ECK #565 LRRS Round #7 Report
2
The final round of the 2012 LRRS season was somewhat of a disappointment for me. I wasn't feeling that great, since traveling for work wore me down and I was developing a cold, which reared its ugly head as I arrived at the track Friday evening. The last time I had raced was in the round 5 GTL, where I tucked the front in T1 on the bump just before the apex on the 5th lap.
Saturday:
Practices were totally uneventful. I was running 5 full seconds off my PB. I was having some clutch slippage while at a track day n NJMP a few weeks prior. I hoped that it would hold up through this round and then 2 track days that followed, but it was so bad that I couldn't get any drive out of any corners. I went hunting for a substitute for my severely worn OEM fiber plates. I ended up grabbing a used set of Barnetts from John O'Donnel.
LWGP:
Rain held off until just before the LWGP race. It came down and on went the rain tires. 34 bikes were scheduled to race and only 13 showed to pre-grid after the rain. I went out and lined up 4C. The flag droped and I went into T1 in 7th place. Someone went down behind me in T2 and the red flag came out. Having only this race on the new clutch, when I downshifted into T3, it grabbed much harder than the OEMs did and the rear slid out. When I reached the T3 apex, the front also slid out and I got spooked. With 2 more races to go and 2 track days to finish, I decided to scratch from this race. Result was a DNS.
Sunday:
Same deal with practice, I was off by 4 seconds, but it allowed me to get used to the grippier clutch plates.
LWSB:
I had made a wager with Mike Kurtz from the RSP team the previous evening about the outcome of this race. The one who lost to the other would wear a specially made t-shirt over his leathers in the LWSB race in 2013 LRRS round 1. I did not want to lose to him.
28 riders on the grid this time. (Welcome to the new meat grinder) I was gridded 4B to Kurtz's 7th row position. I was a bit anxious and started creeping just before the flag drop. I checked up, so I wouldn't get docked and checked just as the flagged was dropped. Just about everyone went by me, including Kurtz and Bill Coolahan (447). I went into T1 in 25th place. After taking a severely inside line into T3, I grabbed another 2 spots behind Kurtz and Coolahan. It took me 4 laps to get around Cooolahan in T1 and Kurtz was now a good 15 bike lengths ahead now. I put my head down, determined not to be the one wearing the shirt next season. I caught up in 1.5 laps and I took him on the outside of T6 and then put distance, then Mike Defazio (650), between us. I was catching up on a few other riders, when Brett Larson,(226) low-sided in T12 it messed up the rhythms of just about everyone behind. I settled for 19th of 28 starters with a best lap of only 1:21.698, a full 2 seconds off my personal best.
Formula 40 Lites:
My cold was in full swing now. This was the last bike race of the event and season and I was dead tired. Since Adam Butler (820) was also entered in this race, I figured it'd be some fun. I was gridded 5B, since I had only competed in this race at the Classic. The flag drops and I go into T1 in 10th place, right behind Adam. I managed to slip past him on the brakes into T3 and held him off for 3 laps. He showed me a wheel at the exit of T11 on lap 2 and he checked up. He finally flew past me in the chute before T11 and never looked back. At that point, I was getting so exhausted from my cold that I just wanted to get through the race. I backed off a little and came home with a 10th of 12 starters with a best lap of 1:21.970.
Not my best weekend, but it was as fun as any others this season, with the G2, ECK, RSP BBQ and the T1A Halloween bonfire party on Saturday evening. A lot of fun and a lot of great people that have been in attendance this season. I'm glad that I was a part of it.
Thanks, as always, to my extremely awesome wife, Annalisa for being there for me through the ups and downs. Thanks to the rest of the ECK Racing team for allowing me to become a part of their team this year, you guys are incredible! I couldn't ask for a better team!
Thanks to all of my sponsors: Tony's Track Days, OnTrack Media, Asthetic Rain, Pine Motor Parts, Woodcraft-CF Motorsports, All Balls Racing, Motul USA, Spiegler Performance Products, Street & Competition, MTAG Pirelli, and MoM. Thanks to the guys in garage 2 (Adam, David, Lou, and Jay), and the RSP team for the good times, advice, and assistance when I needed it. Thanks to all the friends I have met and re-met this season. You all make this so special and so much fun.
My year in review:
The ups:
Started as an amateur in round 1
Bumped to Expert for round 2
First Expert top 10 finish in round 2 in the GTL (6th place)
My first teen lap and personal best lap (1:19.711) in round 4
So Many good times!!!
The downs:
Crashed out of LWSB in round 2 in T9
Crashed out of GTL in round 5 in T1
DNS in LWGP in round 7 (fear is a hard thing to overcome, sometimes)
My starts (man, do these need work)
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