The folks at EA Sports who are the creators of the Need For Speed video game series just came out with their latest creation, “Need For Speed SHIFT” which is going to tailor to those of us who want a more realistic racing simulator for your Playstation 3 or XBOX 360. To achieve the real in car environment they attached two HD cameras on to Tommy’s helmet so they could film a first person view of what it is like to drive the #92 BMW E92 M3 in the American Lemans Series. This video was taken during the Long Beach round of the ALMS schedule. So sit back, watch, and enjoy what it must be like to be a professional race car driver!

Al Mitchell is the track manager at MSR Houston and saw some helmets we have painted and wanted one of his own. He originally wanted to have us do a helmet for his son Austin. After he saw the design he decided he wanted one for himself as well. He wanted the same basic layout of Austin’s but he wanted a different color combination. Both of these helmets have a carbon fiber and smoke base and then the flames were done on top. I am not sure what the significance is but they also wanted Taz and Bugs spinning ice cubes on their fingers, so we delivered that for them.

This 2007 Honda CBR 600RR is the first project we have been able to complete since my little accident. With limited mobility it took a while to get back into work mode, but I am happy to report that my ability to work is getting better and better each day. This bike is a replica of Repsol’s retro paint scheme from Velencia of 2008. It is a white base with blue metallic and neon red stripes and logo work, the bike really pops with this color combination. Ben Iwasa was very happy with the finished product saying that it turned out better than he could ever imagine. This is a pretty trick track paint job if you ask me!.

Well, the second race meeting for the 2009 season was a complete disaster. I debated whether I was going to go racing at all for a couple weeks and then at the last minute I decided to go and race. If I would have known my weekend would have ended up the way it did I would have gladly stayed at home! Saturdays practice sessions saw bike problems all day long. After a few laps in each session my CBR 600RR started to loose power at full throttle. I would bring it into the pits, let it cool down and go back out. The bike would ride just fine for a while and then the problem would arise again. I had no idea what the problem was. So I pulled the airbox off to see if there was anything getting stuck in the throttle bodies, nope everything was clean in there. So then I took the tank off and drained it hoping it was water in the gas tank, nope no water in the tank. Now what? Oh, did I forget to mention that my chain broke leaving the pits during one of my sessions!? I worked on the bike until 8:00 pm on Saturday and finally got everything buttoned up. Sunday came and I went out for my two morning practice sessions and despite draining the fuel tank and filling it up with race fuel the bike suffered the same symptoms as it did on Saturday, only not as bad. This time the engine was losing power at 13,000 rpm until redline. I figured I would race anyway and see if the bike would work for me through a race.

I grided up for the first race of the day on the 3rd row since I had missed two previous race meetings and we grid up according to season points. I got an amazing start from ninth place and found myself at the sharp end of the field, I made a pass on two guys going thru turn 2. Turns 3 and four are single file fast turns and I carried a ton of speed thru the fast kink of turn 4 onto the short shoot to turn 5. The kink is taken flat out in 4th gear so the exit is about 140 mph, normally I stay in 4th gear all the way to the brake zone for turn 5 which is a 180 degree left hander taken in 2nd gear. But since I took turn 4 a lot faster than I do in practice I had to grab 5th gear down the short shoot, otherwise I would have been on the rev limiter all the way to the brake zone and I knew I would have been passed if I hadn’t shifted to 5th. Well I hit the brakes at the same marker I normally do and this time I was going a little bit to fast since I was in 5th gear. I down shifted into 2nd gear to take the tight turn 5 and I couldn’t get the bike slowed down in time. If I had another 10 feet I could have got the bike slowed down enough to start my turn in but my fellow competitor Shane White started his turn in and crossed my bow. My front wheel slammed into his rear wheel and we both went down hard. I managed to break my left collarbone but it could have been a lot worse because the entire pack was right there and no one had anywhere to go. Shane and I were lucky we both didn’t get run over by anyone.

So now my bike is trashed, my brand new leathers are ruined, and my body is broken! And it couldn’t have come at a worse time. We are slammed in the shop and now I can’t work very fast, and I am getting married in 5 weeks! Looks like I gotta hang up the leathers for the rest of the season and concentrate on getting all your guys’ stuff painted. AND heal up for my wedding day and our Italian honeymoon. I want to be at full strength when I am at Monza watching the greatest motorsport on earth, Formula 1!!!

