5
Saturday morning I had a few things go haywire and it left me in a scattered mental state. I missed first practice due to one of them and ran second practice on an unfamiliar set of tires. I was back to my old Pirellis for the first race and feeling a bit more mentally present.
AM GTL
I figured I was going to have to work my ass of in this race to try to get past Brady Ward quickly and open up enough of a gap that John Dolans couldn’t catch me. Last month I lingered too long and John smoked me. I (finally) got a good start in a race! I got past Brady going into turn one (this NEVER) happens and I was third going into turn two. I had a big slide as I got on the gas for 4 but luckily kept my position. One more pass and I was behind Sam Witham (215). He was on fire! He’d fixed the issue with his suspension and just kept slowly opening up a gap on me. Late in the race he ended up tucking the front in 1a giving me first place. John Dolans had gotten a poor start and had a tough time getting through traffic so he never caught up with me. I couldn’t get the turn 4 slide out of my already rattled head and I don’t think I got it right the rest of the race. Not great times but consistent 21’s and 22’s.
AM P-89
This is my race to play with the experts because we launch in the same wave. I pretty much went out and hung with Bill Morey (a teammate and an expert) until traffic got horrible toward the end. He'd lent me a tire warmer so I couldn't go passing him again this round
AM ULSB
I knew I was going to have my hands full with Scott Settino (231). I didn’t have an epic start but stayed on the gas longer than Scott going into turn 1 and passed him there. For the rest of the race I just pushed as hard as I could. Going by the start finish line I kept getting the signal to go faster so I knew he was close behind. He finally motored past me at the end of lap 6. I wasn’t having any of that and when he had a hard time flipping from 8 to 9 I made my move, sticking the pass into 10. I held onto first until the finish.
Pit bike race
I was pumped for this having won it last year in a close battle with Brett Larson. They ran the first pit bike session and handed out trophies at the same time (talk about a scheduling mishap!). I missed the first part of the first session as I was at the trophy ceremony but was on track for the end of that one and the next two. It was a blast sliding around the mini oval while wringing out my poor Thumpstar. I had some close competition from a fellow on a Honda 50 (number 69?) but managed to eek out slightly laps. Denny gets the 2013 Bob Perkins Scooter Race champion title because he thoroughly smoked Tom Blanchette in their race.
The same old people to thank (LDR, MTAG, TTD, GMD, etc) but I definitely want to call out Adam Butler for the awesome BBQ and congrats on being the newest RSP member!