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Oh man.... another great weekend... i'm sittin here sunburnt/tanned to hell & back, but had a great time out there... Of course it was great to see everyone again. My Cheap Bastid bro's, the MABE crew & other Hawk guys, the Low Down team & their groupies, Saxman & crew, Brewmaster, PK & Deb, always a ton of laughs.
Got to the track Thursday evening just in time to check into pre-reg after having quite a time getting my trailer ready/registered/insuredThursday night I got working on my bike and replaced an Input Shaft Seal on my water pump and re-RTV-ed it as that's what i thought my water in the oil predicament was... and I was right
Friday I did races 7A (Light weight sportsman) and race 13 (Production Twins). Sunday I did race 1a (GTL).
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LWSM was a great race... Heath stalled out on the start directly right in front of me which certainly woke me up (not that i was sleeping), but I got a great launch, skimmed past his left elbow & battled it w/ fellow Prodution Twinner Conor Joyce and a Red & Yellow 125 for a bit. I follwed the 125 around for a few laps with Connor & Lisa Marolda on her MZ in tow.
I came up on the 125's right side going into turn 11 and he slowed way down super early, as spot i noticed he was weak in on the first couple laps... i went for the pass on the brakes on the outside & pulled up almost beside him as he started drifting way over, something he didn't do in the last couple laps before. I got as close to the grass on the right as I could as he LITERALLY slammed the door on my nose. He drilled his tail section right on my upper fairing and the front tire completely broke loose & slid a good foot or so... My left foot came off the peg & I stomped the ground as it went out from under me. As fast as I lost it, it came right back & i was still up. I got right back on line through 11a and 12 & regrouped down the straight, chasing down the 125.
Conor got past me on lap 3 and we battled it for a bit, but on the last lap he got too close to the tail of the 125 as we all went into turn 3. He had to run it wide so i went up his inside, got a good drive up 4 and passed the 125 up over the hill. Connor got past him and crossed the line less than 2 seconds behind me. We went 8 & 9 out of a 22 rider field. Not bad for a couple of EX500's that "aren't competative" in LWSM
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Race 13 was ULSB, Super Singles & Production twins. On the PTwin wave, I got another awesome jump from row 3 and got the holeshot.
From the looks of the individual lap times it looks like Conor got caught up in turn 1 traffic and got stuck behind a couple of motards & a 250 during the race as i settled in and cruised around almost entirely by myself. I turned a 1:29 flat and with Tom Joyce bumping to Amature and McBiggity learning to become an MSF instructor, I gapped out & ran away with the win.
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Saturday morning brought GTL, and with it, my parents. It was nice to see them standing in turn 1 and I got another great jump, but a HORRIBLE start as i popped outta gear not once, but TWICE. I went into turn 1 smack dab in the middle of the field. I had a great battle w/ Chris Watt (Stupidhawk), Lorna Murphy on her SV and Greg Faherty on his 900 Monster/Supersport hodgepodge. Greg, who pits right next to Chris and the MABE team was feeling out his new suspension (Broke his SWINGARM in a crash, right where it meets the frame and had to replace it.) and by half way in, he settled in and REALLY upped his speed. That left Chris, Lorna and I to fight it out.
I got past Chris and started hunting down Lorna. I could reel her in on most corners, but under power she would absolutely motor away. With 3 laps to go, I got her going into turn 3 and THOUGHT I was gapping out a bit... but she just glued herself to my rear wheel & let me tow her around. On the last lap I made sure to get a good drive out of 12 and did, but she saved her fastest lap for the white flag lap, just .03 seconds faster than my best and railed on that SV outta 12. She absolutely blew past me at the line, beating me by .01 seconds to for 11th place with Christopher a second behind me, taking lucky 13th.
All in all, it was a fantastic race. I clocked in a new personal best of 1:27.987 on lap 12 & I gotta give Lorna credit, she pulled a great Rossi stalking me like that & couldn't have timed her pass more perfectly. I told her next GTL I'm totally pulling a spark plug on her bike, but maybe i'll just put on an extra thick head gasket on one cylinder to lower the compression to somethin crazy, like 5:1
My parents had a great time watching the race & I was thinking "I'm probably giving my mother a heart attack" as I made an outside pass in turn 1/1a on a lapper, but I guess I was so close to the guy that they didn't even see meThey said they missed me go by one lap & got a little worried that somethin happened but were relieved to see me come by the lap after that
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Sunday, David & I did some morning practice & I had a blast hanging out w/ everyone & watching as much of the AM/EX races while staying out of the sun as much as possible.
Hopfully David & Darrell can figure out their bike gremlins and get running strong for next weekend. Darrell's bike was suffering from what we think was Vapor lock and David quite possibly blew his engine in Sunday morning practice... Luckilly his races were all over with for the weekend and he's got a spare engine that needs some work waiting for him in CT & hopfully he can frankenstien the two together. The good news is, he pulled a 1:34.184 on Friday in the production twins race, and matched it the next day in GTL... a seriously great time for his first weekend at Loudon on his EX.
On the way home I spent some time w/ MOST of team MABE (HEAL UP SOON, MATT!!!) and crew for dinner at Smokey Bones & we had some great laughs. Always a pleasure to share good eats w/ quality people while watching Motorcycle races on TV instead of Golf, right?
Till next time... It's a long 6 weeks away till we do it again, but here's to July
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<-Biggity... shall I meet you in turn 3 so you can get your revenge perhaps? 
The guy on the 125 that I made contact with and beat in LWSM ended up 7th and i woulda had a fighting chance to beat the guy that finished 6th too, based on his lap times.
I did manage to string a few 27's together at the end though. Fun stuff!
