Road to Road Racing (R2RR)

by Larry Lulay

I didn't see this coming, but two years after getting off the couch to go to my 1st track... in 2019 I attempted to get my racing license. In this series you will see behind the scenes activities to get the bike prepped, gear and bike tech inspected, racer school to get a license, and into racing. As with my other series, I will be featuring other racers at various levels. Planned tracks will include Portland International Raceway, The Ridge, Pacific Raceways, and of course the Mac Track.

2019 Bikes

In the off season I added another bike or two, including a 2016 Yamaha R6 - which gives me the tri-fecta LOL. I'm race prepping both the R3 and the R6, but I plan on racing the funnest bike I've ever ridden on a track which is the Yamaha R3.

I started late on 5/6/2019 at The Mac track and was much slower than last year, which had me worried about how I would do this season. Thankfully, my riding got better all season and I had several "firsts" again this year and I had my fastest laps ever, everywhere I went. It all came together in July when I passed New Racer School and got to have my first races ever.

FIRSTS: 1st time riding at The Ridge, 1st time dragging right knee on a big track (The Ridge, Portland, Pacific Raceways), 1st race on R3, 1st race on R6, 1st videos including GPS tracking (R6 at PIR and Pacific), 1st time using tire warmers (R3 and R6), 1st time with MotoVixens; 1st time riding and hanging out with Jason Pridmore, Andy Dibrino, Kevin Pinkstaff, Caroline Olsen, Marcel Irnie; 1st time watching WMRRA race and hanging out with some of their crew.

Road to Road Racing : The Video Series

At the end of the 2019 season I decided to create a five episode video series which includes never before seen photos and video that span the last three years, with the last three focusing on the events that occurred in 2019.

See 5 Episodes: The Video Series

The Video Series

Road to Road Racing : Step-by-Step

At the heart of my 2019 season is this step-by-step section that provides the detailed process I went through to prepare, get my license, and start motorcycle road racing. Related details, photos, and videos are embedded in these sections.

NRS

2019 Racer Interviews

Throughout the 2019 season, I had the opportunity to interact with various racers and those videos have been added to my Racer Profiles section where we associate photos, videos, and their interactions on the NWRR podcast. See the following list of racers I interviewed with (links and more will be added when time allows us to process our backlog)...

Big Shane

See the complete listing of racers we have interacted with since we joined this industry in 2017 in our Racer Profile section (featuring over 25 racers).

Performance and Tuning

Engine Related Performance Mods

Both bikes are bone stock, except for their Competition Werkes systems. Even if stock, everyone will say a tuner is necessary to maximize the correct settings for track riding. When adding an exhaust it will obviously lean the bike out without tuning to add more fuel.

Competition Werkes

Tuning My Bikes

We took both bikes straight over to M-Tech Motorsports in Bend Oregon to have Matt Worbes lay down the tunes on their dyno. We ran cameras in the front and rear to see and hear them on the dyno. Mark Degross of 2-Fast gives us some details and then we show the resulting dyno sheets.

M-Tech Motorcycles

Yamaha R6 Dyno Tune

The guys from Competition Werkes picked up our CW GP setup to create their first Y-Pipe and Slip-On combination (that accepts a silencer - required for some of our tracks) ever made - the pipe delivered from CW the day before leaving for the dyno.

R6 Dyno Video - 4:31 minutes

R6 on the Dyno

Yamaha R3 Dyno Tune

The guys from Competition Werkes picked up my bike and created their first Y-Pipe / Slip On combination for the Yamaha R3.

R3 Dyno Video - 3:40 minutes

R3 on the Dyno

See our Competition Werkes section for related product photos, videos, and helpful links.

Woodcraft Technologies

We are proud to be running Woodcraft's primary components on all of our main bikes. They manufacture top of the line products and we use their clip-ons, rearsets, brake and clutch guards, and toe guards on the R1, R6, and R3 and we are using their tire warmers on our race prepped R3 and R6. This was the second year we have been using their stuff and we couldn't be more pleased. This is my first time ever using tire warmers, and they just recently started offering them for small bikes like our R3... so the timing was perfect.

One of the major advantages of running their stuff is that so many other racers know how good they are and they run their stuff too... so when I'm at the track, if I create an issue and need a part - chances are great that somebody in the pits is going to have that component. However, part of racing is being prepared - so I stock the components that typically break just in case I have a problem and won't need to bug somebody.

