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Holy shit i'm tired.... Well.. here's a rundown of my weekend.
LWSP on Saturday, finished 3rd... knocked another 1/2 second off my previous best & got into the 25's with a 25.5. HAIRY race, but I was very pleased with how I performed. I made alot of crazy (unfamiliar is a better word) but safe passes, expanding my comfort zone for close riding and discovering "new" passing zones.
Sunday morning I made a big geometry change... my suspension still blows but I raised the rear by about an inch & 1/2 so it's at least CLOSE to where it's supposed to be (still a little low I think)... I was immediately carrying more speed through the bowl and getting a better drive up the hill as a result, but i still need to carry even more speed to keep the RPM's up there. I'm losing a LOT of time in 6.
GTL, race 1 gave me my first DNF and my first crash in almost a year & 1/2 (first crash ever where I actually went down on pavement). On the first start I got up to 3rd place before a red flag 1/2 way through the first lap sent us back in... we re-gridded and they put me on the front row... got a horrible start, popped outta gear shifting to 2nd & was running in 6th or so when I got taken out in turn 10 by a guy I was passing on the outside.... He tucked the front going over the transition as I was just coming around him... i stood my bike up, clipped his front tire pretty hard as it came around at me and I ended up going straight towards the tire wall in the exit of 10. I got hard on the brakes and tried turning away from em but I just couldn't make it around. If the tires were about 6" further back from the track I woulda had more of a fighting chance of gettin past & going for a top 5, maybe podium finish. The two motards at the front were checkin out, but I was right with the other top runners.
There was alot of bent stuff on the bike, my gauge cluster was recovered from the middle of the track (it still worked) and a broken windscreen, but otherwise the bike was alright... I came out of it pretty good as well... got knocked around as i clipped those tires with some damn good speed, but overall I came out of it alright, just pissed.
Got things back together (ie, bent back "close enough"
I didn't get a great start, but i passed a good handfull of people in turn 1 (including Clayton
So I was dicing it up w/ these motards TRYING to get through so i could put a little bit of a gap on Clayton, but i just couldn't make it stick w/ this one KTM sunuvabitch. I swear, he HAD to have heard me absolutely screaming at the top of my lungs as he passed me coming outta turn 2 then absolutely PARKED it in front of me in turn 3. They were being absolutely insane.
Dealing with them allowed Clayton to catch up to me and join in the "fun"... we battled eacother and the motards just about the entire race... neither one of us really got a single clean lap for the whole race. I heard later on that one of the motards I was battling with took himself out in turn 3 as I was turning in... he tried stuffing me but couldn't pull even with me and he had to jack the brakes as I turned in and tucked the front, just missing my rear tire. I almost did the same as I tried passing Steve Schmidt (Brewmaster) on the inside of turn 3... I probably came w/in 6" of his rear tire... I guess I made alot of the people in the stands gasp as Kiera said just about everyone reacted as I almost collided w/ Steve.
When the white flag came out we were still stuck behind two motards and I was about 2 seconds behind Clayton at we went through start/finish line... They held up Clayton JUST enough for me to catch up and lulled him to sleep in the last chicaine. I put my head down and pulled a 1:24.8 outta my ass, unexpectedly passed a sleeping Clayton on the outside of 11 and took the checkered with Clayton just two tenths behind.
I was absolutely ELATED, laughing & yelling inside my helmet... as much as a pain in the ass it was dealing with those two motards for the entire race, the work paid off.
As for my teammates, they've got their own stories to tell... Lemme just say that none of us had anything resembling a trouble free weekend but I'm pumped to see Darrell found something he was previously missing... He rattled off three 34's and a couple of 33's so big props to him for knocking MULTIPLE seconds off his previous personal best and about 5 seconds off his times from last weekend. So congrats on that, bro.
All in all, it was a great weekend... For those that don't race & haven't come up to watch yet, these stories are only a tiny look at everything that goes on... Race weekends are always action packed... lots of ups & downs but always tons of fun... this one was no different.
Three weeks till the next one
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It's what came with the bike and I saw no point in changing mid season, I'm used to how they feel. Maybe in 18 months when these are worn down I'll try something new 
