So the 2015 season was coming up WAY too quickly for me. I began tearing the #47 apart right after returning from a Tony's Track Day at NCCAR in October. By mid-November, I had most of the bodywork off and fiberglass repairs done, before it got too cold to work in the garage anymore, and regular work was taking it's toll. Fast forward to 2015 and you can add taxes at night, and 400" of snow, to the mix - so I didn't actually finish 'glass and Bondo until late March. I was out of state for nearly two weeks in March, so primer and paint didn't start until basically the first week of April.

I screwed up the paint on two pieces of the bodywork, causing me to just about start over...with not enough paint to begin with. Big thanks to Kurtz and Draghi for coming to my paint rescue. AND, I was to be out of state for the entire week prior to Round 1, so I had to be done and loaded by the 19th. Somehow I pulled it off (95% of the way). Big thanks to retired RSP Kevin Russell for letting me park my rig at his place while I was away, saving me 3 hrs of travel time.

FRIDAY
Arrive at the track at 8pm Friday, after a wedding in Fort Lauderdale the night before, and beginning my travel day at 8am. Unloaded, and worked on the bike until midnight.

SATURDAY
Frig, it's still cold. What happened to that Ft Lauderdale warmth?? Skip first practice, as I'm working on the bike from 630-830a. Get 3 good laps in during 2nd practice, and run out of gas. Get my workout in for the day pushing #47 back from the top of T7.

Race 9 LWGP. Gridded 4B, bleh! Awesome first start, but crash in T1A caused a restart...which went worse, but not terribly. Chasing #76 Keith Draghi on the CHEETAH, got showed a wheel by ECK's #49 Steve Heider (or maybe passed by), but took the position back. Heider eventually got past me one way or another, and I chased him and Draghi for several laps, blowing T1 a couple times. John Grush showed me a wheel entering T1 but I held him off...but he eventually passed me, I think in T3, with his cheater destroked R6. Stalked Draghi some more, and eventually got past him entering the bowl (never made an inside pass there before!). Finished 10 of 28, best lap of 1:22.839, and an outlap of 1:26.843

SUNDAY
Feel awesome in practice.

Race 3 LWSB. Gridded 4A, ugh! I didn't pre-write this race's report, so the details have escaped me now...but did a lot of battling with new RSP Racing teammate #508 Savvas Kosmidis on his RSP-legend Kawi 650R, and Sohegan's David Dayon, and John "The Stick" Donald, whom I don't think I've ever actually seen in the LW grid. Tons of fun, even though that snake Sav beat me! I'm petitioning for him to get kicked off the team Finished 10 of 20, best lap of 1:21.155, outlap of 1:25.533. Not breaking any records, but at least the times are dropping by > full seconds.

Race 9 LWSS. Gridded 3A; not awesome, but actually not terrible. Went into T1 somewhere around 8th, and passed both Draghi and Heider on the inside of the T3 chute...but Heider held out just a hair longer and beat me to the apex. I spent the whole race chasing him and #215 Sam Witham, who unfortunately lowsided in T1 on Lap 4. The rest of the time I kept Heider in sight, but couldn't catch him (dang kid's been in the 17s last year)...but keeping him in sight, I knew I was doing well. I probably should've looked back to realize that NO ONE was anywhere behind me, but I wanted to get back into the teens, and thought Steve was bringing me there (turns out he only cracked a 19.7 until he caught Witham). Finished 5 of 13, best lap of 1:20.673, outlap of 1:23.937.

That is my best expert finish ever, and less than a second off my PB, so I am super happy with the weekend overall. All the stress leading up to this weekend was so worth it. And, very excited that I stayed rubber-down the entire event, and got to spend a bunch of time with my awesome teammates, girlfriend, and friends. Thanks also to all of our killer sponsors who support us: RSP Racing / Tony's Track Days / MTAG-Pirelli / Woodcraft / Dyno Solutions / Sport Bike Track Gear / Knox / Brunetto T-Shirts / 434 Racer Parts / Mad Monkey Motorsports / MOTUL / GMD CompuTrack