WOW, is all I can say about doing an endurance race. This was my first time ever being on a SV650 and doing an endurance race with SWGmotorsports. That being said, here we go. Being asked to be apart of this memory was amazing in itself and want to immediately say thank you to AJ from SWG for allowing me to be apart of this. The family and I showed up bright eyed and ready Saturday morning for rendezvous and to meet the team of fun and memories. Once we all met each other it was on to the logistics of rider order and going through the pit stops. Practice came up and Aj and Curtis rode the day before so Josh and I was given the opportunity to use the practice allotted time to figure this bike passion of fun out. Josh went first and wrapped his around the bike and now it was my turn. Not going to lie, somebody else bike, 4 person team relying on me not to crash and take us out of the race even before we started. No biggie, lets do this!! My first lap out was def an eye opener. I immediately reverted back to my old triumph thruxton days and let the throttle do all the work for me. After a few laps I felt good and brought the bike in. Next rider up to just fet his mind upto speed before the race. Well... that was his plan and like real life it always doesn't go the way you want it to. Unfortunately he rode off in between turn 1 and 2, hit the wet grass and went for a tumble. He was a little wobbly and having a great dad around him, his dad kept him on the sidelines for his and others safety, (props sir) he did so. Game face!! Lets get to work on getting the bike back together, we had kids running bodywork over to the hose and getting the dirt and grass off, Matt our mechanic tearing everything off that was broken. AJ, Josh, and myself doing whatever we could but staying out of Matts way. After an hour of whipping, tightening, checking and double checking we were good to go through tech, we passed. Feeling good!!!! Race time: AJ took 1st ride and was ready to rip until we realized everybody looked at the grid but didn't remember exactly where we were on the grid.. (5min board) Rookies... Matt took off and hopped pit wall get grid position, I went to start line figuring we would be doing hand signal communication... but matt was fast enough to beat AJ back and we hollered at him as he came up and gridded in the correct spot!! Whew, we was that team at that moment, but we def looked back on it and chuckled after the race. Wont do that again!! (we hope) haha The bikes launched and like every adrenaline junkie, the sound of the motors heading into turn 1 had me pumped for my ride!! AJ comes in and now its my turn, lets do this intelligently and safe being this is a 4 hr turtle race. As I start putting in laps, I get my first heavy weight (1000cc) flying on the inside and outside of me on the back straight going into the kink... YESSSSSS, this is racing at its finest and this SV was wanting every part of being it that dog fight... but of course, was not. haha As I continued doing laps and trying to be consistent and mindful of the faster bikes, I had discovered I was in the 1:14's and having fun while learning what these Sv650's are all about. Wicked Fun!!! Josh's turn: He went out and rode super consistent. Picking up a little time every lap was fun watching back in the pits with the live timing app. He rode great and came back into pits for fuel and change. As we continued to have fun and turn laps we learned a whole bunch and the experience was undeniably unforgettable. We did this 2 more times and we rode great. (My Opinion) Josh took the checkered and the long 4 hrs that seemed like multiple race days in one was over. We finished 5th overall and nothing but smiles and high fives back at pits. We started out the day kinda rough, but with the right people, the right attitude, the "what else can I do to help", having fun , making memories kinds of mentality I was around made it a perfect day. Hope it was worth reading, def want to thank WERA, Flag Personal, other teams, and my wife for another memory forever locked in. Til next time, Tony Blackall
