A weary Mike Zottmann answers questions shortly after Sunday's Superbike Championship race
After Brett McCormick edged out Jordan Szoke to take Sunday’s Parts Canada Superbike Championship at Race City, all the excitement was in the big factorY team tents near the track. Way back in the pits, the little guys nursed their wounds and vowed to do better next time. No rider was nursing more wounds than Mike Zottman of Calgary.
Sitting in the Mountain Toys trailer, the very last one in the lineup, he was the picture of exhaustion, pain and frustration. Not only did everything go wrong that could go wrong, it went wrong in spectacular fashion.
First, there was Friday’s devestating crash late in the practice session. The Suzuki GSX-R1000 was destroyed, with no hope of repairing it for the next day’s qualifying round.
Worse yet, Mr. Zottmann tore ligaments in his chest, broke several bones in one foot and suffered soft tissue damage to his shoulders. For a superbike rider who needs to throw his motorcycle around corners at high speeds, the injuries seemed almost insurmountable.
But Mr. Zottmann is a local boy and made of sterner stuff than that. There was never a question that he would quit.
Enter Kel Davison, co-promoter of the Parts Canada Superbike Championship and long-time Calgary racer. He lent Mr. Zottman a replacement motorcycle, a very generous offer and one that the young rider says he won’t soon forget.
Saturday dawned warm and sunny, a great day to be on the track. Unfortunately for the Zottmann team, again everything went off the rail.
Mr. Davison’s replacement bike wasn’t set up for the younger Zottman and it took all day to dial it in to where he felt even somewhat comfortable. Then, the bike was underpowered. Mr. Zottmann estimated he was down at least 15 h.p. – not much in the grand scheme of things, but a critical amount when racing against Canada’s top riders.
Mr. Zottmann doesn’t have the luxury of a team of mechanics ready to spring into action. His “pit crew” is himself and a few friends. So, not only was he in considerable pain, but now he had to work long hours on the machine to get it ready- if that was even possible.
Mid-afternoon was the Superpole event. Mr. Zottman made it out on the track. But in all the haste to get the bike ready, the team just didn’t have the time to install the super-soft Pirelli tires the other riders were using. Instead, they installed race tires with 40 or so laps on them, hoping that would be enough.
Mr. Zottmann later admitted this may have been a mistake, though they didn’t have much choice. He qualified in eighth place in a field of 17.
Stressed out, living on pain killers and unable to handle the bike the way he normally would, nevertheless come race day there was Mr. Zottmann on the starting grid, ready to go.
In spite of all the obstacles fate and bad luck had thrown in his way, he held his own. He even managed to gain a little on a few of the competitors ahead of him.
Then, disaster struck again. The brakes had been giving him trouble. He headed into a turn, the brakes were sticky, they grabbed and he almost went down.
The stumble hurt, both physically and time-wise. He slipped from the eighth spot he had been valiantly defending and finished 11th.
For a rider who had been hoping to win, or at least to place on the podium, and even more ambitiously, to attract the attention of a factory team sponsor, the result could not have been much worse.
That some of the other teams noticed how well he did in spite of the circumstances was little consolation. He had first place in his sights and he saw it slip away.
Even beaten up and weary after 22 grueling laps, Mr. Zottmann is optimistic about the future. Regardless of what happened Sunday, he will race again (after a little time off to heal) and he will continue to pursue his dream of racing full-time at his sport’s highest levels.
But b
Related posts:
- CALGARY’S ZOTTMAN 8th IN QUALIFYING AT SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP Calgary’s Mike Zottman hopes to improve on last year’s disappointing...
- SPEED TV HOST RIDING IN CALGARY LEG OF SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP Vicki Schouten Photo: Courtesy Vicki Schouten Racing By John Hopkins ...
- CALGARY ROAD RACE SEASON OFF TO EXCITING START ON WEEKEND Credit: Steven Szabo Photography By Josh Penner, reporter It was...
- SZOKE AIMS FOR 9th CALGARY SUPERBIKE WIN THIS WEEKEND Jordan Szoke was fired up at the Superbike press conference...
- VIDEO: WESTERN CANADIAN KARTING CHAMPIONSHIP THIS WEEKEND AT RACE CITY Jr. racers finish up a practice run in preparation for...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
