De Keyrel Racing lines up at Daytona aboard the 1-855-Czaia Law Machine!

The weekend started out with riding two days at Daytona for the Team Hammer track day. I was one of the instructors, so I worked with multiple students throughout the day. It was a really fun experience being able to help people with their riding!

Then we started to get into some racing! The first race was the team challenge and I got a great jump and was right up in there until 4 laps in when the motor blew. I was in an area on the track where you couldn’t cross back over to get to the pits, so basically I was stranded until the race was completed.

The next day, I got up and was ready for a new beginning. I was feeling good in practice having to make lots of passes and that ended up leading to getting pinched out while trying to pass some slower riders. The front end just dropped and I was on my head.

That crash lead to my pinky finger getting ground up a little bit. I got it cleaned out and got back on the line for the first race of the day! I made it one lap and the shifter was acting up and not shifting. So I had to pull off, because I didn’t want to get rear ended on the banking.

The crew I was working with did a great job in getting the bike ready to go for the next race with zero issues. Now it was all on me. I got a good jump and was fighting from the back up to the front, but lost the tow from the leaders and would finish a lonely 4th.

I was struggling starting from the back and missing the tow with the leaders on the first lap of the next race. I was 5th. I then raced my 600cc bike against the 1000cc bikes and finished 7th, but was the first 600cc.

We were making progress every time we hit the track, but starting from back was not helping. The next two races I finished 6th. We were getting the bike where it needed to be handling wise and working with the data guys I was able to see where I was slower. I was extremely happy getting that experience with data loggers and all the interesting stuff I don’t normally have as tools to getting better.

I lined up for the final race of the day and gave it my all pushing up to the front and getting my best finish of the rough starting weekend. I have to give a huge thank you to CJ Czaia and John Ulrich for this opportunity! Also huge thank you to Lee my mechanic for the weekend. He did an awesome job alone with the whole crew! Overall I accomplished exactly what I needed to at Daytona, getting more experience with the track and how drafting can effect finishes. But most of all some great testing for the 200 in the near future!

Kaleb De Keyrel #51

Thank You to all my sponsors: GOD, 1-855-CzaiaLaw.com, CWS.net, Cortech, Sportbike Track Time, Yamaha, HJC Helmets, Tagger Designs, Dunlop, Motorex, Trip 7, Evans, Vortex, CoreMoto,Pro Flow Tech, Sharkskinz, Impact Armor, TR, AIM Sports, Southeast Sales