MRA Round 4 2025 – High Plains Raceway Full Course – Racing Recap

Faster and Faster

I went faster every round from 2022-2024, first on my lightweight bike and then on my 600. I raced my 600 for a couple-few rounds in 2024 during the last half of the season and managed a best lap of 1:57.6s at HPR’s full course.

2025 was an “off year” in every way, and, if you look back on this page, it’s easy to understand why. I’ve already explained why in another post, so I’m going to spare you the details here. 2025 was the first year I didn’t go faster. I showed up for 2 events in 2025, both on the same weekend: the Legion endurance race and the full-course MRA round.

I ran 2-minute “touring laps” during those events, never coming close to beating my personal best from 2024. I ran into one of my fellow racers trying to pass him in Turn 5 early in the day on Sunday and decided I’d had enough of racing in 2025. Luckily, he stayed on his bike and was no worse for wear other than some bruised ribs.

I finally figured out who he was when I was spectating at a Pueblo round earlier this year. He told me that he wanted to find me and kick the shit out of me after I hit him! Luckily nobody could figure out who I was despite having the incident on video.

He’d had a lot of time to cool down since. He was so mad he ran some of his fastest laps ever after pulling back onto the track. I apologized to him for hitting him. The racing incident was 100% my fault, due to my poor judgement that day. We had a good laugh almost a year later. It’s water under the bridge at this point.

Racing in 2026

Newly sober and 4-years-older than I was when I started racing in 2022, I decided to get after it again this year. I made a plan that included doing as many track days at HPR as I could before showing up for the MRA’s only full course round of 2026.

I completed 4 track days ahead of the racing round. I signed up for full days and showed up early with the goal of completing as many sessions as I could throughout the day. By the end of the 4th track day, I felt good enough to race. I went into the Sunday round with fresh slicks mounted on my bike looking to beat my personal best and, if the stars aligned, to see a “55” or “56” handle on at least one of my laps.

So how did I do?

I didn’t get into the 55s or 56s, but I came damned close. My best lap was a 1:57.064 during the first race of the day, in the Middleweight 2X class. I finished in 4th place after holding 3rd for most of the race and getting passed by a fast novice after letting my guard down braking into Turn 1. I ran my fast lap trying to chase him down during the last laps of the race.

I had to start from the back for nearly all of my races due to a lack of points from not racing at any of the previous rounds this year and signing up fairly late. I entered the Amateur Open class for the extra practice AKA qualifying session in the morning, the only race where I didn’t start from the very back. Despite starting from the back, I finished well enough in nearly all of my races, either towards the pointy end or somewhere in the middle.

MRA Round 4 Results, HPR Full Course

Race 1, Middleweight 2X: P4, 13 entries (results pictured below)

Race 2, Forumla 40 Middleweight: P5, 12 entries

Race 3, Middleweight SuperSport: P9, 13 entries

Race 4, Amateur Middleweight: P4, 10 entries

Race 5, Amateur Open: P7, 10 entries

Sunday Racing Goals

Starting from the back was challenging because I had to SAFELY pick my way past some slower racers during the first few laps of my races. It was difficult to find a good rhythm. I still haven’t figured out how to launch my 600 as well as I would like, which didn’t help. My big goals for the weekend were to make good, safe decisions while racing, to ride and race well, to not run into anyone, to not crash, and to do as well as I could without taking any more risk than I had to take.

I hewed closely to these goals and performed well enough during the weekend. I didn’t hit anyone, and I didn’t crash. I finished all of the races I started. I ran a personal best and came close to a podium finish in Middleweight 2X. My bike held together. Nothing important broke. It was a good weekend!

That’s Racing

Of course some things went wrong. That’s racing, and I’m not perfect. I started the day running too much pressure in my rear tire and ripped the edges to shreds while sliding around more than I should have. By the end of the day, after 2 practice sessions and 5 races, my new rear tire was gone.

MRA board member and dare I say friend of mine, Steve R caught me hand stitching the strap on my rear tire warmer back together and generously offered his spare set of Capit digital warmers. I said hell yeah and took him up on his offer. I think I did OK adjusting my tire pressures to suit the borrowed set of warmers, but my rear tire begged to differ. I ran my best times during the first race of the day, on brand new tires, and during the last race of the day after figuring out my tire pressures. I also spent some time looking at Steve’s scooter, an old pre-bug Zuma that has a hard cold starting issue. If it was mine, I would throw a new top-end kit and some crank seals at it. Maybe when I slow down at work this fall!

Apologies for the lack of pics from this most recent race weekend. Sharing the experience wasn’t on my mind as I was experiencing it. I deactivated my Instagram account a few weeks ago because I got really sick of seeing people I LIKE IN PERSON posting and liking bullshit on socials that made me think a hell of a lot less of them, that made me like them a hell of a lot less. Social media is reality filtered through a fun-house mirror. It’s bullshit. I keep a Facebook account for marketplace and MRA news, but you won’t ever catch me liking, commenting, sharing, or posting there anymore unless it’s a “FOR SALE” ad. I have way better shit to do with my time. If I’m going to post anything about my life, my work, about scooters and motorcycles, about racing, it’s going to be here on my own damned website.

Last but not least, a huge thanks to all of the board members, the corner workers, the admin staff, timing and scoring, and my friends, family, customers, and vendors who enable my motorcycle racing hobby. I couldn’t do it without you! Thanks for reading!Until next time!