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Round 7
Got to the track early Thursday afternoon, and planned on doing the afternoon practice to get some laps in on what I expected to be a significantly changed T2. After talking to Graham, I was convinced that whatever configuration was being run Thursday may not be what we were running during the weekend, so I opted to hold off and save the $100. Set up the garage, and sold some tires with Tony and Graham.
Friday evening; This weekend I was going to take a different strategy with my scheduling, since I normally don't do as well on Sundays as on Saturdays. Using my super skills of deduction, I've come to the conclusion that this is related to my consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol on Saturday nights at the track. Rather than attack that issue directly, I decided to do two races Saturday and take Sunday off, so I could still get two races in and enjoy my Saturday night. With a lightly attended weekend by RSP, I find that Dave is not coming up until Saturday during the day, and Pang is going straight to the hotel and unloading in the morning. Jay arrives a little after 10, we unload, shoot the shit for awhile, and I get to bed by 11PM.
Saturday; Signed up for Supertwins(race 4) and Lightweight Superbike(race 7) today. Go out for practice, practice a couple starts, and do some easy laps.
Supertwins race: Pang and I both entered into this, knowing we were going to be pretty outclassed equipment wise. Stwins is an unlimited 2 cyl class, so all manner of large displacement Ducati's and such are eligible. Grid showed 3 Duc's, 1 of which is Jane Kennedy(901) who also runs in LW classes. The other two are a 748 and a 916, a middleweight and heavyweight. On the grid, Kennedy doesn't show, so Pang and I know that one of us is taking home a podium position in this race. Flag drops, and I get what is, for me, an awesome start, rolling into T1 side by side with the 748, past him in 1A, but he drives past me out of T2, as expected. From there, those two guys are well ahead and I'm concentrating on staying in front of Pang. Heading into T1 on the first full lap, I hit a false neutral, and not knowing how close behind me Pang is, I don't chance slamming it into the wrong gear and having him rear end me(he is known for that), I take the NASCAR oval and lose 3rd position as I roll slowly through there, checking for a signal from the corner workers that I can come back on the course. Race is over for me, I'm dead last...but wait; Pang blows T3 and goes off track and into the dirt, losing a couple seconds as I'm coming in, giving me some hope of catching him. I close up the gap a bit on the remainder of that lap, putting me close enough that I'd have a chance at getting by if he made another mistake. Then, coming up the hill exiting 3/entering 4, I'm just a little too far out on the off camber part of the track, I'm trying to change direction just a little too much, and I'm giving it just a little too much throttle...all of which causes me to lowside.Nice easy crash, I slide, roll, stop, get up and get off track. I tried yelling for the cornerworkers to let me pick the bike up and keep going, but in retrospect, I was now firmly in last place. The front brake lever had broken off anyways, so they picked it up, and sent me on my way back to the pits when it was clear to do so.
YouTube - LRRS Race 4(Supertwins) - 09-04-2010
LWSB: In the 30 minutes between my crash and this race, Tony & Kevin managed to get my brake lever swapped, and Jay volunteered his right side rearset to fit onto my bike so I could go out(I'd later return the favor...but you need to read his race report for that story) and race. I go out, and get a horrible start. I didn't set my front brake lever to the right position, and couldn't quite get the brake/throttle balance right, so I was revving the bike up and down a little bit, just enough to screw myself up. I launched, then wheelied, and almost everyone got past me immediately. Christian(316) almost ate my bike's ass, which I didn't realize until I saw the video. I got back by a couple bikes, including Pang, through the 1/1a area, regaining a little ground, but I immediately started running 25's, which is off my pace from last weekend, and not a pace that can keep any of my competition behind me for any length of time. Pang ends up getting around me after a lap or so, and by lap 6 I stop stressing myself to no avail, and roll to a 9th place finish right behind Christian, who was riding with a rotated clip on after Pang and he collided.
Lightweight Superbike(2 laps)
Sunday; I decided that since I wasn't happy with Saturday, I would spend some of the cash I saved by not doing practice and get out for the Lightweight Supersport race Sunday. Of course, I still proceed to drink my face off Saturday night, because obviously playing straightedge and getting a good sober night's sleep Friday didn't seem to help at all.Sunday's race is more of the same, no video from this one, but another weak start, and I'm 1 second even slower than I was on Saturday.
Overall, I had a long overdue crash after 3 years of staying upright, but as Tony said, race crashes don't count. :p I think I can trace my poor performance to not having my head 100% in it, and I'm hoping to come back a bit stronger in October. The end of the year is typically a good time for me on the track, and I'm going to be sure to be 100% focused, helped along by quite a few days of track riding consuming all my time for the 1.5 weeks leading up to the last round of the Loudon Road Racing Series.
Thanks for reading...and if you want to see any of this racing action in person, come join us at the last round, October 2/3! Hope we'll see some of you there.
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Originally Posted by Pookie
