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Time for a race report huh?
Another great race weekend with an awesome turnout of NESR guys/girls. Mucho thanks to everyone who showed up. Extra special thanks to our pit bitches (you know who you are!!).
On to the racing.
Saturday, Race 2 Heavyweight Supersport
Approximate Grid positions: Derek - 6th row, Gerard - 3rd row.
A good showing against the field of almost all 600cc bikes. Neither of us had been out for practice, and it showed. best time for me was a 1:23.439, not bad, but I have done better. Gerard is marked as a DNF in this race and I am not sure why. I finished 13th of 41 entries for 3 advancement points. A luke-warm start for the NESR team.
Saturday, Race 5 Middleweight Supersport
Approximate Grid Positions: Derek 5th row, Gerard 3rd row.
Another consistent showing from both of us. Gerard had a best lap of 1:25.057 to finish 20th which I believe was his best lap time to date. Times for Gerard are best early in the races and he tails off a bit towards the end. Not sure what that means, but it is definitely unusual and something to work on. My best lap was a 1:22.569, getting back to the times I know I can pull. 11th place finish for me and 5 more advancement points.
Saturday, Race 11 Middleweight Supersport
Approximate Grid positions: Derek 5th Row, Gerard 2nd Row.
This was an incredibly close race. I could see the leader for most of the race, and I was catching up to the guy in front when I got stuck behind a back marker in turn 12 and couldn't make up the couple of seconds I lost there. I finished in 10th place, but there were only 8 seconds between 1st place and me in 10th. I pulled in a 1:20.8 lap which was 3rd fastest in the race and really was an encouraging sign for sunday's racing. Gerard missed an advancement point by .2 of a second, finishing in 16th with a great fastest lap of 1:23.104 (way to go G-Man!!)
Sunday, Race 3 GTU
Approximate Grid Positions: Derek 4th Row, Gerard 2nd Row
This is the killer race that I will NOT be entering again. 22 laps in the blistering heat is too much for me. I have callouses on my hands from braking in this race. I finished 12th after losing a drag race to the line and pulling a 1:21.8 as best lap time, which is not too bad for the first riding of the day. Gerard finished 18th, but this time it took a while before I caught up with him and passed him. Last race weekend I lapped him in this race, but I don't think that is going to ever happen again. A very consistent top lap time of 1:23.6 for Gerard. Consistency of lap times for Gerard seems to have been helped by new braided steel brake lines installed by Bill (Rabid1) this morning. This may explain the bad late-lap times for Gerard in previous races (brake fade).
Sunday, Race 5 heavyweight Superbike
Approximate grid positions: Derek 4th row, Gerard 2nd row
Just as we gridded for this race the rain started to come down, a 5 minute light shower, but everyone was on DOT race tires (no wets) and there were many riders new to wet weather racing. I went into turn 1 determined to get as far left as possible (I knew there would be crashes) Sure enough, I saw an R6 fly, upside down past my right ear in turn 1. Gerard was forging ahead, I think in the top 3 when he went down in turn 2 in front of me (pesky new braidedbrake lines too good). At this point everybody realized that this race should be declared a "wet" race. The leader raised his left hand to signal for a wet race restart (as is his right) as did the next 3 people (me included). The cornerworkers in 3 realized this and signaled them off the track. Now, I had not seen a red flag so I continued on around the track, very carefully as it was like a skidpan. It soon became obvious that the race was continuing as planned and we had a very interesting race with lap times in the 1:35's on average. Gerard DNF'd as he stopped after 4 laps. I turned in a consistent race with wheelslides coming out of 2, 6 and 12. I almost slid all the way to the wall out of 12 once when the rear wheel was spinning through 3 gears on the start/finish straight (great fun) for a 6th place finish (.355 seconds off a trophy for 5th). I would have got 5th but for the fact that I missed 2nd gear coming out of 12 and the guy behind me drag raced me to the line. I beat him by half a bike length, but his transponder was mounted on the front fender whereas mine is on the tail piece. A little unfair, but I will be moving my transponder to the end of a broom handle sticking 5 feet in front of my bike for the next race weekend.
Sunday, Race 8, Middleweight GP (my favourite race)
Approximate grid positions: Derek 4th row, Gerard 2nd row
This was a drag race from start to finish between myself and my olde adversary, JJ Walsh. This is the first time I have beaten him accross the line. I was very satisfied with my lap times this race, recording 2 1:24's (in traffic) followed 4 1:21's, then finishing with a 1:20.450 (my fastest lap ever). 3rd place, a trophy for the wall and 11 advancement points. I had the fastest lap of the race and I would have won but for the traffic because i gridded so far back. Gerard ran very consistant 1:24's on worn out tires to finish 14th, but only 20 seconds behind the top 3 finishers.
I am now in the lap times that I should be getting some race wins. I need to pre-register (already have) and I will be running slicks for the first time next race weekend in an effort to run consistent 1:20's and maybe dip into the teens. I am also making some gearing changes and testing them on friday of next race weekend, with the help of Bill and Jay, without whom neither Gerard or myself would be getting better and better at this old roadtacing game. many people came by the pits, and a few people at the track mentioned that we looked like a very professional setup for an amateur team.
Congrats to Tony Iannarelli on his 250GP win, and Chris Bruno on his GP win also.
All in all another great weekend's racing. Gerard is improving his lap times at an incredible rate and I am slowly knocking .200's off now and then.
Many, many thanks to all who showed up, and to Jay and Cheryl for their unwavering hospitality. Hope to see you all next race weekend. If I pick up a 1st place, the beers will definitely be on me.
Degsy