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So this was kind of a bitter-sweet weekend for me.
Showed up late thursday night, about 2330. too tired to unpack or anything so I ended up sleeping next to the bike in the trailer.
Friday morning was a rush as usual. I've been having battery problems. Its a new battery (YTZ-7S) in april, and it won't hold a charge very long. Had to jump the bike to get to tech, and it wouldn't start as soon as I got done and had a long push back to T1.
First practice was so-so. Track was still a little damp, and tires felt squishy. In my rush to get ready in the morning, I forgot to check tire pressures. Swing by the mtag garage and Tony tells me each tire was 2 pounds under.Which reminds me, I need to buy one of the good tire gauges.
Second practice was phenominal. I hooked up with my buddy matt (NV #124 i believe, white SV) and we head out. I knew he was a lot quicker than me normally so I wanted to follow someone and improve my times. After the first lap and my tires are warm, he goes by me and I follow. 5 laps done in practice, 3 of which be my previous personal best (1:26.6). I set a new PB of a 1:23.9 and want to give matt a big thanks for the carrot.
Race #7, ULSB
So I'm super pumped about practice today and felt like I was really gonna do well in the race. I didn't have warmers this weekend, so I figured if I could keep 6FM (6 fingered man) in sight on the first lap, we could have a good race. There's only 3 of us gridded in NV ULSB, and for some reason, they put us in the 2nd wave instead of the first wave with the thunderbike guys. I got out a little hard on the warm-up lap to get as much heat into my tires as possible. Green flag comes up and I get a great start. I got in front of 6FM and the 3 ULSB guy. 6FM outbreaks me going into 1 and I proceed to follow him around the first lap. I did manage to break my outlap record of 1:32 and turned a 1:28. I was able to keep 6FM in sight like I wanted, but he was still 3 seconds ahead of me.
As I'm going around on my second lap, I'm at the apex of T6 when all of a sudden, my right footpeg just gives way. Its gone. I almost lose it because it really upset the bike but I was able to keep it upright. I'm going through 7 and 8 now with my right foot on nothing, before T9, I was able to find something to put my foot on and going through T10, i feel something scrape. Figured it was my rearset/peg. I pit in to see what was going on and as I come to a stop in hot pit, I see my rearset dangling by the bottom mount, and the top mount is completely split in half. The guy in the blue shirt (don't know his name) sees it and motions me into the pits. Race is over with my first DNF.
I was swearing in my helmet as I make my way back to my pit. A friend of a friend had fixed that upper tab for me last year and I was pissed that it had broke. There was little evidence before it gave way, no cracking, bending etc... It just completely broke away without warning. Further inspection made it look like the weld didn't penetrate that well because he tried to tack an original piece back on.
Needless to say, I need to give a big thanks to Mike Martire for fixing the the tab for me friday night. I'm out for the July weekend, but will be back in August for round 6.