[hessogood]

What a long hot race weekend. Here's the play by play write up. All you illeiterates can stop reading here. There are no pictures in this thread yet.

Got up to the track friday night, confirmed my registration for the races and picked up the transponder. Worked on my friends bike till late in the hours then set up the tent and slept a little. Rose up around 5:30 AM saturday morning. Got out for my first practice and ran pretty good on my old tires which were definitly spent. Running around 1:24 - 25 lap times. Got a brand new set of bridgestones mounted but not fast enough to make second practice so i had to skip out. My ussual tire guy was at a different race so some lady was working the pit. A bit of foreshadowing here, she mounted the front tire backwards, had to look in a book to give me the "reccomended" tire pressure for the day's temp and conditions and back to the book for everything else that I would ask her or talk to her about, and she didn't even set the tire pressure for me. I found 42 PSI in my tires when I got them back to the pit, and 62 in my friend Dan's front tire. We had to go borrow another tire gauge because we just could not believe it. Now to the races.

Got out on the track for my first race (race #2) heavy weight supersport. Decided to try my luck in this one with the six hundo this time around. Was running pretty good, back tire was sliding a bit but I was riding through them and really felt good. A little strange since the tires should not be sliding at the laptimes I'm running. I was running in top 3 or 4 making a pass on the brakes coming into turn three really hot, dropped in for my line, which was much wider then my ussual, but a good line never-the-less. Just before the transition to climb the hill I lost the back end and supermaned into the gravel trap. Got up and got the bike was trying to start it to get back in the race and the cornerworker told me I was leaking fluid and had to push the bike off. Push it off, check everything, minor damages, still good to race no leaking fluids but a few pounds of gravel filling my bellypan. Just as I get him to let me go back out they redflag the race for another crash and line us up for a restart. Again running really good, coming into turn three fast with a guy not too far off my tail and a guy in front of me. I can see smoke pouring off the rear tire of the guy in front of me and I know he's not going to make the corner so I slow WAY down as does the rider behind me. Just as I thought the kid highsides, and pretty bad too, I took the corner through a cloud of flying parts. Redflagged again, restarted again, ran hard, a lot of rear end sliding, but doing great consistant lines and good times. Got into first place about halfway through the race by passing a black motard. He passed by me last lap coming out of turn 10, I let him by and got on his ass through the tight turns onto the straight, 11-11A-12, went real tight into 11 and real wide for 12 and got a great drive, he turned his head about halfway to the start/finish just as I was rocketing by him.

Next up, race 4, middleweight supersport. Hit the pits and doused myself with icewater, had a short brake and back on the track. It was HOT. Tracktemp was about 140 degrees. Get a great start and running really well, 4th place, two passes on the first lap and I'm into 2nd. The guy with first was close for a lap and then pulled a little distance, from me, as I put some long distance between me and the 3rd place. Running through turn 6, the bowl, The rear end starts sliding, I stay on it knee down and on line but it just keeps sliding, bike goes completely sideways sliding, drops me off and goes flying. That was a tumble that hurt a bit. I don't think I'll have the pictures till next week, but my friend snapped a few great shots of it. Turns out I cooked my brand new tires, thanks to the bridgstone lady giving me the wrong pressures. Tire was smooth as glass where it spun up and the other side you could see where it was slding through the turns. Damage to the biek and no recovery from that crash, I was sore and my muscles were locking up, so I relaxed and sat out for race #11 MW superbike.

Got up early the next day and made a bunch of repairs to the bike and switched out the rims to the tires that I had spent, last years michelins, with a bunch of practices, races, and a whole long hot trackday on them. Ran my first race (race number 5 heavyweight superbike) and did decent, think I finished 6th or so, I'll have to check. Tires felt good but I was just nervous and running a lot slower and less agressive after the prior days surprises. Got off and had a short brake, couple drops of rain fell literally, then back out for my next race. Race number 8, Middle weight grand prix got a good start, running in 5th place in a tight pack. We had a long distance on the next place but the pack was stuck together pretty tight. Felt pretty good and upping my pace a little, still a little cautious of old tires. The race got red flagged for Erin's crash in turn one (heal up Erin!). We restart and I blow it. I got a great drive off the line and was coming into the turn fine with a great place fighting for 2nd into turn one with a guy on my outside, when bikes start apearing everywhere. Turn one can get dangerous with all the superhero's in MW who pick up a bike with rossi dreams. I decide that instant that I'd rather run the turn than have 8 bikes pile up on me, I run wide around the oval and get waved back in after last place. I made up some distance and was moving up the ranks, and I guess I'm a little guilty of rossi dreams too because as I'm running and moving up ranks I have that part of faster in my head, or at least the mentality, where rossi blows the first turn and then you just watch him fight himself into first. Well I wasn't shooting for first but I was fight my way back into the race. About halfway though I can feel the rear sliding through turn two, put some more attention on feeling what it's doing for the rest of the lap, and it's sliding all over the place, I decide to slow it down as I know my tires are all done, I drop back about 5 seconds on my lap times and end up finishing 8th I believe.

All in all, a good weekend. I ahve some repairs to do and will need to locate some parts by next friday so I can run my races on saturday. My friend who managed to get the bridgestone guy I usually deal with on the phone told me he is very concerned and wants me to get in touch with him. I'm hoping he's looking to make it right since I got a lot of damages to the bike and myself due to the "expert" tire instructions that I was given.