Round V: ASMA

2 September Arroyo Seco

Middleweight Superbike by Law Tigers (DNF): After having the worst day I’ve had at a race track on Saturday where I just could not get comfortable and confident out there, I thought Sunday would be different or I hope it would. We had quite a bit of rain before the races started so the surface was damp and there was standing puddles. I did not get to take an entire sighting lap as I was doing some last minute things to the bike. This ended up biting me later on as I used my regular racing line to try and get drive coming out of the esses onto the back straight. There happened to be a big puddle of water right through the apex, I ended up highsiding on the first lap, the sad part is I started from 2nd on the grid and just got swallowed up on the start, tried pushing too hard and leaning the bike over too much in conditions I shouldn’t have been.

Middleweight SuperSport by Moto El Paso (DNF): Normally I don’t race this series I had to start from the back of the grid and after having a pretty abysmal weekend I decided not try and go crazy to claw my way back onto the podium. Coming off a pretty nasty wreck my goal for this race was to just get back out there and conquer the corner that took me out me before. I knew with the lack of feeling that I had that getting one of the top 3 positions was going to be a really tall order to fill. I ended up running out of gas down the drag strip on the 3rd lap bringing my race and race week to an end.
Justin Berg

#333, MADD-1 Racing

Round III: ASMA

6 May Arroyo Seco

Middleweight Superbike sponsored by Law Tigers: I have to say this was a race I was in contention to have won if not for a small but costly mistake made before the race even began. Having taken 2nd and 1st the last two rounds I was supposed to start from the “Amateur pole position” which was row 7 all the way to the left. After I had gridded up another amateur rode by me having not known his position and for some reason it threw off my focus and I moved up with him. The penalty ended up being me having to start from the back of the grid and all the way to the right which is the worst position to head into the horseshoe from. In the mess of trying to get my bike turned around and get to the back of the grid ASAP I didn’t set my bike parallel with the start finish straight so I launched crooked. By the 3rd lap I had worked my way through the field into 3rd place and even started to reel in the top 2 riders who were towing each other. In the end I couldn’t close the gap and had to settle for 3rd place finish. Not too shabby for a dead last place start.

Formula Amateur sponsored by Speedcell: This was my first time giving this race series a go and because of that I had to start from the 4th row of the grid. I had made my way up to 3rd place by the 4th lap but started to get overheated with the hot weather and made a mistake braking into the Horseshoe allowing another rider through me. He led me for one corner before I crashed out in Yucca going over the seam at lean angle. Im chalking this one up to experience and gonna come back stronger next round.

I’d like to thank my sponsor Madd-1 Racing as always for the support. Greg Talbot thank you for spending your Saturday night cooking for us we appreciate it and Mikey Shreve for hosting with some good tunes and times at his rig! Roger Heemsbergen and Michelle Heemsbergen as well as staff and corner workers, thank you as always for the everything, you guys really are the reason I keep coming back. I’d also like to thank Bob Johnson for once again coming out and helping us out in the hot weather, we really appreciate all the support you’ve given all year long! Eric Pugh thanks for standing out there in the sun and making us all look faster through your lens.

Justin Berg

#333, MADD-1 Racing

Round II: ASMA

16 April Arroyo Seco

Saturday Practice: Having felt really good on the bike last month and bringing home some great results, it took me two sessions to get back into. I added speed over the course of the day was content with my feeling going into tomorrow’s races.
Warmup: I missed the first warmup session because my tires weren’t quite up to temperature yet so I did some stretching and hit the ground running in the second one with good pace.
Middleweight Superbike by Law Tigers (1st place): Unfortunately I didn’t get the perfect launch I had wanted from pole position and ended up popping two wheelies on the way to the first corner (the Kink). I somehow still took the hole shot even with the wheelies and led the amateurs from start to finish, even managed to overtake an expert riding a ’17 R6 on lap 1 going into the Esses. Being as how I was dicing it up the experts, I had no idea what the gap was to the next amateur behind me as I was battling with Lance Echols who I was not able to pass for the entirety of the race. Coming across the finish line he beat me by half a bike length which I was sort of upset by but stoked I was up with the expert class in a yellow plate. 
Middleweight Superstock by Moto El Paso (DNF): After one the experts Michael Thompson had crashed ealier in one of his other races he decided to try  and race anyway but by the time he took his sighting lap and gridded up he had bike issues and had to turn around and go into the hot pit. In addition some of the experts didn’t grid correctly so we were held at the starting line for a few minutes before the whole grid was finally instructed to take another sighting lap. So after all that excitement this ended up being a race I’d really like to have back as I got a dream start from the middle of the front row. My bike was a rocket to take the amateur hole shot by far and I was up with the experts by the time we arrived at the kink. Anyone who races at Arroyo knows that the start of the race going clockwise is the most dangerous part as the track bottlenecks at the Kink. You have multiple riders side by side going for the same patch of asphalt, well I made a small error in judging how fast the expert in front of me was going to corner through the Kink and ended up almost planting myself into his rear tire. The only thing for me to do was a grab a bunch of front brake, I endoed the bike and it got squirrelly coming down which by that point Oscar Draco was now side by side with me. I made the decision to roll off and stand up the bike and ran off into the dirt. Had I not we both would have collided for sure and potentially taken both of us out. I could have got back on track and finished the race but by that time I had lost confidence in my tires which were dirty and had lost heat with all that fun at the starting line. During all of this I suddenly got the urge to need to use the restroom so I decided to pull back into the pits and called it a race. 
Unlimited Superstock by Madd-1 Racing (1st place): This was definitely interesting race as I was gridded up in the middle of the front row between the S1000RR of Dan Junick and the ZX10R of Bill Yelverton. For the third race in a row I took the hole shot and led for the entirety of the race attempting to chase down expert John Friesen. I knew both those bikes would pull on me on the straights so I kept my corner speed up and used all the slow, tight and twisty sections to my advantage. I looked back a few times during the race and estimed my gap to be around 2 seconds by the time I took the checkered flag. 
I would like to thank first and foremost my sponsor Madd-1 Racing, Art Johnson once again for spending some time in garage with me working on the bike. His dad Bob Johnson and his wife are always  great to have around and are super helpful getting bikes on stands and tire wamers on in the pits, they help make the weekend just a little bit easier. Roger and Michelle Heemsbergen always put on a fantastic weekend and really love their riders. I’ve gotten to know Roger in the last year (actually not even a full year) and I hope to continue to get to know him and the entire staff at Arroyo, once again thank you. Last but not least I would like to give a thank you to four really fast guys for really motivating me each and every race weekend, thank you Mikey Shreve, David Hurtado, Jason “Jasin” Brown (who was absent this month with bike issues) and teamate Robert Roach.
Justin Berg

