The night before Pomona I went out to the Perris, CA short track to ride my 450. went and watched this race the night before Pomona last year, and I told myself back then that I needed to bring a 450 down next year to ride this track as it looked like a blast. So I brought my trusty J&M 450 Honda down with me and decided to give it a go. My son Kody was also going to race tonight, and this was a very nice, small little short track, which looked like a fun place for him too, as he was pretty dang excited to say the least. The night went great for Kody, as he won his race and got to bring a 1st place trophy back home for Show and Tell in Pre-school. Last year it looked like Jimmy Woods had this place wired, as he only lives a few miles away from here I guess, so I knew he would be the guy to beat on this little short track. In time trials, I ended up putting in a great lap and came home with the fastest time of the night and a new track record! Then I went out and won my heat race, won the Dash for Cash and won the main event too! Jimmy Woods got second, with I think Steve Bonsey third. All in all it was a great night at the Perris short track! Now it was time to get some good sleep and get ready for Pomona tomorrow.

    The weather for Pomona was great, sunny, blue skies and 85 degrees or so. Beautiful, as when we left home last week it was down in the teens at night and mighty cold. Last year when I came to Pomona I did not have the best of days, as I got throw up sick right before the riders meeting for some reason and just felt terrible and weak all night long. A quick case of food poisoning or something I guess. Plus in the main event, Jake Johnson crashed in turn one while we were battling, and when he crashed, somehow he fell off his bike and his bike was still rolling and came over and hit me and put me down really hard at high speed. Not the best of memories from last year for sure.

    One thing I was after today was the Overall points championship for the combined Twins/Singles classes for 2009. The AMA does not hand out the #1 plate for this anymore, but still it is something that we all chase and want to get. Sam Halbert was leading this battle with one point over Mees, and three points over myself. I knew I had to make up 5 points on Sammy and Jared today, and I knew I could do it! But it wouldn't be easy either.

    In practice today, I knew exactly how I wanted to ride this track, as I kind of have my own cushion style and I really had now rode a cushion very good all year long so far. But I knew I could still ride them the way I knew how to, I just had to do it. In practice/qualifying I put in some great laps in the first of two sessions as I came back in and had the fastest lap times of the day so far, by like 3/10ths of a second, which is pretty big by flattrack standards. Then in the second and last session, I was feeling great on the bike, but in three of my four laps, I had to check up down in turn four, as three times I found my lines intersecting with Carr twice and Sam Halbert once. I was kind of bummed when I came back in the pits, as I told Rob that I really did not get any good clean laps that time. He said, well it must have been pretty good ones then, as we had the fast time once again, and this time by almost a 1/2 a second. I was really shocked at that! This gave me some pretty big confidence knowing that I really had something for these guys today. Plus my left knee was feeling pretty strong today, as I was pretty nervous coming into this race, just hoping the track would not be too rough and give my knee a hard time, but my EVS knee brace that Tucker Rocky supplied me with seemed to be doing its job on this rough track.

    In my heat race, it was Carr, Coolbeth, myself and others and as usual, the holeshot was crucial as this track had a lot of dirt flying from roost, and vision was definitely tough at times from roost. I nailed the start and the holeshot was mine, and right away I put in some really good laps. They had watered the track right before we got on it, and it was pretty greasy feeling especially down in turn three and four. Turns one and two were very rough, and three and four were the opposite, smoothe, but wet and slick.  I went to work on turns three and four to find my best way through there, and it felt like I had it figured out pretty good, as I had gotten away from Coolbeth in second and Carr in third. You pretty much just had to bounce through turns one and two as it was just getting rougher lap by lap and the lines were changing constantly down there. I ended coming home with the heat race win and the fastest heat race time of the night which would give me pole for the Dash for Cash and pole for the main event too. Pretty good day going on so far I felt!

    In the Dash, it was Smith, Coolbeth, Wiles, Don Taylor, Sam Halbert and myself. Smith got the holeshot, followed by Coolbeth, Wiles, Halbert and myself. Yah, not a great start for me. I made a good move on the first lap and moved from 5th to 2nd coming out of turn two. Now with Smith out front, I knew I had to find a way past so that I could get as many points as possible in the Dash. I was able to run right with Smith, but I was never able to get by him as Bryan came home with the win followed by myself and Coolbeth or Wiles, I'm not for sure on that. Halbert was 5th, so I had gained 4 points on him there. So now Halbert and I were tied in points going into the final, with Mees a few points back now.

