Did very well in the infield, got my chunky butt handed to me on every straight. It's illuminating, from video, how hard Chris Fehr's bike owned mine; from the rear hairpin he pulled at least 30 feet AFTER passing me from behind... both bikes wide open and pointed in the same direction, there isn't a thing I could do about it. Mike Hood was worse, from his rear tire to 50'+ gap. 10hp+ in the 600 class makes a pretty big difference. I can't say I was riding at my very best this year, either. Mix the two together, stir and you get what I got... 5th-3rd place average finish. I also had two crashes in a race, electrical problems took me out of contention in two other races, C-clip on the shifter lever disappeared for no apparent reason on the warmup lap in a race, a fuel pump failed at Mosport on Taverner's bike, the rebuilt bike blew a base gasket and poured oil out the front of the engine before I ever got to race it, three failed Bazzaz quickshifters, etc. etc. Just a crap year for me and for the most part, nobody to blame for it except for the crashes (that was me). I mean, what do you do when you've done eight practice sessions with the bike, you swap the rear tire and fill the tank up... and out of nowhere the bike fails you immediately in the actual race?
Speaking of which, how many Bazzaz quickshifters failed this year at the races? Ridiculous. We had a spare-parts sharing thing going on all over the paddock for guys with Bazzaz quickshifters. I lent my spare out, then pulled 3/4" of threads out of the one I had on the bike in practice, my spare came back and didn't work because the active light was on solid when it was connected up, and not only that, it would cut the engine if I went over 14K RPM like a rev limiter. The one on Taverner's bike did something really similar. My tally for them this summer was three Bazzaz QS that quit working for some reason. I will never recommend that product, the dynojet-style shifter on my 1000 has worked solid for 8 years.
Well... that's racing. Trying again next year with the freshly rebuilt 120hp-ish 600 (the motor worked fine other than oil pouring out of it) and the stock RSV4. Hopefully they will both be solid. I will still also have the stock 600 I raced this year as backup / rain bike.