This custom Yamaha R6 of GB Creations and Censport Graphics won overall out of the amateur bike builders at the BozBros custom bike competition at the Redbull US Grand prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

There were two classes of bikes entered in the competition, one for professional builders who throw hundreds of thousands of dollars at their custom creations, and an amateur class for those who aspire to be professional bike builders but have not yet jumped onto the scene. Our bike fit into the amature category, all the custom fabrication was hand done by Mark Harper, and Censport handled all the paintwork. Although I wasn’t there to witness it in the Yamaha tent I hear it got rave reviews by the crowd. Out of nine other bikes in its class our bike took top honors. The bike will be featured in “Two Wheel Tuner” magazine sometime this winter.

After working deep into the morning hours leading up to World Superbike weekend it was time to play and have some fun. on Monday after the races some buddies and I hit the track for some fast laps at Miller. I just got my new RS Tiachi race suit thanks to Diego at Cycle Sector, it fits like a glove! so here is the complete 2009 Censport/Cycle Sector race livery. Video to follow shortly.

In an attempt to be chosen for the Boz-Bros custom Yamaha sport bike competition at the Moto GP weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, GB and Censport pulled out all the stops to create this one of a kind piece of rolling art. The cut off date to enter the competition was March 31st at Midnight; we worked for three solid weeks to get the paintwork done in order to submit our entry into the competition. GB took a stock 2006 Yamaha R6 and used Valentino Rossi’s 2007 M1 Moto GP bike as inspiration to create a tribute show bike. GB completely hacked and molded the R6 bodywork to emulate the ram air and frontal area of the M1. Mark at GB intends to use this bike on the street so the bike had to remain street legal, so he even cut out two small recesses where HID endurance headlights will rest. The rear tail section also underwent massive work, to remain street legal the bike also has to have a functioning tail light and turn signals. Behind the M1 logo under the tail is a custom LED taillight and signal housing. It was up to Censport to throw the color on and make it match as closely as possible to the real deal. All the sponsor decals and race numbers were custom made, virtually every single component of the paint scheme was hand done. Many many man-hours later, this beautiful bike was complete.

Another thing to mention was that this bike was built on a shoestring budget. Originally Mark wanted to have some nice Marchesini wheels put on, but at 3k a set it was not possible. Since it is a show bike we had to do something with the wheels so we went to our friends at Hydro-Dip and they dipped them in a nice carbon fiber weave to make them look like they are carbon wheels. We also Hydro-Dipped the tail and frontal area in carbon fiber weave so it appears that the ram air duct is made out of carbon fiber, when really it is just artist trickery!

We rolled it down to the Yamaha tent at the World Superbike paddock and the bike instantly drew a crowd. When you pour your heart and sweat into a project like this it is very gratifying to here such great comments. At first people actually thought it was a real M1, to a purist you would be able to recognize it is an R6, but it really fooled people, and it even had the Yamaha people drooling. We rolled it next to a real M1 for some promo photos and mark (co-owner of GB Creations) proudly stood between the two bikes with a look of relief and accomplishment on his face.

If the bike is chosen by the Boz-Bros you will get to see this bike on display in the Yamaha tent at Laguna Seca 4th of July weekend for the Moto GP U.S. Grand prix. If you see it there please vote for it! Mark defiantly deserves some props and hopefully it will get GB Creations on the map for custom-built sport bikes.

Well spring is finally here and it is time to go racing again! I have been completely slammed since January and up until Friday I had worked 2 weeks straight with no breaks! I guess if you want to play you have to work hard first! Anyway, I got the last of the helmets that are going to Europe done and I had only one day to paint my new race bike plastic before I had to pack up and head to Miller Motorsports Park.

When I arrived late on Friday night I unloaded the bike into the garage and started chatting with all my racing buddies who I hadn’t talked to since the last round in October. I heard that AMA star Jason Disalvo was going to be in the house for the weekend collecting some easy Suzuki money on his off weekend. To my surprise and luck he was riding my friends bike that I was pitting with. So, luckily I got the chance to chat it up with Jason all weekend. I don’t think you could find a nicer person than Jason, he is so down to earth and if you didn’t know he was one of the fastest riders in the country you would think he was some ordinary small stature dude, (the guy is only 5’2”).

Saturday morning brought the first practice session of the year and with more than 5 months of rust to knock off I needed all the time I could get before we grided up on Sunday. I rode pretty terrible all Saturday and I could not tell if it was the old tires I was on, my suspension setup, or me being out of shape, come to think of it I think it was a little bit of everything.

