ECK Racing #929 Gino's LRRS Round #4
2
Rd 4.
The typical bring the Hawk in crates and assemble….
What a weird morning for me. I felt fine being on the track but I did not feel like being on the track. 1st Practice 1:21.0 and second practice 1:19.3. Just not feeling comfortable and my legs, hip and things were sore. Thanks TED AND KOMAKI and P90X. I started back up on the program 3 weeks prior. I was feeling physically fine coming into the weekend but apparently not. I need more YOGA I guess.
Race #8 P-89
The usual cast of characters. Yea 4 of us… Michael Dube on a 1981 Ducati TT-2 REPLICA, Rick Patrolia 1989 Kawasaki Ninja 500, Jonathan Vaughan, 1988 Yamaha FZR 400. Come on people we need more bikes out on the grid. Bring em and run em.
Start to finish with a win. I got to pull along Drew Lawler on a Hawk into the 23’s. Grats to him. The only surprise I got was seeing coming out of T 10 to see a standing yellow = crash in T12. As I come to T11 (waving yellow) I see the incident in T12 then I see Mike W #434 at the left apex of T11and them lowslide. As he was sliding he tossed his hands up like WTF. This was a guaranteed position for 3rd that just slipped away. Next time bud.
After the race my left hip was still hindering me….
Race #10 ULSB.
Shaking my head. Still….
Before the race I hear the Christian Cronin was entering ULSB. GREAttttttttttttttt!!!!!!! He was dropping 18.2 in practice and I was tapping the 19.3’s.Well my race is not with him it is with the rest of the group. Why you ask? This is the first ULSB he has entered all year long. I just need to try and keep Matt Gendron behind me. I met Matt earlier when I found out Christian was going to run the race. Matt is a cool dude. I could hang out with him. After this race I met his Ma, Pa and nephew later in the day. Nice family.
Welllllllll . After trying to cool down from P89 in Race 8 I hear 3rd call. OMG that was fast….. I roll out and Grid 1B next to Matt. Game plan. Get out fast and hard knowing Christian will be on my but in no time and need to push my break makers further and further each lap. I figured he will be on me but about Lap 4 or 5 because he will have some traffic to contend with. I been dabbling with low 18’s this year and knowing what Christian did in practice and in the previous race of the day I figured he would be upping the game with me in sight. Somehow I deeded to find 17’s if was even thinking about entertaining the possibility of leading him to the checkered flag. A VERY VERY far stretch knowing what Christian can do on a 600 and competing at an AMA level. I just need to focus on trying to stay up and in hopefully in front of Matt.
I get a good start and lead to T1. My out lap was a 1:20.856 which beat my previous best lap of 1:20.992 back in 2008. And hold it. Cross flags = ˝ way. I start getting anxious and begin missing downshifts in T1 T3 and T6 and begin to give time away. !!!!!!!!!!IDIOT!!!!!!. I NOW need to take it deeper into the turns to get back that time if I want to cross the S/F line first. The more I pushed deeper into the turn and focusing on the braking it seemed more like I was missing my down shifts. Now I was missing 2 sets of down shifts instead of the 1 per lap. Well wouldn’t you know it on lap 6 (HMMMMMmmmmm later than I expected) Christian comes around on the outside if T11 sudo late (No issue race wise, clean as could be) but it was at the point where the two of us got pretty jammed up on the 11A, 12 right, 12A or whatever you want to call it. Some relief. Why? both of us were pretty much dead in the hole and I hoped the 70 hp could pull down the straight. I catch his draft. Lap 7. I make the pass and take it deep into T1. Later I head form people and had wondered if we were going to keep things upright because we took it so deep. Well it stuck and I led thru T1a and T2. I NEED SPEED. I also see some Lappers up ahead. Where will they come into play? It’s got to be T6. I come into T3 and as my rear tire is floating in the air (normal) I begin to focus on my turn in. All of a sudden I see his front wheel. O.K. there he is. But wait he is carrying a little too much speed. I need to change things up and duck in under him he is going to cook it slightly. As planned all in maybe 100’. He goes past the T3 apex straight and I duck in under him. Tight and WTFO. At T4, at T5 are the lapper. I’ve got to get the left side and make the pass and force him to try and go around the outside of them or else the door will be shut on him if he follows me. I make it past the lapper on the inside. I cannot miss a downshift for the life of me. I take it and bang, I got it. Rear tire is squirming all the way thru T6. Head down and let’s try to close it out. Well the Idiot decided to show up again on the last lap. I missed a downshift in T1 and then T3. Where the hell is he. I could not miss another one. I stick T6, ˝ a lap to go….. As I turn up T6 I see another lapper. T9 inside (Left) on the entry or the outside (Right)? Kind of hesitated of a second to see if he was going to make a straight shot into T9. After I realized that was room I ROMP on the throttle for second and go to the left of the rider. I cannot have any more issues out there. Knowing how the drag race turned out earlier. I did not really push T11 all that hard. I had to set up T12 for the straightaway. In T11 where I would have expected him to come around I did not. I cranked the turn onto the straight and hit the throttle. Rear end stepped to more than normal. Brought it back in and to the S/F Line.
Shit, what a battle. I never looked back to see where he was. I turned to the left coming out of T2 and did not see him. Actually he passed me on the right and I did not see him. At that time I thought he had gone down somewhere. I had no idea that he finished the race until my teammates and friends told me he was right there at the end.
I asked for times and had hoped for low 18’s knowing I was screwing up all over the place with my downshifts. Well I saw Oreo eyes bug out and chin drop and I knew I had to have run a 17. Well it was a 1:17.236 which in NOW my new personal best since the old one in April of 2008. This was when Christian was making the passes in T11 and T3. I knew I had to drop the hammer and push but I never thought it would result in a new PB. I had only hoped to stay just in front at the finish line.
I’m still speechless. I know I still have a lot to work on. Christian pushed me places I have not been in a while and showed me some things I need to work on. To him, I thank you so much for the opportunity to have a really fast great time and putting the fear of Christian into me. I just hope I was not screwing you up too much with my f-ups. He brought back the front end chatter and rear tire stepping out all over the place. GREAT more time on the HAWK to get things dialed in. Like that is ever going to change……..
Thanks to all my ECK Racing teammates, Friends and sponsors for another successful weekend.
Times
01:20.856
01:18.382
01:18.319
01:18.008
01:18.819
01:18.753
01:17.236
01:18.188
Reply With Quote
Go Gino Go!
Originally Posted by smf
