Welcome to Sheepdog Racing.com. My friends and I started getting together every year for a trip to Deals Gap. And out of that, Sheepdog Racing was formed. My best friend came up with the name. It is referring to the fact that all of us have been or are currently Military and or Law Enforcement. All of us have a passion for sport bike riding and a deep commitment to our country. I am very fortunate to be able to call these men my friends. So, if you share our passion for riding and you are a fellow Sheepdog, welcome, stay a while and enjoy the ride.
Paul aka Slick
Previous, Upcoming, and Possible Riding Events
Jan 29, 2010!
I can't believe it's 2010 already. I have a number of events lined up this season. The goal is to do 3 CMRA Endurance events in Texas with the same crew I ran with back in September. I hope to be able to compete at Road Atlanta for the WERA event in July and of course several track days mingled in between. I am running in the Nashville Marathon in April and will try to ride the Franklin 100 bicycle race in October. We'll see how many of these I actually get to do. Money is always the deciding factor. Either way, it should be a fun year.
I have some new plans with the website that should come about late spring early summer. I am very excited about the new design and some of the products I hope to market to my fellow Sheepdogs.
Once again, thank you for visiting and I hope you will enjoy the site.
Paul R.
Oct 11th: I headed out to Jennings, Fl for a day of riding. I think I am finally starting to get a feel for the flow of the track. Coming from Texas and Oak Hill, which is narrow with a lot of visual markers, Jennings has been hard for me to establish good visual references. It is flat and wide. Anyway, I am starting to enjoy the track. I went out there with Troy and Eric. They are some of my military friends. I have mounted some tires for Troy. Eric tore up the beginners group. Kinda of funny when the mock race came up. His lead was huge before the group got to turn one he was well through the turn and heading down the back stretch. Troy struggled with tires in the morning. He had Michelin PR super softs.... Temp was already pushing 90 and he was sliding all over. Kinda feel a bit responsible, I mounted them for him without considering the temps. Well, then again I didn't tell him to buy them. ... He swapped them out for his favorite Dunlops and was back in the groove. Funniest thing I have seen a Jennings is when Troy ran off in turn one fast enough to carry him all the way to the top of the berm! For those of you who haven't been there, that is a loooonnnggg way. And nothing but trees past the berm. I had a good mock race after I dispatched the "in way over his head I am fast because of my R1" squid. I started running down 2nd and 3rd place right when the race ended. The first place guy was hauling serious butt. No one was catching him. I finally dropped the front of the 600rr 4mm and that made the difference I have been looking for. All in all a great time.
Sept 2nd thru Sept 6th: Wow what a trip. Elizabeth and I traveled to Dallas Texas to catch up with some great friends, eat some really good food, and for me, race the old 03 600RR. The original plan was for me to ride in the Hotter N Hell 100. For those of you who don't know what this event is; it is a bicycle ride in Wichita Falls, Tx. For 100 miles, riders endure the heat. I have completed this ride twice and was looking forward for a return trip. The hitch came in getting my bicycle to Texas without having to drive from Savannah. The cost of shipping and coordinating picking the bicycle up, renting a car and driving from Dallas to Wichita Falls became more hassle than it was worth. So we skipped the HNH100.
BK and I arranged for a track day at Oak Hill Raceway in Henderson, Tx on the 2nd. After a short 2.5 hour drive from Dallas we were unloaded and ready to start throwing down some seriously fast laps.... No really, we went out to work the bugs out and practice. BK got over some post crash jitters and I got reaquainted with the little red bike that could. BK brought his 1000rr out. He felt that it was a bit twitchy so I took a turn on it and we decided to drop the ride heigth a bit. This made it a lot more comfortable at such a technical track. A 1000 is not the bike to be throwing around at Oak Hill! Trust me. This track is narrow, tight, and short. No real straight to speak of. Turn one is as fast as you have the nads to go! Great fun. Once BK got comfortable he was in the mid 1:40s. My best time was 1:36.
After spending some time with co workers from SWA and the Texas memebers of Sheepdog Racing, Saturday we headed out to Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, Tx to race in the CMRA 4 hour endurance. Weather was perfect and you could have asked for better track conditions. MSR is always slippery in the mornings so practice was sketchy. I ran a 1:33 warming up. Randy and BK were conservative as well. The race started at 2pm and ran without a red flag til 6pm. Being the lead guy out I ended up with all of the expert fast as hell riders everytime my 20 minute session came up. My third session I felt was my best. I did 17 laps and worked my way past several riders. I have to tell you if you want to learn how to pass and get used to being passed an endurance race will do the trick. We finished without any mechanical issues and placed 4th in our class. 19th overall.
For perspective:
Lap record at MSR (Cresson) Ty Howard 1:13ish Experts in the endurance were running 1:19s
Lap record at OHR Ty Howard 1:21.. yea he is smokin fast. Nice guy as well.
