8
I'll skip right to the races this time. Nothing too dramatic happened prior. Oh wait. I did drag my elbow in turn 1, first practice. I can finally cross that one off the bucket list!
P-89
I'm using this race like another practice. I'm consciously saving myself for ULSB and not taking any unnecessary risks. I got a decent start and went into turn one in third place. I just paced myself, struggling to find an easy place to pass cleanly and risk-free. I finally made it into second and was just prepping for a turn 9 pass when Brian Faucher went down in front of us in the bowl. Apparently he didn't slide clear of the track because the red flag was out just as we got to the treehouse, killing my opportunity to pass and ending the race. I finished in second place. I'm now down to something like a 130 point lead in this class.
ULSB
This is my big race due to the tight point spread and really tough competition. Due to incidents earlier in the day they shortened the races to 6 laps. That's a big bummer for me as I usually get blasted by on the start and have to fight my way through traffic so I was very anxious about this. My main goal for this race was to get ahead of Adam Clark to open up my points spread and to not crash. I got an OK start (for me) and drove really hard on an outside line into one, passing a few people. It set me up for the inside in 1a but not far enough alongside Clark to protect my inside line. I had to check up to avoid getting pushed into the curb or tapping his rear and lost tons of momentum. Two riders smoked me coming out of two but I picked one off going into 3, putting me in 5th. Lap 2 I passed 67x, Francois Dumas but he picked me off again and we went back and forth a couple times during the next couple laps. Clark was struggling to try to get passed Block and we were a very tight group of 4. Dumas made his way past the two of them and I finally picked them off on lap 5. I knew I had a better drive down the front straight than Dumas so I struggled to get close enough in 12 to set myself up. I just couldn't quite get there but in talking to him afterwards he knew that I was close and was pushing hard for an exceptional drive. Too hard. He said he thinks he forgot to stand the bike up as he was getting on the gas coming out of 12 and put himself in a pretty wild slide, but recovered it. I stayed on the gas and drag raced him to the finish line, beating him by maybe a wheel and a half and finishing in second place. It was by far some of the closest and toughest racing I've done to date and it's an honor to be racing with all of these guys. I have always looked up to Clark as a very fast racer and it's still crazy to me to think that I'm competing directly with him. I know it's not his typical superbike ride but I was totally pumped to finish ahead of an AMA Pro racer as well. I'm now up to an 18 point lead in points and am thinking it's going to be a long month waiting for round 7!