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With warmer weather on the horizon, I pulled into New Hampshire Motor Speedway Thursday night with visions of lap times tumbling. Time to twist those throttles to the stop…
Friday practice –Faced some challenges with the KTM during round 1. Friday practice was meant to check the ol’ girl out and make sure we didn’t have a repeat performance or lack thereof. A big thank you to the mystery man (he can step forward if he chooses to) who dropped from the heavens and breathed upon the KTM in between rounds. It ran perfect all practice. I took one session to get reacquainted with the CMP CBR1000rr as it’d been a few years since we’d danced, good to go! Justin Torres dyno’d the CMP GSXR600 and smoothed things out for me after round 1 so we devoted 1 practice session to confirming we went in the right direction – we did! Big sigh of relief – all three machines are working better than they ever have. Thank you to all who made that possible!
Saturday, race 4 – EX Super Singles – KTM (6th) 1:22.9Bike is working pretty good, seems a little down on power compared to my competitors. Oh well, we’ll get on the throttle sooner and sooner. After a disastrous round 1, I spent most of this race getting my feel back with the KTM. Faster and faster we went until the race was over. Back in the pits, my kickass teammate Duncan Wood (CMP #910) identified the reason for my perceived lack of power.
The titanium pipe has 2 giant holes in it! The scramble is on once again, ugh. Talk to a few people, should we jb-weld it? Should we wrap it, safety wire it and hope for the best? Cut up old beer cans? What we really should do is talk to Kevin (#989) about his KTM that is for sale over by the bathrooms. It’s got a beautiful exhaust on it. Kevin green lights the swap and even lends Duncan and I a hand getting it off, what a guy! I don’t know how or why these situations keep coming up but with good people around, it all seems to work out. We bolt up Kevin’s full exhaust and the bike’s working better than it ever has. Game on.
Saturday, race 5 – EX Heavyweight SuperSport – CBR1K (8th) 1:20.0Nothing major to report. Just a race to get familiarized with the CMP CBR1000rr again. I forgot how intoxicating the hp is. Had a blast running around using my brakes too much and feeling that rush of acceleration. Results didn’t matter, good times were had and my brain was sped up a smidge.
Saturday, race 12 – EX Middleweight Grand Prix (Dash for Cash) – GSXR600 (13th) 1.19.3Ok, time to get serious. Round 1 I was last and it was a bitter pill. This round I’ve got Walter French (#678) to race with, let’s see what happens! Into turn 1 off the start, my front end gets chopped off and I hold back. Ironically, this puts me on Frenchy’s tail. We scoot around for a few laps. This allows me the opportunity to clean up my lines, observe and put a plan together. Only minor problem is I can tell Frenchy is just warming up. He’s going faster and faster…and I’m not. He slowly starts to inch away from me – good challenge. I keep pushing and then he suddenly veers off the line going up the hill from 3-4. Poor guy’s bike gave up, that means I won…right? Love you Frenchy, you had me covered. Finish 13th (not last) after going 2 seconds faster than round 1. All in all, a good race.
Saturday nightFixed bikes, watched On Any Sunday (Saturday night tradition) with my pal Sav (#508) and enjoyed some laughs. Great group over in the Central Mass Powersports and Plaistow Powersports garages, stop by and check us out.
Sunday, race 1 – EX Lightweight Superbike – KTM (17th) 1:22.2Rolled out to the pregrid and starting laughing in my helmet. It’s legit 20 fire breathing twin cylinders and me on a motard. Let’s get it on! Had a great time chasing the guys around, passing in the corners and getting my graphics ripped off down the straights. I’ll keep this one on the race schedule, lots of fun. Kurtz (#86)…got you buddy!
Sunday, race 3 – EX Middleweight Supersport – GSXR600 (10th) 1.18.7Feeling froggy after race 1. Let’s see how fast we can go now. The plan is to man up and grab the throttle a hair earlier everywhere. I stuck to the plan, rode my own race and dropped more time. I didn’t finish last and went faster, no complaints here. Lots more to come from this machine, the journey has been a lot of fun so far!
Sunday, race 9 – EX Motard – KTM (4th) 1.22.3Green flag drops and I find myself in 4th going into turn 1. It’s time to race! Jake LaForge (#351) in 1st, Francois Dumas (#67x) in 2nd, Adam Clark (#38) in 3rd. Lap 1 as we head up the hill from turn 3 to 4, Francois’s motard goes out from underneath him and I’m in 3rd! I tagged onto Mr. Clark and learned something in every corner (thanks Adam). 4 laps go by, now 5 – I’m on the podium! Keep pushing I tell myself. White flag lap and what the hell? As I begin to brake for turn 1, who but Francois Dumas appears?! He goes right around the outside of me and is off in a flash to track down Adam. Damn – did that really just happen? That’s one bad dude, good for him – all I can do is giggle in my helmet. There goes that expert podium, brought it home in 4th(aka – #67 Jay Cav land). I had a great race and this was a wonderful ending to the weekend. Now it’s time to rip this exhaust back off (HOT) and return it to its owner. Thanks again, Kevin (#989) and Duncan (CMP #910) for all the help.
Final thoughts -Special mention on Todd Souliere (N #246), this was Todd’s first race weekend. He kept it all together and was a joy to have in the garage. Great job, Todd! With warmer temps and nicer weather, round 2 was a blast. It felt like we were actually racing again and it was great to get that feeling again. Round 3 should bring more of the same. Start spreading the word now, let’s get some spectators up for the Classic! Thanks to all who help keep this circus moving forward, there really is nothing else like it. We’ll see you at the Classic!
All possible with great support from Central Mass Powersports, TSS Graphics, Advanced Traction, The Beantown Sound, Pirelli, Kixsports and ChainwheelMoto.com who produced some quality shots from round 2!
Later,
#123
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