0
Practice thursday was uneventful. Bike was feeling fine, I got into my normal groove pretty fast. Mid 17's a per my usual thursdays. Friday I worked, wishing I was riding the whole time.
Saturday I race the Dash. On hot pit I check everyone's tires and somehow remember who's on fresh rubber. I think it's OCD.
1st start: launch was bad, but the drag to turn 1 was pretty good I was probably 7th. Red flagged before turn 2.
2nd start: good launch, bad drag into 1. Maybe I'm 10th, I'm not sure. I had 2 members of team bluebikes in front of me They were battling it out a bit and pulled away from me. As they were about 2-3 seconds away from me, I remembered that neither of them had fresh tires at the start. AHA! I had a fresh rear tire, so I must have more rear grip, right? I tested it and dropped a second a lap. I saw low 16's flashing on my laptimer as I reeled Kitt in. Catching him going into 3, 6 and 11. About 10 laps in I tried for a hailmary inside pass going into 6, bottomed the forks and slightly locked the front. I held back, planning on an outside of 11/inside of 11a pass on him. I dove deep into 11 this time and remembered another little fact as I catastrophically lost the front end: run takeoffs in practice, not the race.
New rear, old front = Oops.
A DNF and a wrecked bike = ouch
New PB of 1:15.9 and a lesson learned = PRICELESS