Patrick Jacobson - what happened?

[SilverDragon]

So that first lap of the 125gp race, he looked to be cooking pretty good, but then he went wide on the exit of T6 and his front whee; went into the dirt, he rode it out, then pulled off outside T9.. I heard it was something to do with his front brakes not working due to the bumpy track causing the pads to jump out of place? I mean, what gives, really? My pads are pinned in place, how can they move?

[Paul_E_D]

I'm not sure If PJ just overcooked the bowl on his first lap (I kinda think so), but he mentioned that the tab that the brake caliper mounts to (on teh fork bottom) was bent. I struggled with this problem one season, and it did cause inconsistent brake lever. Sometimes they'd be good, and others the lever would come to the bar.

I warned him that he would encounter problems with that, but they blew me off like I was a nobody...

He rolled around 6 outside the rumble strip until he hit the soft stuff, where he almost high sided, then broke his rim as he re-entered the pavement. He tried to tip it in to 9 but had a flat front tire.

He looked to be going well. I was trying to recover from a myterious bike failure on teh start line. As I started to feed the clutch out, my bike just popped and sputtered, almost dying. By the time I got going, I had some catching up to do. Then I saw PJ and realized the show was over. I cruised around to win.

I did make a few CRAZY passes. Like taking 5 bikes down into T1. Outside the first one, then inside the next four. I had no real way to know if I would beat them to the apex as the closing speeds were huge. But it worked out... Phew!

[TheIglu]

Does anyone know who was on the 125 that was gridded in Row 11 D?

He seemed to have a big problem getting the bike going also, and I think we made slight contact out of two.

I can't imagine we're talking about the same guy......

[Paul_E_D]

Does anyone know who was on the 125 that was gridded in Row 11 D?

He seemed to have a big problem getting the bike going also, and I think we made slight contact out of two.

I can't imagine we're talking about the same guy......

No, no, different guy. PJ was the number 1 bike. He's the USGPRU national champ at age 13.

125s are very difficult to launch, so always be ready to go around them off the line... 1st gear is equal to 3rd on a 600 and the bike has 14 ft.lbs of torque.

[TheIglu]

Ahhh, ok. I had my game plan for getting around him, but he didn't go straight.

I wouldn't of complained had the 125 not launched sideways instead of straight forward. He turned left while being gridded against the wall on the right. I had nowhere to go and had to stop or there would of been a T-bone. I got a good launch but hadn't even gotten the clutch all the way out. Good thing I was in the last row of the last wave so I could stop.

[a13x]

I was wondering what happened to PJ as well.

[KB]

I watched this kid come into the Bowl. I was up in the stands. He was cooking coming into the bowl. Trail braking to the apex, let off hammered the gas, almost lost the front, by the time it hooked back up he was heading for the gravel. He hit the gravel did a superman, both legs in the air, came back on top of the bike and saved it. Nice save for sure. when he hit the gravel he broke the front rim sendong a chunk of aluminium flying at the fence. So i think he just over cooked the bowl. May have been brake failure but I don't think so.

KB