Year 2000 was a much better year to Team Charm. We ended off 1999 still going slow in the 1'23's range, but the bike was working better and we were not feeling threatened by riding it. Almost no changes were made to the TL-R basically the bike was left in its condition at the conclusion of the 8/1/99 WERA 4 hour endurance race at Summit Point. Just about every weekend that Steve brought the TL out to Summit he would take a 1/2 second or second off his best lap times from 1999. Steve's finished also started to improve considerably during this time. Near last places finished that marked his 1999 season were replaced at first with top 5 finished, then a string of thirds & seconds.

We ended the 2000 season with over 5000 racing miles on the odometer….

Twins finished behind sponsor David Yaakov. Lap times were in the low '23's. Its great to be back on the track.

In the twins race was just behind friend Michael Myers who was racing scooter's old TL. Lap times got into the high '22's.

Michael Myers again won that race, he ran a sting of '20's, while I was still in the high '21's, the 2^nd & 3^rd place finishers where out of region racers who were up for the Suzuiki money and were on TL's as well.

Steve took 11^th in B super stock. Searches of the Team Charm Archive revealed that Steve's race win in the Heavy Weight Twins race on 6/11/00 may in fact be his first "expert" class win. While Steve has won a good number of novice races, but since he turned expert in 1992 first place has escaped him. Astute readers of these chronicles will remember that Steve got almost a 1/2 dozen second place finishes in 1997 in various classes and rarely placed out of the top five. The race was run on a drying track after a red flag.

As the most excellent picture by Glen shows, I was far ahead of the nearest bike, a novice on a 916 as WERA runs the grid combined. I have no idea what time I was turning as I was without 2DrunkCrew. Gary Foreman also took a nice picture of me in T5

13^th in A super stock, 7^th in heavyweight twins, and 1^st in the two hour (shortened to 1 hour) with Dave Yaakov as a co-rider. I had never been to that track before, and I hope I'm never back. The first 1/2 of it is real nice, but the second half sucks.

This was a great weekend for me. First, two old high school (actually, we go back to middle school) friends of mine, Eric Nordhelm and Ken Masson, decided to check out what motorcycle road racing is about. Naturally, I treated them to the full course Team Charm experience by having them take the MARRC Road Racing School that both Rich and I (along with a lot of other great folks!) help run @ Summit Point. Both Eric & Ken passed the school, and managed to have a fun Sunday without any crashes. . It was a great Saturday night for the old friends to catch up over dinner & tell lies about their youth. Despite the dire warning about too much libation when at the races, Saturday evening proved to be just way too much fun with the same stupid behavior from our teenage days that seems just as much fun now as it did then. Would you take motorcycle racing instruction from this man? Both Ken & Eric did...

We recovered for Sunday races.

Eric & Ken both had fun in their races, while Rich was a miserable bastard without a bike. I on the other hand started a pattern that would be repeated two other times at Summit Point this year, RC51 mounted John Sullivan and I would fight hard for the lead. In this race I got around him, but he got me back in traffic. It was a great race. We both ran best times in the high '20's, with '21's once we hit traffic

On Brian's R6 for the four hour race. Joe crashed in practice when some dude forced him out going into ten. Tray Batey set the track record with a 1:16:23 during the race. Got rained out the next day, went home early.

I thought I entered another race but the results don't show it…

This was a great race with John. I got around him, but choked on the last turn on the last lap, and he was there to take advantage of my mistake! Lap time were still in the high 20's

Here I am working in T1 during the supersport race, pics by Gary Foreman

This is a most excellent picture of me putting a fellow twin rider (on a duc) to bed in T1

October 15 ,2000 Summit Pont Raceway CCS Sprints

On Sunday Oct 15, 2000 we set a overall Team Charm track record at Summit Point when Steve turned a 1:19.85 during the Supertwins race on the TL1000R.

The race started off poor with Steve getting a mediocre start & following RC51 mounted John Sullivan into turn one. John, who has beaten Steve in every Supertwins race all year long, sometimes doing last lap, last turn passes getting around Steve, got a good start & free of traffic going into one. John was able to open up a very good lead on Steve during the first lap, putting almost a second and a half on him by the time they past the pits the first time. The next two laps Steve ripped off a 1:19:85 then a 1:19:90 closing the gap on John. Getting a excellent drive out of turn ten Steve drafted by John on the front straight, putting in a 1:20:15. By the fourth lap the two leaders hit novice traffic, and John was not able to put together a challenge.

(Steve working into T1, Photo thanks to Gary Foreman)

As Steve said; "coming into this weekend I was very focused on achieving my goals. I have wanted to break into the teen's (below 1:20 lap time) at Summit Point for a very long time. With my parents, and high school buddies Ken & Eric in attendence I really want to win the twins race and I knew John was going to be tough competition as usual. When he started putting time on me during the first lap I just redoubled my effort to not let him get away. Before the race I had insisted that Rich stay on the pit road to give me lap times so I would know were I was, I was so drilled on John's ass that I never looked up to see the pit board as I went by. I did not find out that I did the '19's until after the race. I got around John, and kept waiting for him to get back around me, but I never saw him after that. What a great race!

Dropping over a second off his lap times, Steve credited the changes to the fuel injection computer that he had made the day prior to event. "yea, I really couldn't believe how controllable the power was, thanks to Gary Foreman for bringing up his Yosh box so I could zero out the changes I made before & use the Power Commander. The off throttle stumble has been eliminated and that took almost a full second off my lap times."

Steve wistfully stated this was the best weekend he has had at the track since 1997 when he was racing EX500's.

Thanks to Steve's parents, Don & Ellie and Steve friends who came out to cheer him on. "I was so psyched everything went good & that I won with everyone here, this is what the last two years of struggle have been about" commented Steve.

Be sure to visit our sponsors: Cycle Accessory Discounters, and check out photographer Glen Ouye's new web page.