At the end of the day I asked Jason if he wouldn’t mind riding with me for a session. We headed out with me in the lead for a couple laps and then he would pass me and I would follow him and try to learn as much as I could. After the session we went into the pits and had a little debrief. he told me i looked pretty good but my lines were in consistent, to be fast you have to hit the same exact marks every lap. he also said i need to get on the gas sooner and to not be afraid to give it full throttle during far lean angles. I am so thankful I got the opportunity to ride one on one with one of the best motorcycle road racers in the country.

Sunday morning came and we had a couple more practice sessions before the racing started. I put on some new tires and instantly felt more comfterable from the day before. In the second session I was humming along and what do you know, Jason passes me. I thought this is it, if I am going to learn anything from a pro I have to try and keep up with him for as long as I can. He had a clear track in front of him so I know he was pushing it, I rode my heart out and was very surprised to see that he wasn’t running away from me, more like crawling away from me. But after one full lap he only eked out about 3 seconds on me. I felt good, and when I came into the pits I saw that I turned a 1:39.9, which was my personal best on that track. Ok, things are looking good for the races.

First race was up, a new class that I had not ridden inn with people I had not raced against; I guess you could say I was nervous. I was grided all the way at the back of a 21-man field. Green flag waves and I got a killer start. I settled in to the traffic and I actually found myself passing these fast experts! I caught onto a tail of 2 riders mid way thru the race but I couldn’t get past them. Rather than trying to make a bonehead pass and wrecking a lot of guys weekends I decided to keep it cool and bring it home clean. I got 9th out of 21 and 5th place thru 9th place was covered by just over a second. And I dropped my lap time to a 1:39.7. (for reference the lap record on a 600 cc motorcycle is a 1:35xx) I was very pleased with my race result because I showed myself I can compete against the really fast guys. I think podiums are still a little too much to ask for but I think top 5’s are possible all year.

My second race was the Amature GTU race. Now I had competed in this class last year and I knew this was the class that I had a chance of winning. I started from the second row and again got a great start. I was in second place for half the race and couldn’t real in the leader. As a result my motivation started to dwindle. Big mistake! Because I was immediately passed and fell back to third, then, my good friend Shannon Pitre passed me. What was going on! I went from second to fourth in a matter of a few corners. I thought to myself, “Shannon, there is no way I am going to let you take the podium away from me” so I started to attack. As a result we had one of the most intense battles I have ever been in. on the last lap I tried to pass him a hand full of times. We came to the last corner and I tried to square it up and get a better drive to the line. Well I got the drive but the finish line was about 10 feet to close. I ended up finishing 4th, a scant 48/1000’s of a second behind Shannon.

Third race was the Middleweight Superstock race. Again, I had not raced in this class before and I was grided at the back, but guess who was grided behind me, Jason Disalvo. I knew he was gong to get a rocket start and that is good because I wouldn’t have to worry about him passing me at speed. I managed a great start but Jason still went flying past me before the first turn! I ended up in the middle of the pack at the exit of turn 1. Turn 2 is extremely fast and I found myself in the middle of a pack of 7 to 8 guys turning at 120 mph! Pretty intense stuff! The race settled itself with the really fast guys breaking away and the others like myself engaged in a serious battle. I was stuck behind a couple guys that I had never raced against so I didn’t know what they would do if I tried to pass them. I was quicker than them but not quick enough to make a ballsy pass. With me running behind these guys Shannon had a chance to close in on me. We again engaged in a furious battle with these two other guys. Both he and I eventually got past them and we continued our fight from the first race. I was thinking “Ok Ty, he beat you last time, don’t let it happen again” since I know Shannon and have raced against him a lot I trust him enough to race very close to him. I tried stuffing him in corners and muscling my way by. We passed each other multiple times during the race and on the last lap I was behind him, exact same scenario as the previous race. I dove in on the inside of turn one after the main straight but I couldn’t close the door, he continued ahead and I tried to get by before turn 2. Turn 2 is a really high-speed right-hander and we were literally touching at 120. I tried to set him up on the last corner like I did before and get a better drive to the line, and again I came up short, this time 53/1000’s of a second!

I might not have got the results I wanted and I lost a couple battles but I had a very good race weekend. I dropped my lap times, I got to ride with one of the best, and I didn’t crash! The pretty race bike will stay nice and pretty for at least a couple more weeks!