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Aight, I'll get right into the titty gritty
Saturday race 7 - Lightweight Superbike. Continued my streak of great starts & slotted into 3rd place coming to turn 1... not being the fastest expert out there I held off as many racers as I could, but slowly worked my way backwards. I finished the race strong with a pair of 1:21's (best being a 1:21.7), FINALLY finding my "fast" since my crash in turn 8 back in the end of May and I also had a fun little battle with #227, Joseph Nolfo. He passed me twice in as many laps on the exit of turn 11 but I was able to get better drive out of 12 and re-pass him by the start/finish on both instances. On his second attempt he ran turn 11a wide and almost went through the grass. I kept my head down on the last lap and by the time I took the checkered in 8th place he was nearly out of sight.
Sunday morning practice - I've found with my new tachometer that I've got more revs to play with than previously thought (the stock tach read high)... So in practice I tried eliminating a couple of up-shifts and getting a better drive out of turn 6 by exiting the bowl in a lower gear and short-shifting in front of the grandstands...... this practice proved to be well worth the effort. .
Sunday race 7 - Lightweight Supersport (my premier class). I got a great jump off the line and NEARLY took the holeshot from the 2nd row but Todd Babcock sneaked underneath me on the entry of turn 1. The race was red flagged after a lap and we re-gridded in our original grid assignments.... Unfortunately our buddy Jersey and one other were missing in action. Jersey ended up doing some off-roading up by the tree house and his bike was definitely unridable.
On the restart, somehow I launched in 2nd gear instead of 1st, but I still managed to slot into turn 1 in 3rd place. #888 Chris Cucinotta got past me earlier than usual but with the help of some new Pirelli's, I was able to latch on to him for a couple of laps and dip down into the 1:20's! I also had a nice little back and forth with NESR's own Scott Ferguson (SMF). On lap 3 or 4 (?) he out-braked me going into 3 (pics 1 2 3 4), but unfortunately for him he also out-braked himself and I was able to get right back up the inside of him going up to turn four... Knowing that fast sunuvabitch, #608 John Tansey and #227 Joseph Nolfo, were all right on my tail I kept my head down and charged forward, late braking as much as I could and taking some defensive lines. A couple laps later I got hard on the brakes coming into turn 1 and *POOF!* There goes Scott up the inside like a bat outta hell!!! I knew almost immediately that there was NOOOO way he was gonna make it without some divine intervention, and sure enough he had to take the NASCAR loop. Turns out he missed a downshift and was unable to get the bike slowed down enough to make turn 1. By the time the checkered waved I had only slid back to 6th place, my best expert finish in the dry yet with a new personal best (new config.) of 1:20.480 (cool down pic)
Sunday race 10 - LWGP. With Jersey unfortunately out for the day I had one less brother to play with... But that didn't stop me from having one helluvan eventful race I was gridded 2D with was just fine by me When the green flag waved I launched from the line and drove hard to turn 1. #121, Nate Mandell and #23 John Burbank were gridded directly in front of me but I was catching them fast coming to the NASCAR number boards. There was a good 4 foot window between them and I charged into it. Just as I pulled along side John Burbank the window quickly closed and I found myself getting squished between them; my right knee on Nate's tail section/leg and at the same time my left knee banging off Burbank's arm/handlebar/brake lever... I held my line, cleared the scene and glanced back to see Burbank still upright... *phew*. I earned my spot in the top 4 or 5 coming into turn 1 and charged onward. I soon got passed by a trio of angry bees (250 2 strokes) which were all able to just JOG me down the front straights... I mean JOG! I held off the field as best I could, but my Spidey senses told me there was an asshole behind me #110 Brian Oxx Don't think he was ever able to really show me a wheel, but I knew he was right on my ass... I knew cuz I could smell his breath Knowing he was right there I kept my head down and made myself as "wide" as possible, braking late, keeping my entries narrow & my exits wide. It was hard work keeping in front of him and at NO TIME during this race did we complete a single lap more than a second apart... but I was able to hold him off running high 1:20's/low 1:21's and finished off the race ahead of him with another new personal best of 1:20.2
(pics 1 2 3 4)
Huge thanks to my sponsors: Pine Motorparts/PBE Specialists | Phoenix Graphics | Woodcraft | Moon Performance | RJ's Motorsport | Motorcycles of Manchester | BostonMoto-Pirelli
And of course a special thanks to my ECK Racing brothers... couldn't do it without you
And to our awesome spectators, thanks for comin up guys and girls As always, it's great to have some NESR friends/family support.
Also a big thanks to Wanda, who let us leave an envelope full of Sunday Pit Pass coupons at the front gate... FOURTY NINE PEOPLE came up to the track on Sunday, mentioned ECK Racing at the front gate and took advantage of the 5 dollar discount special! I'm glad ECK Racing could help ya out... And since this "special" was so popular, I'm gonna try & make it happen next time as well. THANKS FOR COMIN UP, FOLKS!