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1st Practice was two laps for me. Tires were underinflated so I came back in.
2nd Practice was much better. Played with Kurtz a bit, and hit a 21.7 once I got a clear lap. Thought that would set me up for 20s today, but I was wrong…
Race 8 – AM LWGP
I’m on the pole, with 276 Shane Lewis, next to me, 212 Lou Peck next to him, and teammate 816 Mike Kurtz behind me. There’s three other people in our wave, but I wasn’t worried about them…apparently I was wrong. Green flag drops, and 130 Ben Travisano SHOOTS by us from the 2nd row on his Ducati 796 (Monster 696 bored out…former Jeff Wood bike). Then I see Shane’s wheel, and another wheel, to my right…wtf, where did these guys come from?! I pinned the throttle and kept my head down, and was able to sneak under 130 at the entrance to T1. By the front straight, I had a ¼-straight lead on 212, and maintained that for several laps… Around lap 5 I look back and #130 is within 15’ of me?!? He passed me on the straight on Lap 6…I would’ve taken him right back in T1, but I freaked out a bit and ran a little wide, but was RIGHT on his tail through the entire chicane anyway…but he’d pull on the back straight…rinse, repeat… Finally on Lap 8 we came upon 889 KB near the start finish and followed him through the chicane…Ben and I split KB coming out of T2, and got excited thinking KB would shut 130 off (Ben was trying to go under KB out of T2), but he didn’t…so I drove longer into T3 and outbraked Ben. As I’m passing him, I begin fixating on the apex of T3 – not looking to the T4 tip-in or past it as I should be – and run about 50% wide at the apex…”CRAP” I think to myself, 130’s going to come under me and run up the hill!! But he must’ve fixated on ME, as I didn’t even see a wheel. I put my head down and ran out the rest of the race somewhere ahead of him. RESULT: 1st placeFastest lap only a 21.716, but I had three 21s and four 22s…so at least I’m consistent now. I just need that carrot to pull me into the 20s…maybe tomorrow……
Saturday Night
Awesome time finally installing – properly – the radial master cylinder I got from teammate 820 Jay Mac last freakin year… BIG THANKS to 434 Michael Weyant for the help installing, and for the awesome levers from 434 Racer Performance Parts!! Orange and Green Hotness
Sunday Practice was “meh.” Did a 25 in second practice… After that I mounted up my very first set of brand new race tires! My wallet is no longer speaking to me.
Race 3 – AM LWSS
This is “my” class this season, and I started in 2A to the left of 276 Shane Lewis. I’m behind Shane by only one point going into this race, and I know I can him… Green flag flies and I’m still not quite used to my adjusted clutch cable and new adjustable 434Racer clutch lever, so my start isn’t as good as it usually is. Shane took the holeshot, and teammate 816 Mike Kurtz got around the outside of me in T1 as I checked up behind Shane (I really need to defend my starts better). I’m not about to start this race in third place, so I ratcheted a little more throttle on and passed Mike back exiting T1A…but 276 was now 100 yards ahead… I put my head down and slowly reeled him in, finally passing him on the brakes into T3 – but he passed me right back as I had to check up to make the turn in traffic. We split another novice in T6, Shane taking the outside line…I tried to come under and JUST got the better drive, squeaking out a pass at the apex of T7! I was able to hold him off for the rest of the race, actually putting a little gap on him by the checkered. RESULT: 1st place
Race 5 – AM Thunderbike
The past few rounds have seen actual Thunderbikes entering this race and giving me a big run for my money. Today saw me on the pole, 214 Matt DiPadua on a big new Duc (who took 2nd from me last round), 449 Kevin Fogg on his Monster, and 130 Ben Travisano again. I was second into T1 behind 130 (again re-learning the clutch), got passed by 214 and passed him back, and then we got a red flag. Sit on cold pit for a while (thanks to teammate 434 Mike Weyant for being my umbrella girl and bringing me water <3 ). Regrid, I’m third into T1 behind 130 and 214, and we get a red flag at T2…wtf…back on cold pit for even longer this time. A tech inspector came by and told 449 to GTFO as he had blowby all over his s/a and wheel. Finally we restart, and --- well, now after watching another three races I can’t remember where I was going into T1…but anyway I chased 130 and 214 for the entire race. I was w/in 1 corner of them for a while, but went wide in T9 and T11 once, so that threw my pace off a bit and I fell back. I started to fade around lap 6, but kept yelling at myself to stay on it…and that paid off – as I went past the white flag, I saw 214 taking the NASCAR oval! I was fairly certain he was going to hop back on-track in front of me at T2, but he didn’t…whatever caused him to take the oval must’ve been detrimental to the bike, as I didn’t see him even on the cool-down lap. I’ll take whatever I can get though…RESULT: 2nd place. Fastest lap, last lap, and new PB of 1:21.343…totaling two 21 laps and four 22 laps.
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Originally Posted by hondarider102
