Arrived at the track on Thursday night to help a cousin prepare for the Penguin School. It was too late to setup a tent, so the SUV became the tent. Saturday we unload everything. I get my cousin off and running and decide to start working on my bike. I start the bike up for haha’s and it sounds like shit. And the fun begins…

I scratch my head and think… ‘this ain’t good’. I pull the wheels and drop them off to have new rubber mounted and just relax watching the Penguin School. Wheels come back, I remount them and decide I should probably figure out what’s wrong with the damn bike. To keep the story short, I see Deb, Peter, Bob Kessell, Rob’s Dyno Service, Heath, Argo folks, maybe a few more people before I really start to hone in on the problem. After trying all the recommendations, the bike still sounded like sh**. Now I’m frustrated. Then Dan comes over (legalspeed) and says, “Have you checked your spark plugs” as he pulls a 4-pack of Iridium plugs out of his pocket. I’m thinking… no way. I replace the plugs, temporarily plug everything in and I’ll be damn the thing ran like new. I must’ve cracked the ceramic inside this one plug because it was completely DEAD. So all is well.

Race No. 4 (Middleweight Supersport)
Grid on 1D. I get a shitty start and come off in 5th or 6th. Some guy, I think high sides and slides in front of a bunch of us. Five or so bikes go by and I’m pissed. Then the red flag comes out, thank god. Grid again and come out on top. I stayed there for a few laps riding like an absolute squid… curb jumping in three a few times, off in ten a few times. It was only a matter of time until someone came by. Lap 6 I lose pace even more and another comes by. I managed to hang on to 3rd… game over.

Race No. 13 (Middleweight Superbike)
Grid on 1C. Launch the bike to the front again. Make it to turn 3 and two guys snake up the inside of me (same guys that finished ahead of me in Race 4). One more rider comes by and they open a gap (don’t ask). Finish the race and someone says, “dude that guy crashed in 3, I think you got 3rd again”… great… not a well deserved 3rd, but it is what it is.