Thanks to a good dose of last minute scrambling to solicit a bike to borrow for my planned "testing of the waters" in the 250 Production class, and the amazing overflow of generous offers from numerous racers in the class, I was able to take to the track at Buttonwillow for the final October 2000 event.
Gary on Scrubbo's 779 bike	Only having about one-third the horsepower that I'd been accustomed to on my stock production Yamaha R6, certainly made for a challenging experience while attempting to chip away at the lap times. The process of trying to quickly come to grips(only Saturday practice day and then the race itself) with a single front disk braking system, damping-rod-style forks, and a well-seasoned set of narrow bias ply tires on my borrowed Ninja 250, was certainly a significant challenge.
Despite these less than high-tech functional aspects of the little Ninja, there was no shortage of fun to be found when I took to the track for the race on Sunday! Riding side-by-side down the front straight, inches apart from another rider (Chris McGrail), all the time looking at each other and giving a simultaneous big "Thumbs Up," said it all for the character of this class. From the 5th row start, with a "borrowed bike" mentality at the forefront of my mind, a 12th place finish didn't diminish the big smile that was on my face as I crossed the finish line .002 seconds ahead of the next 250 Prod rider (Chris again)!
A few of my friends who were sitting on the pit wall watching me repeatedly come up the front straight (slapping the tailsection in a typical "jockey in the saddle of a quarterhorse" fashion) commented to me after the race that they were sure that I'd be getting black flagged and brought in off the track in this 250 Production race. When I asked them "why" they thought that...their response was "You were having entirely TOO MUCH FUN out there!" 250 Production racing..... more fun per "cc" than any other class I've ever raced with the AFM! Gary Jaehne AFM #996