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Here's to another season in the record books.
The last race weekend of '08, as I'm sure everyone already knows, was a wet one. But as far as rain racing goes, the weather couldn't have been more perfect... Just wet enough to keep the racing line wet, but not pouring hard enough to eliminate all possibility of seeing what the hell was right in front of you. Even the fog wasn't bad on my face shield, which was very surprising given that I couldn't find my Respro Foggy mask (a MUST for wet/foggy weather) ANYWHERE before leaving the house Of course after unpacking my car I found that it was in my back seat covered in shit all along
Never the less, I was able to see just enough to squeak out some very good results & cruise home with wood in all but one of my races.
GTL on Saturday was basically my Saturday morning practice. Having only one set of rims meant bringing my rims to the boys of Boston Moto to pull off the DOT’s. Having NO rain tires () meant that I had to "borrow" some used rains (including a pretty shagged rear tire which would come into play later) from Mr. Kurtz/Daviid. (Thanks again, guys ). The race went very well considering I’d never ridden the SV (a bike that’s still relatively new to me… and with shot suspension) in the rain before. I rode a consistent race, improving lap to lap & came across the line in 4th place (of 12 entries, 9 starters)
LWSS on Saturday was an AWESOME race. I had an EPIC battle with Geno Wetherall of ECK Racing and Josh Kruse of Duncanmoto. All three of us (if I remember correctly) had our turn at the front of the field with lead swaps almost every lap. Josh and I finally broke free of Gene (who was actually racing in the Formula 50 class) and freight trained for the last two laps with me hot on Josh’s heels. I thought back to the previous laps & made the assessment that I had 4 possible chances at making a pass…. Into turn 1, into turn 3, into turn 9 and MAYBE…. MAAAYYYBE into turn 11.
Turn 1 comes & no dice… not close enough as I couldn’t get a good drive out of any left hand corner (remember that shagged rear rain tire I mentioned earlier?).
Turn 3 comes & once again I couldn’t stay close enough out of turn 2.
Coming out of turn 6 I was a good ½ a second behind him but I kept that throttle pinned through 7 and into 8 and by the time we got to the entry to turn 9 I was RIGHT on his rear tire but just couldn’t bring myself to make the outside pass w/ that rear tire all shagged on the left side.
I got a good drive out of turn 10 and pulled along side Josh early in the entry turn 11 around the outside. By mid-corner I had him by ½ a length but he runs me wide. I give the throttle a good squirt out of 11 and grab a fist full of brakes to make the VERY shallow entry to 11a. I square up turn 12 and put as much power to the ground as that rear tire would allow. Josh does the same & is able to get underneath me & make the re-pass. Just as his rear tire clears my front he spins it up big & the bike pops him up out of the seat as it re-catches…. I stayed hard on the throttle & began pulling on him but the finish line came too soon & he beat me by ½ a length. Josh, myself and Gene all cross the line within a second of eachother. Daviid finishes 3rd in class a handful of seconds back.
LWGP on Saturday is hardly worth mentioning. I wasn’t feeling it by this point in the day and with only 4 entries is was a pretty quiet race for me. I foolishly let the other 3 gap me out by the end of the first lap and I cruised through the white flag in a distant 4th place. I opted to pit in before taking the checkered as to not take the hit to my index and hurt my POSSIBLE plans to bump to Expert for ’09 (a decision I have yet to make.) As it turns out it would have done my index a lot more good if I had decided to finish as the 2nd and 3rd place bikes BOTH crashed out of the race and Daviid took the win.
LWSB on Sunday was also a pretty quiet race. Although I did my best wet lap times of the weekend, without the ability to power out of the all three of the important left handers (12, 2 and 6) I was unable to drop below a 1:31 and let the lead pack break away once again. However I was still able to take home a 3rd place finish and improve my index in all three races that I finished.
A big thanks to the guys at BostonMoto for swapping my tires from DOT to rains and back again, another big thanks to Kurtz and Daviid for loaning me those rain tires and of course thanks to everyone else who came up to cornerwork or cheer on the NESR racers.
See you all at the Drunkathon!