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Went up to the track a day early, on Tuesday evening. Set up camp and began setting up the Pirelli garage. Hung out on Wednesday, took care of some MTAG business, and relaxed.
Thursday, went out for afternoon practice to work on a few things and ride with Pang(who was just getting back on his 650R for the first time this year after working out some mechanical issues). I tried to improve on a few areas I was struggling with, but with no laptimes, I wasn't too sure how I was doing. Felt good, so I chalk that up as a win. Pang and I went out for two sessions together, first session, I got out in front of him and built a gap and he couldn't come back. Next one out...same thing...in reverse. I couldn't match his pace, so we knew we were going to be in for a good race against each other Saturday.
Manned the Pirelli garage Friday, and got a few Pirelli customer set up on new tires for the weekend.
Saturday rolled around, did both morning practices, with no improvement in lap times. I knew I'd be in for a rough race later on in the day if I couldn't make up any time. Watched Race 10(LWSB) with Pang, Ducati Michael, and Ryan(178). I knew Ryan had beat me once last weekend, and I had beat him once, and I knew he'd be hard to beat this time. I knew Pang and I were running around the same, and I assumed Mike(being his first weekend, would be a couple seconds behind me. I figured I'd see them coming through Ryan/Pang/Mike in that order. See their race reports for details, but in the beginning of the race, it was the exact opposite. I was figuring if Ryan was beating my pace, the other guys must be running faster than me too. Race 12(LWGP) rolls around, and me, Pang and 178 are all gridded up. All of us, along with 951 thought we were in a different wave than the HW race, but apparently we weren't. When the 1 board went sideways, all of us were hands off the bars. We all got the hint and dropped the bikes in gear, and of course all got shitty starts. I ended up behind Pang, in front of Ryan, with 951 well ahead of us. Pang jumped out to a good gap immediately, so I put my head down and tried to cut it down. I was gaining some ground when a red flag came out. This helped me out, so we regridded, and I set my sights on Pang. I got a better starts, and went into T1 first in my wave. 951 passed me almost immediately(after we bumped a bit in 1A-my fault I think), and checked out. Running 22's, I knew he was out of my league for now, so I just tried to stay ahead of Pang. I did a couple laps, and saw that 951 had crashed out(he was fine). At this point, I'm even more determined to keep Pang behind me, but I'm also worried 178 is going to come out and steal the race. After the 1/2 way flag, I was getting signals saying I had a gap, so I eased up a little bit, but on the last lap I got the signal that I had someone gaining, so I tried to pick it back up to finish where I was. Took the checkered, 1st place.New personal best of 26.4.
Sunday, I was in LWSS. Went out for the second practice, and was already feeling like I wasn't in the groove. Only got in 3 laps, and none of them were very good. Gridded up in LWSS alongside 178 and Roger Barlow. I knew Ryan was a wildcard(faster than me sometimes, slower other times). I also knew Roger was consistently putting down better times than me. The 4th guy in our race I didn't know. We start, I get a bad start, and sit in 3rd behind Ryan and Roger. We get a red flag, so I have another chance. However, I'm also tired at this point. I realized after that I had only had two bottles of water all day, and hadn't eaten anything yet. We restart, and I again get a mediocre starts behind those two guys. On the first lap, Roger crashed pretty hard on the braking zone for T3. I assumed(correctly, as it turned out) that it would result in a red flag since he and parts of his bike were in a crash zone. I slowed up, and to teach me a lession, Christian(csmutty) passed me and ran off up the hill. We DID get that red flag, but I realized I need to race UNTIL I see a flag telling me not to. The ambulance rolled for Roger, and I didn't find out how he was before leaving. If anyone knows, please post up. For the second restart, I'm even MORE tired, but I know I have another chance to get in front of 178. Decent start this time, but I don't carry it into 1 and Ryan beats me out...then Christian rolls past me. I think to myself, "Christian's on an EX, I'll just pass him back." Boy, was I wrong. Ryan checks out completely, and Christian proves to be simply out of my reach. Dan K makes his way by me also, and battles with Christian a bit before passing him. I'm now behind the two of them and I'm not gaining on them, so obviously Ryan is out of reach. I felt pretty shitty out there, and having 2 EX500s out in front of me wasn't helping any. With their great drive out of 12, I couldn't even catch them on the straight before I'd brake for 1 and they'd apparently stay on the gas waaayyyy longer than me. By this point I knew I had 2nd, so I just tried to maintain the pace I was running and hold it. Took the checkered in 2nd after getting passed by a guy on a motard(also in the other race that started with us). My laptimes were a second or two off, and I felt it.
Huge thanks to all our sponsors, all my teammates, my partners at MTAG, and everyone who came up to the races to support us. Especially thanks to Pang for pushing me to drop my times to beat him. :p Definitely happy with the finishes and with Saturday's lap times, not so much with Sunday's. I certainly don't like gaining positions by guys crashing out, but racing is racing, and the old expression stands, "to finish first, you must first finish." I know 951 was okay, and I'm hoping Roger got away from his crash without any injuries. Again, if anyone has any info, please post it up.
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