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This weekend was a long time coming. Over a month since the last round does your skills no favors. I was rusty!
I tested a really cool new valve stack in the new Kteck shock at Thompson, and Peter was able to install it in my shock during lunch break at friday practice. This stack essentially reverses the comp damping curve and gives the bike incredible feel and drive at the first touch of throttle. Since this is one of my weak points on the 600, I was happy to have it and I was able to get into the 15 bracket in Penguin practice, which was a big step forward in practice pace.
LIGHTNING rained down on the paddock Friday night, and we woke to wet/dry/wet conditions on saturday morning. I did go out to test the shock in the wet. This type of damping is normally too aggressive in the wet, but Ktech shocks have a "bypass" adjuster that allows you to leave the clickers where they are, and open up large amounts of free bleed. This setup seemed to work well giving me better feel and drive in the wet as well.
Anyway, things dried out for the start of racing and GTU went off dry. Only 5 riders lined up for this race. I reverted back to my crappy starts and went in to T1 last. I got held up a little but moved into 4th and immediately put my knee in a hole before the first curbing in T11 and it caught the front edge ripping my left knee puck off. DAMN! I chased down Furia and Guilbeault in 3rd/2nd. I sat on their wheel almost the entire race unable to make a move. With no slider, I was not super confident mid corner. I wanted to keep my leg off the ground so I had some velcro left. I did click a 15.2 without touching my knee. I was not riding smoothly and it was frustrating.
Next up was the dash. This was a wild one. I got a decent launch and managed T1 well slotting into 5th or 6th. There were plenty of fast guys behind me and they tried their best to beat me up on lap one. I lost a spot, but held my ground as well. Cole Hall was on a tear from the back and he crashed in T2. I passed underneath his bike, but it was sliding down the banking and John VanLenten smashed into it, bringing out the red. John broke a rib or two.Restart was also OK for me and I was running 8th. Moved into seventh early and bridged the gap to Adam in 6th. He has that little bit more pace than me and I was never able to get close enough to make a move. so I finished 7th. I'll take it. But again, I was riding ragged and really defeated myself by trying too hard.
Sunday was gorgeous out, but the racing was a shit show. red flags, 3 ambulances transported at the same time, radio failures, delays, delays, delays. My race (5) finally went off at 3pm. It was another small field. I slotted into third behind Scottie and Adam, but once again, I tried a bit too hard, and was unable to mount any challenge on Adam. 3rd.
So, not a disaster. I consolidated my best pace from the previous round, but was unable to improve on it. I broke my own rule of letting the pace come to me instead of charging after it, and I was unable to improve. Ah well, in one piece and looking forward to the next round.
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Originally Posted by Philkinson
