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A great weekend for me, turned into a nightmare for a good friend, due to circumstances, which I had a lot to do with. After messing with the new carbs in round 1, I was advised to drop the main jets yet again and it paid off. The bike was running stellar.
Saturday:
Race 3, GTL:
Gridded 2D, my best EX grid position to date. We had another new starter this round, Heath Smith and he was like clockwork, except that I wasn't used to his clockwork and completely missed the flag drop (not his fault at all, it was all mine). I did managed to get a rocket of a start and ended up in 9th through T2, after making some slick passes in T1A. After getting around Steve Heider (534), I found myself in 8th and chasing RSP racing's Michael Weyant (43), something I had never been able to do in the past. I stayed right with him, until a red flag with 18:30 left in the race.
Unfortunately, the flag broke the rhythm I had and couldn;t seem to get it back fully. On the restart, I found myself going into T1 in 8th, right behind none other than the #1 (6) bike of Rick Doucette. He passed Michael Weyant and Jesse Sandoz and checked out after T11, but I managed to be right behind him for almost the entire first lap. Michael got by Jesse and worked my ass off, staying with Jesse on the brand new Ducati Monster 1100EVO. I worked on him and worked on him and squeaked by him going into T2 with 3 laps to go. It might've stayed that way, but I missed a shift into T1 on the last lap and Jesse ran right by me. That's how it ended. A 7th place finish of 19 starters with a brand new personal best of 1:17.924, a full 1.8 seconds better than my previous PB. It wasn't a fluke, as I also had a string of laps in the low to mid 1:18's as well.
Race 8, LWGP:
Gridded 3C, I got a decent start, but so did most of the rest of the field. I found myself mid-pack. I managed to get around a few bikes and broke free. With 5 laps to go, I was passed like I was standing still on the front straight by Tim O'Connor (2), but managed to get him back on the brakes into T1. He took me back on the back straight, but I took him back on the inside of T3 and ran wide. He squirted up the inside of T4. I got him back on the outside of T6 and stayed there until the front straight again. This same battle went on almost exactly the same way for 3 full laps, when he finally outdrove me up the back straight and put a few lengths on me. I ended up finishing 11th of 25 starters with a best lap of 1:19.451. It wasn't my fastest race of the weekend, but it was the most fun. Tim thought so as well, because before I got my leathers off, he was looking for me to talk about how much fun that race was.
Sunday:
Race 9, LWSB:
Nine races is a lot of time to wait to ride and I felt a little off in the warm-up lap. However, when the flag dropped, it was a different story. I ended up 9th into T1, behind Brian Kent (16) and Michael Weyant (43). I got by Brian on the gas over the hill into T6 and set my sights on Michael. I reeled him in slowly and finally made a move on him on lap 6 between T10 and T11. I made the pass, set up for T11 and when I gave the bike gas, the rear let go. Knowing what I've learned form track day riding, I held the throttle where it was, but it kept sliding. I had to let it off a little. At this point, the bike seemed to stop dead. WIth Michael right behind me and at full steam, he had the choice to either hit me, or try to get around me. He decided the latter, which ended up badly. He clipped the corner and picker up the T11 apex cone and that sent his bike flying. I had no idea that this happened behind me. All I knew was that Gino's flagging told me I had a sizeable gap on the next rider. I ended up finishing 7th of 22 starters with a best lap of 1:18.698.
So, I'm happy with how things turned out for me, but I feel that it's overshadowed by what happened to a good friend due to something that happened to me. I know it's racing and that the same can happen to anyone, but anyone that knows Michael knows that he doesn't hesitate to help anyone and he's been instrumental in my getting to where I am now. I can only hope that he decided to put the bike back together, so that we can battle another day.
That said, I want to thank my beautiful wife, Annalisa for her constant support and putting up with my moods. A HUGE thanks goes out to Mark Bolduc (TLRMan on the NESR forum), for helping me to dial in the new carbs. I wouldn't have been able to do it without his help and we may have more to go. Thanks to my ECK teammates, RSP and G2 neighbors, and friends, who have helped, or just been there to hang out with.
Thanks to all the sponsors in my signature line. Again, without their help, I wouldn't be doing this.
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Originally Posted by Mustang
