7
Had a pretty awesome weekend, overall...
Got there Friday, hung out & helped some people in the pits, including the freeloaders squatting in the ECK garage during the Penguin day
Saturday I only had ASRA Thunderbike Qualifying and LWGP.
- ASRA Thunderbike Qualifying went well. It was tough finding enough open track for a full flying lap but I managed to squeeze in two of them in successsion before the end of the session and knocked out a 17.5 to qualify in 2nd place which I was quite happy with.
- LWGP was a good race. I'll have to review video again for a more detailed report but I ended up finishing 4th behind Sandoz (he beat Doucette!!!), Ricky and Seth Hahn. 17.621 best lap.
Saturday night was a blast. Broke out my fire pit & Jesse's grill. Cooked up some chicken, some sausage & some buffalo wings. Had a great time sittin round the fire with the Center garage crew, etc before watching Jackie pass out after making me look for her pink sandals that she doesn't own.
Sunday...
- ASRA Thunderbike... Fun race! Really shoulda finished better than I did but I couldn't quite capitalize on the opportunities that I was presented with. I was 2nd going into T1, just edging out pole sitter Brett Guyer. #414 Tim Hogan (timmyho414 right here on NESR) grabbed the holeshot and led to turn 3 where Brett snuck up the inside. I hung onto the back of Tim until Sean Byrnes and Doug Fog motored past me on the front straight. I had a great view of that battle as seen in the video below. Good times.
- Lightweight Supersport was bitter sweet. I got a good jump and filed in behind Jesse Sandoz. Ricky got me soon after but as we went into turn 11 on the front lap Jesse locked up the front. He saved it but went off into the grass and into NASCAR turn 4. I kept my eyes on the corner & didn't see what happened, hoping he'd be able to veer back on course & continue on, but the next lap around I saw The Bus parked by the wall where Jesse & his bike were laying. Was tough to focus but the next lap around I saw Jesse climbing into the ambulance under his own power.
Anyway, that's the order it would stay in. 2nd place with a 17.216 best lap.
- Lightweight Superbike probably didn't LOOK all that exciting to most, but I was pretty pumped up in my helmet... Got a good start & found myself in 3rd place behind Ricky and #91 Seth Hahn. He'd motor me down the straights and I'd slowly chip away at it through the infield... I was pushing hard, trying not to lose my tow. Bike was gettin squirly but I stayed in it and kept riding as hard & smooth as I could. This went on throughout the race, but as I crossed the line to start lap 3 I saw Jackie on the wall with a big grin on her face, jumping up and down holding up two hands.... One hand showing "5", one hand showing "1"...... Finally met what's been my goal ever since October 2010 and clicked off another 16As I crossed the line to take the white flag I had a great run on Seth and caught his draft. As we approached the number boards my plan was to hang on the wall just a touch longer and make the pass on the outside. Unfortunately I caught him before he pulled off the wall which forced me to roll off the gas for just a split second which let Sean Byrnes slip up the inside, snatching away the last podium position. With all that motor & just one lap there was no way I could get him back, so 4th place for me...
Didn't matter much though, I was happy enough knowing I got back into the 16's at least once. When I parked the bike in the garage Jackie came running over to let me know I followed it up that 1:16 with not one, not two, but FIVE more with my best being a 1:16.564 on lap 7, edging out my previous personal best lap time, set back in October 2010, by just fourteen THOUSANDTHS of a second.
Yeah... I'll take that.
Wanna send out a huge thanks to Jackie & her pup Dakoda for playing Pit Crew and running my "pit board" with the rest of my ECK garage mates away for the weekend, MTAG pirelli for the fresh sneaks, Tony's Track Days for the continued support, Peter Kates from GMD Computrack, Woodcraft, Arcy of www.otmpix.com for snappin a ton of awesome pictures of everyone that are now up on his site and everyone else who's supported me through the years.
See ya in a few weeks!
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Originally Posted by OreoGaborio
