Opie Brings it on Borrowed Bikes!

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During this past weekend, Komodo Gear sponsored rider, Opie Caylor, overcame almost everything that stood in his way in route to multiple victories, even on borrowed bikes! Normally, Opie is on his tried and true Suzuki GSXR750, but it developed an engine noise during Fridays final practice session at a WERA Sportsman Series event being held at Road Atlanta. Opie partially disassembled the engine and determined that riding it would only create more damage. Not willing to just pack it up, Opie searched the pits and was fortunate enough to have a couple of friends who were willing to help him out.

Opie got his first taste of Luie Zendejas’ 2008 GSXR1000, that is built and maintained by KWS Motorsports, in Saturday morning warm-up. After the first session on the bike, Opie said "First time out on the bike, she’s good. There are some things that I want to change chassis wise but I’ve got something I can work with!" Along with help from Eric and Brad from Ohlins Suspension, Opie developed some chassis solutions that would help the bike work better for him and put them to the test in the Heavyweight Solo 16.

From the fifth row on the grid, Opie slotted into fourth entering turn one and stayed in that position until the back straight. After passing Chris Steele and Mike Wheelis, Opie set off after Lee Acree. He jumped the gap to Lee in 2 laps and then started stalking him.

"I sat on Lee once I got to him. It was a long and hot race and I didn’t want to overheat my Dunlop Tires or myself. Once I joined Lee at the front, I just tried to settle into a rhythm and conserve. Just after halfway, Lee looked back at me exiting turn 7, so I turned around and looked back and saw that someone was coming to us. Now, I know threes a crowd so I decided to start looking for a way past." And Opie found his way past on lap 10 of 16 and then set about opening up a gap. " I made a couple of questionable passes on lappers just trying to open up a gap. I never hit anybody but my tires touched the dirt a time or two", said Opie. After the pass for the lead, Opie turned the fastest laps of the race and went on to win by over 13 seconds. More importantly, Opie learned more about what he needed from the bike in hopes of more wins on Sunday.

Sunday morning warm up went quite well as the changes that Opie made produced lap times that were as much as 1.2 seconds per lap quicker than even in the race the day before. Opie’s first race of the day was Formula One Expert. >From the second row, Opie positioned himself into second place behind Brian Stokes. With only six laps to do the business, Opie immediately started looking for a way past. On lap three, Opie got the perfect drive off of turn seven and drafted past Brian on the back straightaway. Opie led lap four across the stripe and tried to open up an advantage however, Brian’s bike seemed to be a bit quicker down the backs straight and drafted back past Opie that lap. One lap to go and Opie knew that his best chance would be down into turn ten. As Brian and Opie entered turn ten for the last time, they encountered 2 lapped riders. Brian went down the inside while Opie took the outside. "I thought I had him going into ten that last lap. There were two lapped riders and I tried the outside when Brian went down the inside. I thought it might work but those two guys started coming over on me so I was almost into the grass!" Opie missed the win by 4 tenths of a second to take second.

In A Superstock, Opie was out for revenge. Again from the second row of the grid, Opie entered turn one in second place. Going onto the back straight, Opie had a dice going with Scott Carpenter who was racing an identically prepared KWS built GSXR1000. Opie got the lead at the end of lap two and put his head down. He began opening up a gap and was lucky to get the win due to a red flag on the next lap. WERA rules state that if there is a red flag, the results go back one lap and you get credited with that position. Thankfully, Opie was already in the lead on that lap.

For the last race of the day, B Superstock, Opie was taking a huge gamble! When Opie's bike broke, he was left without a 750 to race. Marietta Motorsports customer and Novice Racer Patrick Jernigan agreed to allow Opie the use of his 750 for the race. The only problem was that Opie had never ridden this bike before, ever! With the warm-up lap being his first lap ever on the bike, Opie gridded up on the middle of the third row. With a strong start, Opie out dueled AMA Supersport winner Huntley Nash for the second spot into turn two. Opie started hounding leader Jimmy Merck whose bike was faster down Road Atlanta’s long back straight. Opie passed Merck and then was re-passed again on the back straight. Opie knew he had is hands full with Merck if he didn’t do something soon. "I knew that I had to put a pass on Jimmy and make it stick! I felt that if I could get a pass on him and hold him off to turn one, I could put a good enough lap together to build myself a little cushion." Opie got it done on the next lap, strung together a couple of laps in the 1:30’s and went on to win by 6 seconds over Jimmy Merck and Huntley Nash. After the race, Opie offered this, "It’s unbelievable really. It just goes to show me how blessed with friends, I truly am. After my bike broke on Friday, I was pretty bummed – thought about packing it up and going home. But I really wanted to race and if it weren’t for Luie or Patrick, I wouldn’t have had that opportunity. I’m just really thankful and humbled all at the same time. If you had asked me on Friday if I thought I would have come away from this weekend with three first places and a second place finish, I would have said no way, with what happened with my 750. We’ll get it fixed though and we’ll come back even stronger. And again, if it weren’t for Luie or Patrick, I would’ve sat around and watched it all from the pits so again, big thanks to them!"