#333, MADD-1 Racing

Italika Racing Vort-X300 Cup

18 March  Ecocentro Expositor Queretaro, Mexico

On Wednesday I was invited by Chicho Lorenzo to fly to Mexico and race on a Vort-X300. I was able to compete in the Italika Racing Vort-X300 Cup for the Latin American National series. All the same Spec bikes and the Racers are from all over Latin America.

I Qualified 8th position out of 15 riders on the grid and got a good start into 7th position. Before the first turn a few riders behind me got ahead of me. My goal was to catch the top group but it was a difficult task to achieve while battling with the riders that had passed me. I was faster in the turns for sure, but on the straights I suffered a bit. Then began the battle to stay in front of this group while still attempting to catch the riders in front. I was able to finish 8th, and although I would have preferred a better result, overall it was a good learning experience riding on both a new track and bike.

I was invited back to race again the end on May 27th at the Autodromo Yucatán, in Yucatán Mexico!

Robert Roach, Jr.

#808, MADD-1 Racing

Round I: ASMA

11 March Arroyo Seco

Saturday Practice: Practice got off to a rough start with tires being the big setback, I wasn’t able to get them mounted and on the bike until after lunch. That means I only got in a half track track day to get back into the groove after being off of the track since November. After lunch the first two sessions were more or less shaking off the cobwebs off and getting feeling back and didn’t go so hot, but I really pulled it together and picked up the pace in the final two practice sessions. I left the track feeling pretty confident for at least one podium finish tomorrow.

Warm ups: Warm ups were delayed quite a while due to weather and a time change. I was on a brand new set of Pirelli SC1 slicks and felt great from the get go, the very first warmup session I had quite a bit of confidence in myself and my machine to make the podium. I will admit even with the good feelings, the weather we we’re experiencing (rain, wind, cold ambient temperatures) didnt make me super stoked to go out and race as I was freezing cold in the pits with a fleece blanket wrapped around my leathers. Surprisingly I found grip levels to be adequate enough to push in areas where quite a few people crashed today. Yucca being the big one as many people lost grip there.
MW Superbike (2nd): Got a rocket of a launch from row 7 on the grid, I was the second row back in the Amateurs and took the hole shot. I led for 3 laps and was trailing an expert nearly the whole time, I went for an over take in the Bus Stop but ended up having to check up. I was passed on the 4th lap going into the Carousel by Clayton Lester, a beauty of a pass. Because I had gotten on the brakes earlier, I kept corner speed up and was able to stay on his tail through the carousel and was eating his back tire coming out of the Kink where I got great drive. I ended up losing the race by less than tire length, so about a 1/100 of a second.
MW Superstock (1st): While I originally thought I didn’t do so hot in this race I actually won it. What had happened was after I had a fun little battle with Oscar Draco who passed me going into the Bus Stop and I immediately nipped him back at 111,  after that I lost track of who was where in the race. I could see there were bikes ahead of me I was trying to chase down who I thought were more amateurs. In reality it turns out I was chasing the expert class to the finish line.
UL Superstock (2nd): Well being as how we were the title sponsor of this race, I would have liked to have won it but I had to settle for a podium and a second place finish. After getting another great start and the amateur hole shot, I ended up getting passed on the inside going into the Horseshoe by Dan Junick on a S1000RR, I was able to trail him for 2 laps but he was taking time out of me on the straights with the extra power and was able to hold me off all race long. I was in an interesting fight with Oscar Draco yet again for 2nd place but he ended up crashing out on lap 3 chasing me into yucca.
I would like to give a big thank you to my sponsor Madd-1 Racing for the support. Art Johnson is another huge contributer, he spent multiple hours in the garage with me during the off season and even this weekend helping to get the bike prepped or getting tire warmers on and stands off when it was time. In addition to Art I want to give a thank you to his dad, Bob Johnson as well for helping us out in the pits on race day! As always it was pleasure to be a part of another race weekend at Arroyo, I wanna give a thank you to the whole staff at Arroyo for their hard work this weekend incleaning up oil and sitting out in the cold to make sure we were safe!
Justin Berg

#333, MADD-1 Racing

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