It all started on Thursday, when Mike Lytle hopped in the Möbius Racing transporter with his bike and kit and joined Vince on the drive up to Portland.  The plan was to drive halfway on Thursday, finish the drive on Friday, and then stay at Mike's brother Rick's house just south of the track.  The caravan of cars also included  Joel, Brian and Mark in Mark's truck.  The whole drive went smoothly with no real intersting events along the way - this is usually a good thing!

 

Everyone went directly to the track when we rolled into Portland.  Vince and Mike setup their pit for the weekend, unloaded the bikes, and checked out the facility.  Since both were visiting PIR for the first time, the first curiousity to confirm was the notorious front straight - which at the time was being used for the local Friday night drags! 

 

It IS true that PIR's front straight is just god-awful long.  Its literally so long that it is borderline boring.  The first corner however makes up for things in that it is taken in 3rd gear and is a pretty quick set of right handers that you take in series in one long arc - bouncing from outside curb to inside and back several times.  The next couple corners form the technical portion of the track that leads on to PIR's almost-as-long-but-not-at-all-straight back straightaway.

 

The back straight is pretty, umm, interesting.  Its got that 'Isle of Mann" feel because you end up strafing the inside concrete wall for a good portion of its blind arc!  EEK!  We suppose its really not that unsafe, but we also have the feeling that the track is not known for its safety.  Hmm.

 

The next interesting aspect to PIR was revealed when we learned of our friend Rob's problems.  Rob had come up early for the Friday trackday and ended up totally seizing one of his cylinders entering the first corner about halfway through the day!  Fortunately Rob came out unscathed and the abundance of 250's in the paddock meant he would be able to get his bike back together for Sunday.  It seems that PIR is notorious for its abundence of oxygen, which this author can only surmise is due to its low elevation (sea-level) and dense decidiuous forest growth which infuses the local atmosphere with a rich supply of oxygen. 

 

As Rob got busy rebuilding his bike, the rest of us spent Saturday morning learning PIR's pretty straight-forward layout.  By the second session at noon, Vince was turning consistent mid-low 1:18's, which of course had no meaning at the time, but in retrospect was a pretty good start. 

 

By 2:00 the third session was on track, a beautiful sunny day with mild temps hovering around 80° graced the riders.  Vince got down to mid 1:17's as he worked on both jetting the bike and trying to sort out PIR's critical first and last corners.  The fourth session at 3:30 was more of the same with the times dipping down into the high 1:16's.  Vince tried to focus a bit on the braking into T7, the chicane area before the last corner.  Its a little tricky because although the bike has to go left-right pretty hard, the chicane opens on the exit and can actually be taken a good bit quicker than first inspection would have one think.  Unfortunately, it wasnt good news for our friend Rob, who spent the whole day getting his motor rebuilt and his bike up and running only to go out in the last session with us and have the same thing happen!  His bike locked up again going into the first corner and this time Rob didnt make out so lucky.  He ended up really knockin an arm and a leg and was sent to the hospital with a couple broken bones.  Bummer Rob!

 

As the day wound down, it was time for the boys to take to the track for the GPRU qualifying session.  East coast 250 contender Steve Wenner chose to make the trip out from Florida and was going to be tough, but local ace and longtime 250 pilot Nobi Iso was going to make sure he didn't miss using his home track knowledge to full effect.  As the times came in it was Iso from Wenner from West Coast Championship leader Scott McNew followed by Vince for the front row.  Of most encouragement was that Vince's consistend pace of mid-high 1:14's was best of all the front row starters.  With a quick time of 1:14.732 and full six laps in the 1:14's during the session, Vince was only 0.245 sec off of Iso's pole time while lapping twice as many times in the 1:14's!   Needless to say, this put the Möbius camp in very good mood Saturday evening!!

 

Sunday dawned and the morning warmup went fine.  New tires were mounted, jetting double checked, the suspension setting was working nicely and Vince was feeling really good and ready to head for the grid.

 

First up was the OMRRA 250GP qualifying heat.  OMRRA runs a heat and a final for their classes.  In the heat race, Vince was gridded in the back with the rest of the none-point-holding entries.  By the end of the first lap he was out in front and going to work extending the gap.  When the checkered flew at the end of 3 laps, Vince had a clear advantage and took the win - and the pole that comes with it.

 

Next up was the GPRU 250 race.  ...and this is where it all went bad.  As the green flag dropped to start the race, Vince got caught out with the clutch and the bike completely bogged.  In fact, it may have been a slight hesitation with the motor due to heating, but regardless he sat on the grid, literally, as everyone behind him flashed past.  We were happy that Vince made it to the first corner without a 250 enema, even if he went from the first row to the last!!

 

Into the first couple corners and Vince went to work.  Passing bike after bike, the entire eight laps was spent working to get around whoever was in front of him.  Unfortunately, in the end the start was too much to overcome and Vince had managed to only make his way back up to....4th...exactly where he started.  Everyone in the Möbius pit was a little bummed but encouraged by the 'what could have been' thoughts that danced around.

 

Some small redemption was to be had in the OMRRA 250GP club race.  With 12 entries, it was a good turnout for the club race and Vince was not about to let the same thing happen twice.  On the pole, Vince made sure to get a good launch and lead the field into the first turn.  He would not be bested for the rest of the 10 lap race and cruised to the victory in a pretty easy ride.

 

...Now if they could all only be that easy!