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Wow, what a difference some nice weather makes! Lisa and I had a perfect weekend at the races. The new motor break in went smoothly on Friday and the power was promising. I got right into the low 18s in first practice, which is only 1.5 seconds off last year’s pace. That’s VERY tough to do at loudon as it’s such a busy lap. It takes a while to get the timing of all those actions precise enough to go fast.
Anyway, Saturday came and I post entered GTL for a practice race. I changed the last bit of the clutch (the cable) in hopes of figuring out why my bike is impossible to launch… and it worked! The old cable must have been stretchy enough to give it zero feel at the lever. Go figure. The cheapest bit in the whole system…
Racing:
GTL I was gridded dead last with a HUGE field of 44 experts. I got a mediocre launch, but there was no room to move forward anyway! I railed around a few bikes in 1, and tucked through a few more in 2. I looked up into 3 and it was a sea of bikes. I settled in and started to go to work. Passing, passing, and more passing for 8 laps until I finally saw a gap of clear track. I put my head down and clicked a low 17 and then the red flag flew. I ended up in 7th. That means I passed 36 bikes. Phew!
125GP was shaping up to be a real corcker as Eric and I were running the same pace, and they removed the motards from the class, so we shouldn’t get all split up on the first lap. The theory worked! I got a great launch (FINALLY!) and followed Eric down into T1. We passed the only 4-stroke to get out front (MuZ and TIG still allowed) and we got down to business. The pace was right around 17.0 lap after lap.
I passed Eric in 11 on lap 2 and he drag raced me all the way into T1, which we took side by side. I intended to close the door on him as I had the outside and a slight lead, but I just couldn't turn hard enough on the brakes, he squirted through the inside and proceeded to click off a phenomenal 16.4, gapping me by a half second. I would run up on him into T3 and 11/12, but he was getting great drive, and would eek it out again on the straights.
It turns out He was getting a little TOO much drive. I was pressuring him hard in 11 each lap and as we approached the last lap he lost the rear coming out of twelve and slid into the airfence. I stayed out of it and cruised around for the win.
This was an unbelievable pace for April (Eric set a personal best), and it bodes well for the class this year. Lap records should tumble. Getting the motards out really allows us to ride these machines the way they were intended, nose to tail with incredible corner speed!!!
It was nice to see a big crowd from this forum this weekend. See you in two weeks.