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Best weekend for me so far!! My goal for the weekend was another podium and 1:19's.
I got up to the track on Friday afternoon to get my new tires put on by Street & Comp. I mounted them up and checked the bike over to make sure everything was ready for Saturday practice.
Saturday:
I go out for practice to scrub the new tires in and get up to pace. I didn't push very hard until the last lap or so. I put down a low 1:20.xx. There was tons of bikes out there and it was pretty hairy! People all over the place.
I go and check out my grid position for race #3.......yeah, there are 25 people in my race and another 10 or so in LW. I'm gridded in 3C so I'm not too bad.
Race #3 Middleweight Gran Prix:
I get out to pre grid and I look behind me......holy shit thats a lot of bikes! At this point I know I NEED a good start so I can get away from all these people. I get a nice start and end up in 3rd. I follow 2nd place around for a while looking for a place to pass but he's a little faster than me so he's slowly pulling away. I figure if I can just hang here I'll at least finish 3rd. Nope....#446 comes by me which lights a fire under my ass. I try like hell to chase him down but at this point we're deep into lap traffic and I watched 2nd and 3rd just walk away. I wound up riding around the track alone taking 4th place. I did pull a new personal best though!! 1:19.606 One goal down, one to go!
Race # 12 Heavyweight Superbike
This class is fun since my bike doesn't have many mods so I just try and work on my drive to hang with the 750's.
I was gridded in the 2nd row....got a real good start but 1st and 2nd just checked out! 1st place put down a 1:15 and 2nd place put down a 1:16 so there was no way I was catching either of those guys. I managed to pull another 1:19.926 (Thanks to Kitt for pulling out the pit board to give me an idea of times while out there) Finished 3rd which gave me the other half of my goal! I was happy but really wanted to get into the 19's consistently.
Sunday
Practice was fun. Me, Kevin, and Dave went out and played around which was a good time. Beautiful weather.....can't ask for much more.
Race #13 Middleweight Supersport (long one)
Dave goes to check out times from an earlier race and tells me the front two rows are a bunch of fast guys. (ok, for novice) 2 or 3 guys doing 18's..... I'm gridded in the 3rd row again and know I have to get a good start to try and stay with the lead pack.......nervous as hell as I grid up......oh, great.....I can't see the friggin flagger! I back up a little and move over a couple of inches so I can actually see the flagger. Number boards start to count down from 3........2............1..........Green flag flies and I get a great launch. I go into T1 in 2nd or 3rd and by the time I go into T3 I'm leading the race!!! I know there are fast guys behind me so I just put my head down and GOOOO!!! After the first lap I can hear a bike behind me and I'm not pulling away from him. I lead the race up until the halfway mark. I'm heading into T3 and do a quick look under my arm to see where these guys are because at this point I KNOW they're just pacing me and picking me apart. Sure enough coming into the bowl I get passed and shortly after I get passed again which drops me down into 3rd. I know these are the guys running 18's so I NEED to stay with them! We come out of 12 and what do you know.......I'm pulling on 2nd place! I pass him down the straight and try and brake as late as possible for T1 but he's not having ANY of that. He matches me and edges me out. We go into T1 about a foot away from each other! I'm on his ass and running him down into T3 but he's matching my braking ability. I follow him around and realize I'm definitely stronger than him out of T10 and I get a better drive out of T12. I set him up again coming down the straight but this time I was only able to show him a wheel and wasn't able to make a pass. As we come into T3 I show him a wheel again just to let him know I'm there and I'm NOT giving up! We go around another lap and I just can't get around him.....We come out of T12 and I can see the white flag waving.....I take a peek behind me to make sure I have room to play with this guy. I have a nice lead so I don't have to worry about getting passed. I try and set him up a couple of times, try and out drive him but I just can't get around him.....we come into T11 and I'm on his ass but my drive just wasn't enough coming out of 12....... I actually caught him faster than I anticipated T11 which kinda killed my momentum coming out of 12. I finished 3rd which gave me another podium! 1st place never really walked away from us either! Wooo hoo! We started to load up as this was the last race of the day. We missed the trophies and I still haven't seen any of my times for this race at this point. I know those guys were doing 18's but I was barely hitting 19's so I figured they were just off pace. I go and see if its too late to collect my trophy when Mel says, "John, you need to come look at this" My mouth dropped!
1- 1:21.882
2- 1:18.829
3- 1:19.012
4- 1:19.084
5- 1:19.589
6- 1:18.888
7- 1:18.902
8- 1:18.396
I ran more 1:18's than I did 1:19's!!!
Huge thanks to all those who came out to help and support the RSP team!! As always it was great time!!
Also a great weekend for the whole RSP team!
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That's awesome, bro! You're faster than me now! 
"why tip-toe through life to arrive safely at death?" Tony Campol
Originally Posted by Tricky Mike
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