It was a very exciting weekend at Willow Springs International Raceway for the inaugural Moto West Grand Prix that brought motorcycle roadracing back to the renowned raceway. On Friday, the track day was cancelled due to rain and snow. On Saturday, high winds and cold temperatures had most riders running 5-6 seconds off their normal race pace. Race day morning greeted Jason Aguilar with 27 degree weather and a bike that was covered with a thin layer of ice. As a result of the low temperatures, practice was delayed an hour. Fortunately, the sun was out, the wind was gone, and the track started heating up. Jason was several seconds faster in practice with the improved conditions and qualified; 4th for 600 Superstock, 3rd for 600 Superbike, and 3rd for 750 Superstock. By the start of racing, the weather was beautiful.
600 Superstock was the first race of the day. Jason wheelied at the start, but was still able to get the holeshot and led into Turn 1. With an incredible display of his command of Willow Springs, Chris Duran made a strong outside move from 4th to 1st coming out of Turn 1. Duran then started opening a gap on the rest of the field. A battle for 2nd started with 4 riders battling for the position in tight formation. Javelin Broderick got by Jason with Jason 3rd, Sahar Zvik 4th, and Travis Goldstein 5th. Jason was able to get his lap times down, but knew he would need more for the 600 Superbike race.

In the 600 Superbike race, Jason on his Dunlop shod Yamaha R6, again got the holeshot. Once again, Chris Duran took the lead on the first lap when he got by Jason going into Turn 3. In one of the best battles of the day, Jason and Sahar Zvik battled for 2nd place with several lead changes before Jason was able to hold onto a small margin at the finish, giving Dunlop a 1-2 finish in the race.

Jason's final race of the day was 750 Supersport. Determined to get his first win of the year, Jason got his best start of the day, and third consecutive holeshot, to open up a gap on the rest of the field. By the end of the first lap, he had a solid lead over Javelin Broderick and Sahar Zvik. "Willow Springs is a really hard track to lead a race. It's only my second time racing here and I didn't have good reference points for braking and turn-in." Jason explained. Javelin Broderick was able to fight his way back and get close enough to make a race out of it. As the 2 competitors came up on some slower traffic for the Open Superstock class that started in the first wave, Jason was forced to check up when a rider moved into his line in the high speed Turn 8. Seeing the opportunity, Javelin dove down to the inside and swept by both riders to take the lead. Jason pushed hard to fight his way through traffic to catch Javelin. While he was able to close the gap and get close enough for a draft, Jason could not catch Javelin at the finish and had to settle for 2nd place.

The Next GeneRacers won the M1GP 24 Hour Endurance Race by 42 laps. The race featured 2 classes; 50 Stock, and 100 Mod. The 100 Mod class featured XR100 modded engine bikes that had superior power and speed. The 50 Stock had mostly NSR50 2 strokes, and a few vintage 50 2 strokes. Jason ran the fastest lap of the race at about 2:30 in the morning. With a few setbacks, that included a shifter bolt falling out, and a couple of black flags when the required taillight went out, and a highside crash at 6:15 AM Sunday, the bike ran flawlessly thanks to the support of TORCO Advanced Lubricants.
The highside crash took Jason out for the remainder of the race as he broke his right middle finger. Jason was not able to get up off the track requiring a reg flag stoppage. Jason's first question when the EMT and track workers got to him was "Is the bike OK?".
After a short pit stop to replace a broken foot peg, the bike was back on the track with their lead intact.
Motorcyclist magazine had a team and will have a feature article about the race out in a few weeks. Jason's break should heal in a couple of weeks, but the nail will take longer to grow back. Should not affect going to Vegas for the last WERA race though.

Jason Aguilar continued his podium streak at Buttonwillow with two 2nd place finishes this weekend. On Saturday, Fastrack Riders hosted a track day in preparation for Sunday's WERA West races. Lenny Albin spent the better part of Saturday working with Jason, going though his forks and rear shock. With temperatures well into the 100s, the track was slick and greasy, and presented a challenging surface for the racers. By the end of the day, Jason was starting to get more comfortable with the suspension setup changes that Lenny made.

In Sunday’s practice sessions, Jason finished getting his race setup dialed in with a phone call to Lenny Albin, and assistance from Blair Ramey of Worxxx Performance and Machine who volunteered to help Jason out on race day. In Sunday’s first race, C Superstock Expert, Jason got a good start from the 2nd row and moved into 2nd place behind his Outlaw Racing teammate Daytona Anderson. Jason’s other teammate, Andre Ochs, was in 4th place but quickly moved into 3rd and closed up behind Jason.