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I left Boston on Saturday morning around 6:00am on a torrential rain. Took me over 2h to get to Loudon... but once I got into NHMS .. Sun came out :-) horray !!! I checked the weather map and it seems that the rain cleared .. it was going to be an excellent weekend !
Went to the registration and I found out that I had only 1 race available for NOV for sv650s .. decided to do Formula 2 , in which I expected to finish last .. since my PB from LRRS #1 was a turtle time of 1:46 . I ended up registering for 2 races on Saturday (Race 7 and 10) and 2 on Sunday (Race 4 and 11).
Sat Race 7:
I have a sucky start .. Pulled a wheelie (1st wheelie of my life).. entered T1 in the back of the pack... on position 7-8. This race was relatively uneventful race, I was trying to get use to the bike, push my brake markers and managed to do a 1.41.1 best lap .. Ended up on the 7th after I got passed in the bowl around lap 3-4 by #880. I was getting a better feeling/handling of the bike ...
Sat Race10:
I had a much better start, but racing in Formula 2 .. showed my how slow I am. I ended up pushing the bike much more , tires held excellent and I even managed to pass a 600cc bike at some point on the outside of T9, finishing on 16 out of 19 riders… but biggest achievement was a new PB time of 1.38.7. This race pushed me to the limit and it felt that I was going faster than ever, thought I got lapped by few riders from same wave as me…
Sun Race 4:
This race was fun and eventful… Though it felt that I had a great start, I ended in T1 on 7th or 8th. In the 1st lap, as I was coming on top of the hill I saw the yellow flag, a bike down in the bowl gravel and a another bike rolling in the bowl and the rider somewhere in the dirt… I could swear that there were 3 bikes there, but I tried not to look…. I was expecting the race to get red flag it due to 2/3 bikes being down but it did not happen.. I pushed the bike pretty hard, determined to keep my position. On the 4th or 5th lap, I saw my teammate Roland (#240) down in the bowl, he looked ok. I continued to ride faster and faster, more things clicked and I managed a PB of a crossfit turtle of 1:37:667. I was very pleased to see that I got a 3rd place on this race.
Sun Race 10:
This was my last race of this LRRS. I was happy I did not crash (my parents came from Romania to see me racing - added extra stress in the combo). 1st start, got a decent one, got passed by 4-5 bikes including #976 in T1 (#976 and I did the rookie race together)... Saw an opportunity in T3, and I passed him on the breaking zone (and it felt awesome). Started to go as fast as I can not to let anyone else pass me/catch with the other 4-5 riders in front of me, but as soon as I came out of the bowl on T7 I saw the red flag … After a 2nd attempt of a start (someone crashed in 1A from the 1st wave).. we had the 3rd start… This time, after 2 red flags I decided to play somehow more conservative. I had a good launch, got 2nd of 3rd around the pink box, after 1A was in the 4th position that I kept until the end of the race. This time best lap was mid 1.38s …
My goal for this weekend was to learn more the bike and get into the 1’3X s.. Goad achieved. At this point I am looking forward for the classic when my BT1R teammates (Roland #240 , Brian #345 and Mike #772) will improve our times.
I felt extremely proud of my team seeing that in Race 4 from Sunday that BT1Racing Team took 1st place, 3rd place and 5th place. Many thanks to my teammates (Brian, Mike, Roland) - I would have not gotten in sub 1.40s without them.
Things that I learned this LRRS:
- I can brake much much later that I would have ever thought ;
- I need to lean much more than I do (esp after seeing the race pics);
- To have a good race, I have to be in a detached/relaxed/worry free state of mind at tat least 30 mins before the start;
- Passing people and racing in a race is soooooo much fun … much more fun than track days!
Thank you and see all of you in less than a month!
Dan
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