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Long read but here goes:
I was supposed to arrive Thursday night at 10:30PM from China but my flight from Washington DC didn't leave until about 1:30AM Friday so it was an insane dash once I got off the plane at 3:30AM at Logan. My brother picked me up from the airport and we had to pick up my trailer, load it up, try to sleep and then drive to the track to rebuild my calipers before Friday practice. By the time I had the trailer packed, it was 5:30AM. While loading the bike, I accidentally bumped the brake lever away from the bar and the circlip holding the internals in to the master cylinder popped out. Great, now I had to rebuild my calipers and master cylinder at the track.
Got there at 10 and started working on getting my master cylinder back together. After digging around, I was slowly getting the idea that rebuilding a Brembo master was not a good idea. Luckily, Miles pushed me to get a crash kit and take a gamble. Timmy O'Connor helped me rebuild the thing and it turns out it's pretty easy as long as you don't turn the internal sleeve thing. The calipers were a pain in the ass as they clearly haven't been touched in quite some time. Jim was nice enough to let me use his air and after some swearing and getting pissed I was able to get the pistons out and have them rebuilt. At this point, I was 4 hours deep on what should have been an easy project and I was clearly not going to make Friday practice. Long story short, bleeding didn't go too smoothly and I got some Speed Bleeders from S and C to try to help the process. This part took me the rest of the weekend and the brakes never really felt right the rest of the weekend and it really screwed my head up. In fact, we were this close to just calling the weekend Friday night and going golfing instead. Every session I came in from, I noticed that the brakes were dragging pretty hard the rest of the weekend.
Saturday -
I was determined to make at least Group 8 second practice and was up at 5AM screwing with the brakes again. I got to a point where I was relatively happy with the brakes and got the wheels off for tires and go figure, I was out for 1st practice. I used both practice sessions to just feel out the brakes and get used to riding a bike again.
Formula 1 -
I was gridded 1D for this race and got a pretty decent start leaving me in 1st going into T3. I maintained position for 2 laps but on lap 3, 154 and 738 came by me out of 3 and through 4 on the outside. We kept this order for most of the race until some point on lap 7 when I was able to get by 738 and took 2nd at the checkered.
Finished 2 of 11 with a best of 1:25.7
Formula 2 -
Gridded 2A and got a great start again. This time I was in 2nd behind #677 after the start and hung out for a bit just getting a groove. On lap 3, I decided to make the pass in the braking zone going into T3 and was able to get inside of him and just out brake him. I don't remember the rest of the race from here on out but I felt that 738 was probably close and I just put my head down and rode. I have no idea how close any one was at the checkers but I do know I got my first win. Stoked for that. I did notice I was getting a little hamfisted during this race because I had a few big slides and got lucky. Note to self: stay smooth.
Finished 1 of 11 with a best of 1:24.4
Sunday -
After talking with my brother, I had a game plan on what to improve. Apparently my entry to T1 was extremely slow and I was looking nervous going into it. I spent practice trying to figure it out without much success and figured to just write it off this weekend.
Starter 1 -
After hearing of Jim's goal of lapping some Novices this race, I was hell bent on not being that guy.
I got a great start during this race and I'm told I had almost half the back straight on the next bike after the start and my lead was pretty much half the front straight by lap 3. I was rattling off 1:23's but on lap 4, I blew turn 11 so badly that I basically had to putt around the right side of the track to just get back on the straight. Couple that with the poor resulting speed on the straight, I was left with two 24's. Thinking back, this probably sealed the race for me as 154 (Marc Manley) was running faster laps than me and got around me the next lap coming out of 12. I had him as a carrot the rest of the race and just chilled out in 2nd. Towards the end, we even came within breathing distance of the last place AM Thunderbike. I ran consistent mid 23's this race and it's a good sign that I have some consistency. Might try to push for a bump. Another plus was that after this race, the brakes seemed to have ironed themselves out.
Finished 2 of 4 with a new PB of 1:23.3
Thanks to my brother Kevin for playing crew and helping me work through all of the issues this weekend. Jim, Frenchy for letting me use your tools and helping me with the calipers. Timmy O'Connor for the help. Miles at Street and Comp for taking all of my sweet sweet cash and the various ideas. The T1A guys and girls for the hospitality and laughs.
See y'all in August.
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Originally Posted by wiggeywackyo
