Am. 121 Round 4, 2012

[BrianC]

What a great weekend for racing... the first thing I noticed upon entering the infield on Fri afternoon was that everyone I encountered was in good spirits and friendly. The vibe was good, and so was the weather, so I was psyched to be fortunate enough to go racing once again!

Practice was good Sat. morning, especially the 2nd session where I was able to greatly improve my entrance into T3, and my line thru T6. I also worked on getting on the gas sooner on corner exits, and all combined it worked out well enough for me to consistently run laps about 3-5 seconds faster than I have been all season, and reset my pb by 8/10th's.

Race 2: Am. GTU:
I got a killer start and had a couple guys ahead of me going into 1. Got passed by someone after a few laps, but I was feeling good, and managed to keep the front 3 or 4 guys in sight for a little while... I remember seeing the halfway flags and thinking, "where's Brett, he usually goes by by now...". I knew I was going faster than usual just based on the fact that none was passing me and the race was almost over. Then on the last lap, I heard someone on my ass as we approached the final corners. I tried to get on the gas quickly as we came onto the straight and spun my rear tire around next to me, which caught traction and flung me up on the tank. I managed to save it, but the guy behind me started to make his way around on the outside so I grabbed the throttle while still on the tank and reclaimed my spot to cross the line in 4th! Talk about heart-racing action... and it was my best finish as an amateur to date so I'm really glad I saved it! Sorry if that scared whoever was behind me!

Race 4, Am. HWSS:
My rear tire was beat, but obviously didn't have time to change it, so I just went out and had to just do the best I could, but my lack of confidence in the tire had me twisting the throttle slower and it showed in my times. Normally I'm a little faster after a nice warmup in gtu, but this time I saw Jimmy go by and new I was going slow... . So that ended up being a 9th place I believe?

Race 11, Am. MWGP:
I put a new tire on the rear and had a lot of fun in this race. I got a bad start, but caught back up to mid-pack and spent the entire race chasing and passing, only to be re-passed etc... it was awesome! I managed to get by one dude on the brakes into 3, and another in the bowl, but he re-passed me and started hauling ass so I never caught him, but had a lot of fun trying! I finished 10th and had one of the most fun races of the season.

That was a great weekend and while I got faster, it is obviously not fast enough as the front-runners in am are doing 17's and 18's, so I will continue to work at it, and hopefully hit the advanced scoop sometime, but at least I'm getting some confidence in myself and my setup back.

[CBR929RE]

in GTU you had 4th regardless of if that that guy passed you at the line. He must have been in GTO or it was an expert. I finished 5th and i could see you up ahead but wasn't really gaining for the last few laps. brake fade from lap 3 on prevented me from making any kind of challenge and I had to work my ass off just to stay where I was.


MWGP I was catching you by about 1.2-1.5 seconds a lap over the last 3 laps and think I needed 1 more lap to be able to mount a challenge, probably 2 to really find a way around. still had brake fade in this one too but I was more relaxed and tried to focus more on flowing through the corner rather than worrying about crappy brakes (since I use them too much anyway when they are good).

I didn't see your new line in 6 but its good that you fixed it, maybe I won't be able to come underneath you into 7 anymore

[brady]

Glad you had a good weekend and especially some good dices, that's the best part.