    For the main event, I picked the second from the bottom starting spot, as it looked pretty good to me. They gave us one warm up lap before the start, and on my warm up lap, I noticed that my rear brake was way down all of a sudden. We had a brake problem in my first practice session earlier today, but they had been fine very since then. So I took my allotted two minutes and had Rob adjust my rear brake a little bit. At the flash of the light, I jumped out pretty good, as Wiles got the holeshot, followed by Coolbeth and myself. In turn two I moved past Wiles and Coolbeth, but Smith got by us all down the back stretch. In the first couple of laps I felt like things were going really good, as Smith was out front, but I was able to run his pace pretty easy it felt. Then as we started lap four, I got through turn one great, and was really close at getting under Smith on the exit, but just as I was going through turn two, my left leg caught one of the many holes and yanked my knee back hard. Right away I was in major pain, and I knew I had hurt it pretty bad again, but I kept the throttle hammered and as I am going down the back straight, all of a sudden my bike just starts bogging down for some reason. I realize right away that it is my rear brakes dragging all of a sudden, and in one straight away I go from second to last as the brake is getting tighter and tighter by the second from the heat it is creating by dragging. So I slow down and take this lap not knowing what is worse, my left knee which is killing or the fact that I am bummed because of my rear brake problem? So as I make this next lap, my bike will barely move, so it finally locked up on the back stretch this next lap, as the whole pack went by me and put me a lap down. Just as they went by me, someone crashed in turn four I guess and the red lights came on. I knew that I had to limp my bike back to the start finish line to make sure Idid not go two laps down, as when there is a red flag, they revert back one lap, which would put me back on the lead lap. I made it back to the finish line to make sure that lap counted for me, and then went to the mechanics box to see if they could fix the brakes and I could get my knee feeling better. Right away Rob and Carl were on it, trying to loosen up the brake, but the fluid was just boiling, and steam would come out mostly when we would try and bleed them. I've had hot brakes before, but I have never seen steam come out of a bleeder valve like that before when trying to bleed brakes. They managed to get my brakes going again, but there was not much pedal left at all, and my knee was still hurting very bad, but I wanted to go for it. Ooh well, as at least my bike would roll again, brakes or not. I had to line up at the very back of the single file line up for the restart, but I was back in the race at least and on the lead lap still.

    For the restart I jumped out great and made a big move to the outside entering turn one. I came around at the end of the first lap in the top twelve or so and I knew there was lots of time left in the race still, so just be patient and get them one by one. I would get one guy here and one a couple laps later, but it seemed I just could not go more than three or four laps without getting my foot just stubbed a little. I had already hurt it bad for this race now, and everytime it even got bumped now, it was just in major pain. Kind of frustrating to say the least. Then I came up on a pack of riders with Carr, Schnabel, Johnson, Halbert and Mees all battling each other. I would catch my knee again which would make me sit back and relax for a lap, then try to get them once again. I just could not get over this knee problem now it seemed and get by them at the same time. I finally got by Carr, Schnabel and Johnson and set out after Mees and Halbert. Out in front of us was Wiles and Coolbeth in first and second, followed by Halbert, Mees and myself. I caught my foot again and regrouped and then finally got by Mees around lap 20 or so. Now Halbert was a ways in front of me, but I knew that I needed to beat him to win the points deal. I tried my best only to hurt my knee again, and on the last lap I got very close, but my body just would not let me do what I wanted to do, and that was grab a handful and go for it and pass him. I soldiered home in fourth place tonight, which I was happy with considering all the things that happened in the main event for me.

    I ended up getting second in the overall combined points for 2009, just one point out of the lead. I was bummed that I missed out on that, but at the same time I felt good to be able to be that close to it too.

    I really want to THANK all of my sponsors that made it happen for 2009. It was a very tough year to get help with racing budgets, but two sponsors really made it happen for me. George Latus of Latus Harley Davidson www.Latus-HD.com and Anne and the crew at Screamin Eagle H-D. Thanks for everything this year to you all, and especially to my wife DeeDee and kids Garrett, Kody and Karly for supporting me for another year. And to my two great mechanics, Rob Kopp and Carl Patrick for building me great bikes all year long.

Until next time, G'Day! Joe