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This weekend was not my best. I was not overly expectant of reaching the same laptimes that I had the previous weekend, just because a of the shoulder injury from my spill at the last race weekend. My fastest lap is a 1:21.6. My fastest this weekend was in race 2 on saturday; 1:22.2 - I was hoping to get within .5 seconds of my PB and came reasonably close.
Saturday was alright. I was not sure how much the shoulder was going to affect my riding. It felt fine moving around on the bike while it was on the stands but once I had to start supporting myself under braking and putting in some serious steering effort it became evident that it was going to be a little more uncomfortable than I had anticipated.
LWSB (Race 2)
Finish in 6/13.
LWGP (Race 6)
Finish 8/13 and getting slower
Sunday seemed to start off better. The longer single practice let me get in a nice groove. That turned out to be not the case when I made a mistake while braking for turn 1. After pre-turn and shortly after starting to brake I find myself sliding along the pavement at a high rate of speed. I think I jammed on the brake while trying to blip the throttle. I slide to a stop uninjured and find the bike in a much worse state than it was already in. The left footpeg is ground halfway off, both left frame sliders had some material missing, the tail is all cracked, wires are broken for the gauges mounted on the top clamp and the belly pan is cracked and two mounts are broken, etc. With some help from Brady and my brother we manage to get the thing back together and rideable. I am all kinds of freaked out from how ugly that could have been for me and frustrated at the same time with all of the damage to the bike.
GTL (Race 2)
Worst experience on the track so far. I get a decent start and end up in 5th behind someone who loses the rear end coming out of turn 6. I split the bike and rider as they are both sliding. Apparently the downed rider was run-over by someone behind me. Red flag, restart #1: I get a decent launch and start to advance on the pack ahead. An opening I start to take between Brady and Mark Linkewicz (#220) gets tight and I find myself sandwiched with Brady on my left and Mark on my right. Brady and I bump handlebars and each get a wiggle. Mark and I also contact and I feel even more of a wiggle. I glance back to see if he's still there and can't pick him out. A red flag by turn three makes my stomach knot as I think about what might have just happened. Coming back around 11 to see the ambulance on the front straight makes me nauseas. I am sitting in pre-grid and considering leaving the race. I pull it together enough to start the race but it's worse than unpleasant. The race ends with the third red flag. I finish 7/10 and going even slower. I approached Mark about the incident afterwards expecting a fist sandwich but he actually seemed ok about it. His bike was pretty cracked up and he had taken a good tumble too, it seemed.
LWSS (Race 8)
Finish last. Lap times are about 6 seconds off my pace. I have zero confidence in myself and the tires and I just wanted the day to be over.
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