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I started the weekend out a bit early and took Friday off from work. I had a Friday evening wedding (congratulations to Doug and Christine) to go to so I wanted to get to the track early and set up camp for the weekend. Bryan was already there and seemed pretty excited about practice that afternoon. While he was getting ready for practice, I made my way over to the Dunlop garage to check on some new tires. I had this little post card I got in the mail that said I'd get a discount on my next set of tires. I guess so, I got new front and rear 208GP's for $180, and they had them mounted less than 1/2 hour after I dropped the rims off!! Very cool!!
After taking care of tires, registrations and transponder, I had to get ready to drive back south for the wedding. I came back from using the facilities and see Bryan standing there looking at his bike, I didn't even notice it's condition until I took a double take!!! WTF I wish I coulda stuck around that evening but I was already running late... The 1 1/2 hour drive took 2 hours with the traffic. I made it just in time!! It was great to see those that were there and we had lot's of laughs and good times. Very nice wedding and reception, congrats again to Doug and Christine. I made it back to the track by midnight, had a drink or 2 then went to bed.
Saturday, I didn't want to get up... Had the heater on, it was cold and damp out and warm and dry inside my trailer so I slept in until 7:15. I still had to get the bike through tech as I wanted to do both practices even though I hadn't entered any races for the day. First practice it was cool and damp out and I had to wipe the drizzle from my visor 2 times per lap. I was kinda happy that I made the front page in the first practice session.. haha I came in from that practice and made the wheel swap to put on the new Dunlops. I went back out in the second practice and was hoping for an improvement in the weather but no such luck. It was still damp and cool but a little less drizzle. No front page this session but was on the second page..
The rest of the day Saturday was pretty much spent working on Bryan's bike. With a little bit of $$ and some dirty hands, we had it looking like something by the end of the day and were pretty much just waiting on tires that had to have all the dirt and grass removed from them. Big thanks to everyone that stopped by to offer advice and give us a hand.
Saturday night a few of us went out to eat, it turned out to be a great idea as it started to rain when we left and stopped shortly after we returned. That was a lot of fun with a LOT of laughs and ball busting. Why does everyone always have to pick on me though!!! haha
We get back to the track and get the fire pit going and the drinks came out. Again, lot's of laughs and a LOT more ballbusting. What a great time!!!
Sunday morning, again I didn't want to get out of bed, I look up and it's 85 inside my trailer!!! 7am I'm out the door, the sun was out and it was dry so it looked to be a real nice day. Saw a few of the usual last race weekend pranks scattered around, bikes in the grandstands, heard one was hanging from a tree somewhere? haha
Gave Bryan a quick hand getting his tires on and bleeding the brakes before I got ready for practice. First practice was OK, no new improved lap times for the weekend yet but it was a fun and safe practice. Second practice went real good for me, I had a lot of fun and set a new personal best lap time that was 1.5 seconds faster than my last one. My goal for the season (keeping in mind I'm not very aggressive) was to get even a high 1.29 lap time, I got a 1.286, I had a couple .29s as well so I was pretty happy. In the past, I've always had my fastest lap times in practice.
I entered my first ever GT race this weekend, race #3 GTL. I was kinda nervous being out there for a full half hour but once it started, I can't even say how much fun it was. I got a OK start but I've never entered turn 1 with and around that many bikes, that was pretty wild!!! I made a bunch of passes, got passed a lot and had a lot of fun racing with Jim on Stonemans old racebike. That was a lot of fun, I passed him in 9 and he blew by me again down the straight. 3 or 4 laps later, I got him again in 9 and stayed there.. haha What a fun race!! I ended up in 6th place out of 16 and again improved on my best lap time by .5 seconds to a 1.281....
Race #11 Thunderbikes was next, figured it'd be pretty easy after the half hour race, then they cut 2 laps from every race to make up time from the mess in turn 2. I got another OK start but couldn't make it stick to turn one before the more powerful bikes caught up. Jim passed me and I pretty much stayed within a few bikes from him for the rest of the race (congrats on the .29 Jim). I think I ended up in 5th out of 7, fun race but a little to short with cutting out the 2 laps...
My first full season and I can't even begin to say how much fun I had. The people, the racing, camping, couldn't have asked for it to be any more fun. Thanks to the NESR race team, NESR and it's members for all the support with spectators and the photos. There were a lot of nice pictures taken this year, you guys did a great job!!!
special thanks to....
Huge Thanks to Bob M and Nancy for all their support this year, I can't even begin to thank both of you enough. The food, the laughs, help changing tires... The list goes on and on. THANK YOU!!!
Sean and Leah, again with the food, and the support by being there just about every weekend this year. You 2 are great, even though i never have any fun around Leah... haha
I met a lot of people this year and made a lot of great new friends up at the track this season, I hope next year will be at least the same if not better. Looking forward to next season already.
Thanks again to everyone
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The first time i ran it, i had the same gearing as the 426, 14/40 which worked pretty well on the 426 with the pace i was running at. That gearing on the 450 had me topped out just after the start/finish line. Went to 15/40 and it was a little better, now i have 15/38 and it seems ok but i'm sure it could use more.
