Team No Excuses Racing was amped after Round 2 at Infineon Sears Point Raceway.  The team had an outstanding weekend, with Hollis taking his first podium of the year (2nd in Open GP) and Jay and Scott both taking top 10 finishes in Open Twins.  The entire team was prepared for Round 3, and ready to better their positions in their respective championships. 

Saturday Practice



Saturday was cloudy and cool, but practice started off well for Hollis and he was able to make some changes to the set up that put him within 0.2secs of his best race time from round 2.   In the afternoon the weather changed dramatically, which hindered his afternoon session, but overall he finished the day with a positive feeling.  Scott was struggling some on Saturday, getting comfortable with the front end, but after a few minor adjustments was able to get the feel he was looking for and his laps times showed it.  Jay was focusing on specific areas of the track, working on refining lines that he could put to use during the race.  Overall, Saturday was uneventful and the team wrapped up the day preparing their bikes for race day and relaxing.

Race 6: Jason and Scott in Open Twins, Hollis in Open Production



Sunday morning came and the weather looked much better, making for the start of a great day for roadracing.

Jay and Scott were pleased with their starting positions in the Open Twins race and looking forward to capitalizing on them.  Jay was gridded on the outside of the first row, with Scott in middle of row two.  Unfortunately, Open twins got off to a shaky start as Sherwick Min went down right when the green flag dropped.  This caused everyone behind him to check up and take evasive action, and eventually the red flag came out. Luckily no one else was collected and after delay while his bike was removed from the course the race was restarted.   At the restart, Jay didn’t get the ripping start he had hoped for, but was still able to salvage a solid position into turn 1 start and was sitting in 8th place.  Scott ended up creating more work for himself and got a rough start, entering turn 1 at the back of the grid.

Throttle pinned coming down the back straight into turn 7; Scott knew he had an uphill battle ahead of him, as he could see the front of the pack pulling away from him.  “I lost count of my position at the start, but knew it was bad because everyone was in front of me.  I just pushed as hard as I could every lap. ”  He spent the next two laps working his way back up to 10th by the second lap and tucking in behind team mate Jay and Ed Lloyd.  The three Ducati riders swapped positions for a few laps, Scott passing Jay at the second apex of turn 7 and setting off for Ed Lloyd, whom he got past on the brakes in 11.



Coming out of the carousel on the next lap the bike snapped sideways and Scott lost the rear and nearly highsided.  “I was coming out turn 6 and standing the bike up when it went sideways and I almost got ejected.  It got my attention for sure.”   He was able to hold the position until I had a false neutral downshifting into 11 and Jay who was giving chase slipped up the inside of turn 11 on the brakes and got a massive drive coming onto the straight, solidifying 8th place.   Jay pushed hard on his No Excu$e$Racing Ducati 1098S and proceeded to check out on Ed and Scott pulling a 2-3 second gap and shortly thereafter Ed slipped by Scott taking over 9th at which point he decided to bring it home in 10th.  “It was a fun race for sure.  I’m not entirely happy with the result because the potential was there to do better, but considering everything that happened, I can’t complain either.” 

Jay rode extremely well capitalizing on passes when the door opened and taking home a hard fought, well earned 8th place.   Jay wrapped it up by saying “Man that race felt long.”  The several extra laps required by the incident at the first start meant both riders barely had enough fuel to finish the race.  “I saw the crossed flags come out and it seemed like the race should have been over already (laughs).  After that my fuel light came on and I was worried I was going to run out.”  Both riders were pleased to back up their top 10 finishes in Round 2, again in Round 3.

While Jay and Scott were battling in Open Twins, Hollis was representing in the Open Production class on the No Excu$e$Racing Suzuki GSXR1000.  Hollis started the race gridded on the inside of the 3rd row.   The start of the race was clean and Hollis got a solid start, passing everyone gridded on his row, but was pinched off while trying to duck up the inside of turn 2, which ruined his drive on the exit.  Hollis settled in to his race pace and began to battle with Ken Casey.  The two exchanged positions a couple times while fighting through the traffic passing some Open Twins riders that were gridded in the first wave.  Unfortunately, the traffic helped Ken, as he pulled a gap from Hollis while he was held up trying to get though the slower traffic.  Hollis continued to push, but the gap was too large and he had to settle for 7th place.

Race 10: Hollis in Open GP



Usually Hollis has a good amount of time between his races to prep his bike for Open GP with a tire change and well the help of a pitman to speed up the process. This time it was different as he had neither time, nor his pitman.  What sounds like a trivial process is complicated by the setup Hollis runs for Open GP and times like these add unneeded stress and increase the possibly for an error, which is never good.  Hollis knew it was going to be close.  His friends and family came around to support him to congratulate him on his top 10 finish in Open Production, but unfortunately Hollis had no time to talk.  His focus was on Open GP and following up his podium in Round 2 to improve his championship position.  A friend of the team, Bob, had already got the warmers started on the 16.5” wheels Hollis runs in Open GP when the team went out for Race 6 and made sure everything was ready for the swap. Scott still in his race suit from the Open Twins race jumped in on the rear wheel while Hollis, in his gear as well started swapping the front.  Hollis was happy to get the bike ready with the help, “A big thanks goes out to Scott, Bob, James, and Kristi for the help or I wouldn’t have made it to Open GP.”



Hollis started on the 2nd row at the far left of the track by the outer wall.  The green flag dropped and the bike bogged a little off the line which cost Hollis a position as he entered into 2, putting him behind Jesse Carter.  Jesse was running strong and it took Hollis 2 laps to get by him in what became not simply a race, but a battle for position.  Once again traffic would play a role in the outcome, as Hollis came upon lapped riders at the worst places of Infineon, a difficult track to pass at to begin with.  This made it easy for the riders trailing behind Hollis to reel him back in and Gabe Santa Coloma got around Hollis on lap 7, at which point Hollis refused to let anyone else by.  The battle became a total war, bashing elbows though the esses and coming over the hill into turn 9 while splitting traffic, in what had turned into a killer race!  When checkered flag waved, Hollis had brought it home with a solid 4th and beat his previous best lap time by almost 2 seconds, making for a successful weekend.



Stay tuned for all the Team No Excuses racing highlights from Round 4 at Thunderhill, where the team hopes to return with some video race footage!!!!!

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, Motonation, and Gilroy Screen Printing.