and the last race weekend was no different. Tyler took impressive wins while nailing down the two championships he sought. Tyler thanked RPS owner Marcus McBain for his machine setup during his interview. A great rider that remembers to thank those who put him there is a great thing. Good job Tyler…
Dennie Burke's goal was to obtain the Open Supersport championship. Dennie entered the Second Creek/MRA final round with a narrow 12-point lead. Burke did have momentum on his side though as he had dominated the previous round at Pueblo on his RPS prepared suspension and although slim, the 12-point lead would be more than enough as the veteran Burke took the lead of the race on all three starts of the red-flagged marred race to ensure there would be no chance of too few points to wrap things up. With the championship all but secured, Burke battled with RPS customer Rich Deeming for much of the race. With Deeming obtaining RPS built forks for this weekend, Dennie had his hands full. On lap 6 Deeming slipped by Burke, but the championship was over and Dennie Burke took the well-deserved honors by holding down 2nd place and winning the championship by 8 points. Dennie thanked Marcus McBain for his help this season during his post race interview and was one of the happiest racers in the pits. Later in the day, Burke took an impressive 5th place in the Race of the Rockies while running on DOT TIRES!!! Great job Dennie.
Holding the Burke family honor was Dennie’s nephew Ryan. As mentioned, Ryan was doing a great job of changing his riding to accommodate the short track. Ryan was rewarded with a very close second place in Open Superbike. In the race, Ryan hounded Shane Turpin and looked positioned to take the win at several points in the race, but the crafty veteran Turpin held off Burke for the win. In the Race of the Rockies, Ryan got a good start, but an early race battle with his uncle (Dennie) caused Ryan to lose touch with the leaders. Once past Dennie, Ryan put his head down quickly caught up with MRA (and AMA) fast veteran Ricky Orlando. On about lap 8 Ryan experienced serious brake fade, and settled for fourth place. Notable for Ryan was that this season was Ryan’s first season on a liter bike (never mind the fact that this was one of the fastest/most powerful 1000’s in the country). Congratulations to Ryan on a great season, we were glad to be a part of it.
Rich Deeming also experienced success this weekend with RPS services. As mentioned earlier, Rich used a compression build that featured a Traxxion Dynamics piston. Marcus McBain experienced superior performance utilizing Traxxion products as a rider and that is why RPS primarily features Max McAlister’s products. Rich worked diligently through the weekend and an optimal setup was found Saturday afternoon. It is good to note that no matter how good the setup, the rider needs to be able to perform and that is what Rich did…PERFORM. He did a fantastic job of riding and won the Open Supersport race. It is a pleasure to work with riders the caliber of Rich. Good Job!!!
Rounding out the weekend (and the season) for RPS customers/assisted riders were Micahael Applehans, Patrick Lansu, Ed Smalley, Zach Ritchey, Bob Seymour, Vern Robinson, Alex Kuretz, Dean Rumfola, Alex Chaux, Troy Runck, and many others did a great job representing themselves and the quality of RPS products and services.
THANK YOU TO ALL IN THE MRA that captured race wins and season championships on RPS products/services.
Marcus McBain