Team No Excuses starting the season off strong at AFM Round 2, Infineon Raceway
Press release by Team No Excuses Racing
Photos courtesy of 4theriders.com & Steve Larman
Having missed Round 1 at Buttonwillow, Team No Excuses Racing Jason Ross, Hollis Adams, and Scott Miles were restless, all of them feeling like they had unfinished business to settle. The plan was simple. Go all in at Infineon Raceway, CA Round 2 of the AFM season. Put it down. No excuses.
Race 4: Jason and Scott in Open Twins, Hollis in Open Production
The racing started for Team No Excuses with Race #4, Open Twins and Open Production. Jason and Scott were gridded near the middle (12th and 13th respectively) as they had no points for the season so far, with a tough road ahead of them, but with unrelenting determination to make something positive happen, the two riders took their starting spots and prepared for battle. The plan was simple, work their way through the pack together at the start and see how the race shook out from there.
Jason ripped a strong start on the No Excuses Racing Ducati 1098, using the torque of the 1098 he motored past several riders early on and started pulling out a nice gap on the rear of the field. He worked his way past several riders and hooked on the tail end of the lead pack as they made a break away from the rest of the field.
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Scott on the other hand had a rough start and was passed by five bikes at the start. Wanting to capitalize on the path his teammate was opening up toward the front, he put his head down and began to charge up through the field on his No Excuses Racing Ducati 999. Scott was on the gas and railed the outside of turn 2 passing three riders in one turn! He disposed of two more bikes between turns 2 and 3 and tucked in behind Jason near turn 4 as the two worked their way forward together.
As Jason and Scott dipped into the carousel, Jason was battling it out with another 1098 rider, Scott in tow on his 999 waiting patiently for the race to come to him. Jason clearly had the speed and managed to sneak through on the inside of the slower rider, slightly standing him up and checked out from there, moving up to 6th place. Scott was now battling it out with the black 1098. As the two entered the penultimate lap, the rider on the 1098 made a mistake and ran wide in turn 1. Scott capitalized on the mistake and began setting up and inside pass going into turn 2, however the 1098 rider was heavily protecting the inside line, so Scott pulled to the outside and made a risky pass on the dirty side of track, parked it in turn 2 with a block pass to kill the rider's drive out of the corner and then accelerated hard into 3A.
By this time, Jason had pulled a gap of 2-3 seconds, with one Open Twins rider sandwiched between them. Still pushing, Jason and Scott entered the final lap of the race in 7th and 9th position respectively. A yellow flag in turn 11 on the final lap caused some confusion, as Scott was briefly passed under yellow then given the position back by the rider who realized what he had done. Scott would later say of the incident, "I saw the flag when I was pinned at the apex of 10 so I checked up and rolled off to try to find the incident. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw a rider coming up the inside into 11. I looked over and gave him a point to the flag. Coming out of 11, he realized what he had done and gave the position back." At the end of the race, Jason and Scott were able to hold their positions, bringing home 7th and 9th place respectively, putting them 10th and 13th in the Open Twins Championship. It was Jason's first weekend testing and racing on Pirelli's, and he was pleased with their performance. "They've changed a lot since I last raced on them. There's tons of grip, that's for sure!"
While the battle in Open Twins was raging, Hollis was fighting his own battle in Open Production. Hollis had the same uphill battle as Jason and Scott, starting near the back due to lack of points from missing the opening round. Nevertheless, through his focused practice sessions at Infineon, he knew he had the pace to quickly move up through the pack. Hollis started 14th on The Team No Excuses Suzuki GSXR 1000 and quickly passed the row of riders in front of him, but was then held up in turn 2 and had some difficulty sorting out the race pace of the lead pack. When the dust settled Hollis had brought home a solid 7th place to complete the trifecta of the top 10 finishes for Team No Excuses. After the race Hollis said, "As this was my first race of 09 a small amount of time was spent getting comfortable with doing battle again. I had to settle for a 7th place and after all things considered, I was okay with that." At that time, no one could have anticipated the fury that Hollis would unleash in his final race of the day.
Race 7: Hollis in Open Grand Prix
The team's performance in Race 4 was just a sign of things to come. For his second race, Open GP, Hollis was gridded four rows deep in a field of liter bikes. Hollis nailed a perfect start moving straight to the outside entering turn 1 and pinned it until reaching the top of the hill and turn 2, passing two rows of riders in front of him, this left only the front row of guys ahead of him. An incident involving two riders forced a couple of guys to check up which opened the door for him on the inside exiting turn 2. Hollis said later, "To my surprise it was only Craig and I at the front." For the next 6 laps both Craig Smith and I battled each other through a consistent field of lappers from the 750 Production race as well as many yellow flags. A missed shift on the last lap exiting turn 9 gave Craig too much of a gap for Hollis to make up and put the block on into 11 and Hollis had to settle for 2nd, but summed it up by simply saying, "The Team No Excuses Suzuki GSXR1000 and my Pirelli tires worked great today."
Hollis' podium capped a successful weekend for the team, who is now preparing for Round 3 of the AFM season, which will take place again at Infineon Raceway. The goal for the team is to continue the strong momentum established in Round 2.
Team No Excuses Racing would like to give a big thanks to all of its sponsors: Pirelli Tires, Keigwins @ the Track, Catalyst Reaction Suspension and Dave Moss, Motogenex, 2wheeltimes.com, 4TheRiders.com, Suomy Helmets, Honda Peninsula Ducati, Lockhart Phillips, Ducshop, and Gilroy Screen Printing.
