The month leading up to Round 3 was tumultuous, between work being crazy (12 hour days the week before Rd 3) and having to back out of a good buddy's wedding because, well, #ineedthepoints. Left work later than expected Thursday, had to make an appearance at the company picnic, then finally arrived at NHMS around 10:30 Thurs night.

Mid-night Friday, I get awoken by POURING rain on the roof of my trailer. Awesome - I have 90 minutes of racing tomorrow AND it's going to be wet??

Friday morning, it's already drying by the time I climb out of the trailer. Awesome! During practice, I largely just work on starting.

GTLForgot where I was gridded, but got a great start regardless - 5th into T1. #71 John Grush passes me somewhere early on with his "R5", and we battle for the next 20ish minutes. I'm all over him entering and in the turns - and typically gaining on him exiting any turn - but once the "R5" gets into the powerband, he takes off on the straights. We swap positions at least 10-12 times, and are passing TONS of bitches :p Around the 18 minute mark, the bike sputters at the start/finish - I had noticed the gas light blinking earlier, and that it had gone solid, but was SURE I had enough gas. Going through the front chicane, throw my hand up and pull into Pit Out. Bill is out of gas but full of shame. The whole race I struggled with very rigid arms in almost every turn.
"Finished" 19th of 23, best lap of 1:19.979, outlap of 1:24.223.

Endurance Race
This would be my second endurance race; the first being a USCRA race in 2012. The RSP Racing team of Adam Butler, stand-in Kyle Reese, Savvas Kosmidis, and I expertly piloted the #820 SV650 to second place in the LW class, with all of us running IMPRESSIVELY consistent laptimes for each of our stints on track (the shortest of which were around 32 minutes of the 2:45 race).

SaturdayI was hoping to focus on being RELAXED during practice and my only race today, LWSS. LWSS is why I skipped my buddy's wedding...so I damn well sure better finish at least in fourth. I'm gridded in 1D, and get a great start (3rd going into T1 in front of #1 Ricky Doucette!). Ricky passes me swiftly, and I chase all the frontrunners (him, Oreo, Heidercopter) for a few laps...but each lap I am absolutely blowing T3 and T12. There is nothing I can do to relax in T3, and I'm flopping around like a fish out of water in 12/12a. #228 Sam Greenwood passes me, IIRC in the T3 chute, and I spend the rest of the race chasing him. My ONLY goal for the weekend, failed. Sam and I DID have two fantastic battles in the front chicane - I'm pretty sure we couldn't have been any closer without actually rubbing...twice.
5th place, best lap 1:22.837, website won't tell me outlap.

Between my own sulking/processing of the race, and some of my awesome teammates' thoughts, I realize that I the season is not all lost, and missing the wedding was not all for naught, as there is a lot of racing left this season.

Almost immediately, we began setting up for the Karen Hornbecker Fund BBQ fundraiser and raffle. I can't say enough about how happy I am that the LRRS community donated NEARLY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS during this event for the Fund! Thank you again to all those that participated, and to my teammates and our significant others, friends, and fellow racers who facilitated the event.

SundayI skipped practice, as I hadn't slept much all weekend, and it was pouring rain in the morning. Though I haven't raced in the rain in many many months, I am traditionally good (sans T2) in the rain, so I opted to try to catch a couple more Z's. My election was smart, as the track dried out by Race 5. I was gridded in 2C for LWGP - a good grid spot in a race where my SS-legal bike can be handily outclassed by folks with machines built to LWGP-specs. Though I didn't think my start was that fantastic, I ended up exiting T1 in 5th place, which I held for 3 laps - I was actually feeling much better than Fri/Sat. On Lap 4, #52X Ted Temple passed me like I was standing still in the T3 chute. Lap 5, David Dayon passes me (having a good weekend for sure!), again like I'm standing still. Finally on Lap 6, #215 Sam Witham passes me. I battle with Sam on the straight for the next two laps... After we cross the start/finish on Lap 6, I'm passing him on the outside of the straight - literally inches between me, him on my left, and the wall on my right. He pre-turns and brakes earlier than I, but he still eeks out T1. On the straight on Lap 7, the same thing happens. I'm seeing red at this point, and literally yelling out loud in my helmet. I didn't even see the white flag or checkered - so I'm still "racing" him in my head after we take the checkered...it took me until almost T3 to realize that the race had ended. Not too proud of that, and will have to make sure it doesn't happen again.
8th place, best lap 1:20.005, outlap of 1:22.984.


Overall, I was very disappointed with my performance this weekend; after having dropped my PB by over a second last round, I could barely get into the teens in Rd 3, and I didn't achieve my one goal for the Round. That being said, I did still have a ton of fun, I kept the shiny side up, got to spend a lot of quality time with my awesome teammates and (non)racer friends, and was a part of a fantastic fundraiser.

Tons of love to my awesome sponsors 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, many of whom who donated to the Karen Hornbecker Fund BBQ. Others contributors to the BBQ included Telescope Casual Furniture, the Beanstalk convenience store, Brookside Pizza, Street and Comp, Dunlop, Penguin, Woodcraft, and more!

Coming back hungry for Round 4...