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Since I was able to leave the entire garage and my trailer set up after Monday's TTD event, I was able to head to NHMS on Friday after a half day at work, rather than my normal Wed or Thurs night drive. This was a blessing and curse; as I hit traffic everywhere and didn't make it to NHMS until 6PM, even with having left home at 1PM.
Showed up, got caught up on some tire business(thanks Mike W for helping out so much Friday before we arrived), and got to work on the WR. Peter Kates of GMD Computrack Boston wanted my forks to attempt to stiffen them up after some feedback and tweaking on Monday. I pulled them off, handed them to him, and before I could even finish changing the oil, he had them back to me. Got the bike buttoned up and ready for tech in the AM. Since the weather was still looking questionable, I also got my "B" bike, a borrowed Ninja 250, ready and brought that through tech Sat AM also. The plan was to equip one with rains and one with dry tires, and be ready for anything at third call.
Saturday: nothing spectacular in practice, just kept trying to push deeper and carry more roll speed. This bike really is still quite foreign.
Formula 300: I'm gridded in 9B, first row of our race and one inside the points leader, Roger Ealy(823) on his Ninja 300. To my right is Bruce Marshall (398) on his Kawi 250, then Jon Vaughan (33) on the same. Behind us is Jerry Randall (584), new to the class and also on a Ninja 300. I get a decent launch, but can't keep up even on the short distance from the S/F line to T1. I go into T1 in 4th, and stay there the entire race. Ealy and Vaughan check out, and apparently battle it out the entire race, setting the front runner pace of 1:30 in the dry and finish Vaughan-Ealy, which keeps Ealy from getting too big of a championship lead(good for all of us). I managed to keep Randall in my sights for about half the race, but the big-little Ninja has an almost 10hp advantage on my WR, and there was nowhere I could make up the gap on him. On lap 5, I miss a downshift into T3, which is a death sentence on a low HP bike to begin with, but I made it much much worse when I realized it as I hit the transition up 4, five seasons of reflexes kicked in to compensate, and I clicked the shifter up twice...which doesn't work the same on a dirtbike as it would have on my GP shift SV650. Now I'm three gears too high, so I click down a handful, but by this time Randall is cresting the hill, and I never made up that gap. I ran to a fairly lonely fourth place, with Bruce a bit behind me, not having gotten any practice on his 250 earlier in the day. End result, best lap of 1:35.0, which is two seconds off the slowest 300, and five seconds off the front. I'm currently holding third overall in the class, but I won't stay there if I can't drop some time and finish in the top three from now on.
Clearly, lots to work on. There is much more corner speed to be had, and much more entry speed, but the exit speed just isn't there. It's becoming clearer and clearer that the Ninja 300 is the bike to have in this class, but I'm committed, and I'm going to stay the course with the WR. I'll be getting some time in at NYST and Thompson before the next round, so hopefully I can continue to get comfortable with the bike.
As always, I'd like to thank my teammates, fellow LRRS competitors, friends and everyone who makes up the LRRS family. Also all our sponsors, and everyone else who supports the team and the series.