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This will be another long one, I'm sure.
Started off with the Penguin 2 day pro school. That needs it's own writeup, but the short version is it's awesome, worth every penny, and was information overload. Huge thanks to all the Penguin people, especially Dana Temple. I learned a TON and got some quality 1 on 1 time that allowed me to fix some things I was doing VERY wrong, body position and bar input wise. The bike behaves WAY better, you'd think I sent it out for major suspension work. Only thing that changed is the input I gave the bike.
By the end of the school, I was feeling VERY smooth, and fairly confident. The only reason I wasn't overly confident is because my 2 biggest competitors also took the school. We stayed garaged together in our normal garage (12), hung around with each other and learned together on and off track. I was looking forward to a very interesting race.
Friday morning we only got 1 practice, but it was extended. I went out and ran laps, trying to focus on all the stuff I learned in the school. Looked at my times and was annoyed to see a fastest lap of 28.263. Upon further review, it's faster than any of my competition. More interesting, I ran 28's for my last 6 laps, consecutive. I've never been what you'd call a consistent rider, so that was different.
Friday ptwin I lined up with Don to my left in the A slot, and empty spot where Preteen would have been if his EX500 was working, Coleman on the wall and a bunch of motards in front of us. As we all go into T1, I'm planning to go around a bunch of people as usual so I'm running wide when a motard drops it's chain and the dude starts running VERY wide, almost hitting Don. He gets out of it and is right back there, I just put my head down and rode. Even with all that, the 3 of us came across start finish within a half second, with Coleman really nipping at my heels. I saw Mike and Erin telling me to go, and I picked it up a bit. Then they bring us in and give us a delay to switch to rains because it had started to spit. ALMOST nobody went to rains. The dude whose chain dropped grabbed his b bike, which had rains on it, but everyone in my race and the majority of the grid stuck with dry tires. Back on the grid, new launch. I work my way to the front of the pack again, so I missed the incident. Apparently right behind me the motard on rains lost the rear, and the bike went up into the wall and back off it. Don ended up T-boning the bike and flying over the bars, and the motard, onto his hands and face. He's OK, possibly fractured hand, but overall we're all glad it's not worse. Apparently there was another crash as well that I didn't see, but we get our 2nd red flag. We've completed 1 lap. At this point I decide I have to be in front for every lap, because when they throw the next red that's the end of the race. I don't recall exactly, but I think Coleman got me into 1 off the launch, but I passed him back and checked out. By the time we crossed start finish I had over a second on him, which Mike and Erin on the wall were kind enough to signal to me. Coleman ended up making back a little ground, but I still finished with a comfortable win. Surprisingly the nonsense stopped, and we actually got to race all the way to the checkered flag.
When I finally got a chance to look at the times, I was shocked. I didn't go very fast. I was actually almost 3 full seconds off pace. Then again, I didn't really NEED to go all that fast since I had a comfortable lead, and there was some traffic. What blew my mind was the consistency! Remember there were 2 out laps, so EVERY LAP I ran that wasn't an out lap was a 28. I've never been close to consistent before, this is amazing to me.
Even being off pace, I'm absolutely thrilled. I learned a ton in the school, and the bike is behaving like never before. I know what to do to go faster now, and have fixed some SERIOUS issues. I believe I can get fast from this base. I was sort of stuck mid 25s with the issues that I corrected. Should be a really good weekend, and with 2 more races to go I was fairly certain I'd be going REALLY fast by the end of it. GTL has a lot of carrots, and it's where I usually set PBs.
Friday night, there were shenanigans. Tomfoolery. Hijinks. The lot of it. I ran around and socialized at different places, but pretty quickly got involved in some stuff in 1a that ended up keeping me entertained most of the night. Didn't stay up too too late since I planned on setting a new PB the next day. Thanks to trouble, bill, preteen and jess for the help wrenching. Thanks preteen for the spare wheel and what used to be a tire. Thanks to everyone watching, cheering, etc. It was all a good time.
Saturday, first practice, I went out and got warmed up. Cavanough (sp?) passed me in 11, so I had a front row seat for how he does 12. That man got on the gas so early I actually found it offensive, as if someone had called me a giant pussy. I decided to grow a set and got on the gas WAY earlier than I ever have out of 12, and knew instantly that I was about to ride my fastest lap of practice. The bike was pulling like mad, I was smiling like a fool, and then the power cut out. I glanced at the tach, it was basically buried. Rev limiter didn't kick in and apparently if I want to get on the gas that early, I need to shift a whole lot sooner. Oops. Turns out there was zero compression in one cyliner. Valve probably. The motor is in capable hands, and will be ready for next round. That was the end of my weekend, never got to get out there and set the really hot lap. Oh well, shit happens.
Saturday night was more shenanigins, starting off in the pirelli garage and ending in animal flats. Very good time with Jess, Mike and Erin in the insanity zone.
Sunday I just hung out with friends and watched them race. About lost my mind when Mike won ASRA thunderbike, way to go buddy!
As always big thanks to a lot of people, starting with my sponsors and teammates. Everyone with Piston Pit Racing, CommSat, Advantage Contracting, HawkGTForum and the EX Mafia. Thanks to Mike, Erin, and everyone else on the wall cheering for me and giving me signals when I'm racing. I can't tell you how helpful it is to know how much of a lead I have, and of course the moral support helps too. Thanks to preteen for the donor tire, and the chain adjuster loan to replace the one I left on the track in ptwin. I'll get that back to you start of next round buddy. Smokin Joe, Dimitry and Jess for the help with getting the motor out of the bike. HUGE thanks to Penguin, that pro school have me the consistency I've needed and a basis that I believe is going to translate into some fast. Dana Temple is probably on the top of the list. I'm not sure that I even could do this without him around, and I certainly would not be as quick as I am. Everything from improving my riding to spare parts to rebuilding a motor, Dana is the MAN. I'd hate to be learning how to do that work for the first time on my race bike with that time deadline.
Overall, this weekend kicked ass.
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Originally Posted by "Dangerous" Dan K