See our Woodcraft section for related product photos, videos, and helpful links.

Woodcraft logo
R6 Rear Warmers
R3 Brake Guard
R1 Rearsets

MotoVixens Track Days and JP43 Instruction

MotoVixens logo

In June of 2019, we went to The Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton WA to ride our first time with MotoVixens - and our first time at The Ridge. We attended some of their classroom sessions, got towed by some instructors, and had lots of fun hanging out with Carol Carpenter (owner), Troy Cook (lead instructor) and their gang. In July we came back and spent two days with Jason Pridmore training. We got interviews with Carol Carpenter, Marcel Irnie, Jason Pridmore, and Caroline Olsen... plus we did a one lap comparison video between my first visit and my second after training with JP43. Watch for photos by Who is Dane?

  • Meet Carol at MotoVixens June 2019 Track Day - 6:20 minutes
  • R3 One Lap Comparison at The Ridge - 1st Visit to 2nd After Training with Jason Pridmore JP43 - 3:55 minutes
  • Jason Pridmore Interview - Coming Soon
  • Caroline Olsen Interview - 15:17 minutes
  • Marcel Irnie Interview - 7:19 minutes
  • Two Links to Podcast Appearances with NWRR

See More on our MotoVixens Page

Find the links to ALL of our MotoVixens related videos, photos, and podcasts.

Carol Carpenter
JP43 Training
Track Day 2
Marcel
JP

2Fast at Pacific Raceways

2Fast logo

Yamaha R6 One Lap at Pacific Raceways on 9/6/2019

It was my second time at this track and 2nd day riding my R6. This video shows on board footage of my fastest lap so far. For those wondering how the Competition Werkes GP exhaust sounds on a 2016 Yamaha R6, you can hear it in this video. This was our first time using a lap timer on the bike and first time placing a real time overlay on the video so you can see where I am on the map while riding.

  • 2019 at Pacific Raceways with R6 - 3:09 minutes
  • Yamaha R1, R6, and R3 One Lap Comparison at Pacific Raceways from 2018 to 2019 - 3:08 minutes
  • Are small bikes on Big Tracks Fun? Yamaha R3 Ninja 250 at Pacific Raceways - 5:33 minutes

See More on our 2Fast Page

Find the links to ALL of our 2Fast related videos and photos.

R6 at Pacific

Following Photos by Joe Salas - 4theriders.com

Joe Salas 1 Joe Salas 2

Miscellaneous

Portland Karting Association

Kart Racing at The Mac Track

On August 11 2019 we covered a Portland Karting Association kart racing event and got some terrific access for photos and video recording all day. We had cameras directly beside the track, on karts, and in the pits. After the event, we chatted with the race director (Keith Opzeeland) about the great racing we saw and the variety of racing classes.

Kart Race Recap Video - 7:33 minutes

Kart 1

2019 SFRC Bol d'Oregon 6 Hour Multi-Class Endurance Race at the Mac Track

This was the first time we've attending this six hour endurance race and it was terrific! Several kinds of bikes competing at the same time, going one track direction for 3 hours and then going the other direction for the remainder of the race... including pitstops. All of this happened on a track (PKA's Mac Track in McMinnville) that enables spectators to see the entire track. The Ohvale made its debut in this race and proved dominent - as well as "Three Monkeys and a Football" - consisting of Jason Doody, Mitch Coleman, and Phil Melnyk - who won the overall event. In this video, Larry recaps the race with one of the winning riders - Jason Doody... who was very impressive to say the least. The race featured some great battles between teams and classes. The second place overall went to Alex Taylor, Hannah Johnson, and Nobi Iso's female protege Karen Ogura who flew in the night before from Japan and did great (had to live up to a lot with Alex and Hannah on that track).

Race Recap Video - 5:48 minutes

6 Hour Race

Photo Examples

We have taken several thousand photos over the season, and this year we are also working with contributing photographers. See each of the sections and videos for more.

Below are some of the photos... as usual, click the photos to see the higher resolution version.

Bikes Group 1
On Mac 1
Bikes Group 2
Bikes Group 3
Bikes Group 4

Race Day

Race 1 - Turn 9
Contributing Photographers

We partner with some of the best motorsports photographers out there. See examples of photos they have contributed to our videos and links to their sites.

Dane Anar
Bob Edwards
Minh-Tri Le
2019 Friends