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I've been slacking on the race reports this year but I figured it's about time I start them up again. As usual, sorry about the long read.
Nothing too epic Friday. Bike and modern sidecar practice. Last year I’d ridden with Marcus Poisson as his monkey and he invited me back. It’s a borrowed rig for Marcus with a lot of differences between it and the rigs he’s been running so we both had a lot of learning/adapting. My only race on Friday was the sidecar race and we didn’t finish last. Apparently there are usually two modern sidecar classes and ours, being from 1978, would put us in Formula 2. It was kind of a bummer that they combined the classes for the Classic as there was no way for us to be competitive but it was still wicked fun. That’s my excuse anyway.
Saturday. The big day of the weekend for me. Practice went well enough. Then the chaos began. Back to back to back races (4,5 and 6). Yeesh. Joel Robie, Sheppo and RSP really came through for me here. P-89 was the first race. It went quite well and I picked up a first place finish. Back to the RSP garage where Joel grabbed my bike and took charge of that for me. Bill Coolahan threw his warmers on it while I was away. A quick boot change, ditch the kneepucks and I was off on the sidecar. Again, a not-last finish but we were starting to mesh as a team. Energy conservation was really what I was working on this race as I usually got wicked arm pump as the monkey. I did well enough. Back to hot pit. Joel’s waiting with my bike, warmed up and Sheppo has my boots and pucks. Heath passes me some badly needed liquids and I’m off for Ultralight Superbike. My most competitive race. Not only do I have a typically bad launch but with all the friggin motards I can’t hear my bike. Instead of short shifting I bounce it off the rev limiter in first and second costing me gobbs of acceleration. Into turn 1 I'm somewhere around 8th. I clear one rider in turn 1 and another into 3 and then start slowly picking off other riders for the next two laps as Adam Clark and Rick Breen slowly open up a gap up front. On lap 3 I clear the last of the other riders and crank out my best lap of the race catching up to the leaders. Just as I catch them in turn 3 Breen goes down and now it’s just Adam and I. When we hit the front straight I motor by Adam as apparently he was being haunted by an electrical gremlin that was cutting power. Now it’s my race to lose. I give it everything I have but my lap times slowly begin to rise. I didn’t make a pass when I should have on lapped traffic and not long afterwards Matt Gendron goes by on the next to the last lap. He threw down a great lap and totally dusted me. My second place finish got me to within one point of being the ULSB points leader though.
Sunday I went out for bike practice and “played” with my teammates Larson and Clark. Sidecar practice was a bit more eventful as during the checkered flag lap in turn 1a I apparently zigged as the rig zagged and I slipped off the sidecar. I kept my hands where they needed to be and pulled myself back onto the rig before turn 2. Marty Hanlon, who always seems to be in the right spot for me, managed to get a couple pics of me flailing alongside the rig. I’ll share them when I get them. The race was a lot less eventful although we were able to keep one of the Formula 1 rigs in sight as our speed is beginning to pick up.
The obligatory thanks go out to my Low Down Racing team/family, Emily Butler for the fresh inspiration, the Butlers for another awesome BBQ, RSP for the garage help, Sheppo for stepping in to help, the corner workers for not having to help me but being there just in case (Bill) and Mother Nature for giving us a weekend of incredible weather.
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99 + 02 SV650 ex-race - 91 FJ1200 street - 03 KDX220R woods - 12 WR450F motard/ice
Originally Posted by PainfullySlow
