I got up to the track pretty early friday and got unloaded. Denno came over and introduced himself and we shot the shit for a minute, we were both busy so things didn't get beyond 2nd base. After my stuff was set-up I yanked the shock out of my priller and made it about 5mm longer, to get the bike to turn in a little quicker. I had lowered the front 10mm the last time out and that made it better but it still was a little tough to get it turned in.
Alan shows up and we get on the track, bike feels good. One session, then the fucking rain begins. To make it better I have fucking rain tires but they aren't mounted on the fucking rain wheels yet. $100 for one session. Yay.
I get out for practice saturday morning and start to push up to my race pace. I get a little spin going up T4 and a whole lot coming out of T6. I tell Kates what is going on and he tells me to put 1 or 1.5 more turns preload on the shock. Presto-traction. Bike and rider are horny now.
Heavy weight super sport. I grid up on the inside, A or B I forget, and get a shit start. Going into T1 I'm locked up with the group and riders are going around on the outside of us fast. Piss. Things spread out a little and I can get around some of them, but the front of the pack has checked out and I know what's up. I manage to get up to 5th and I'm behind Alan (253), I know this pass won't come easy because we're pretty equal in terms of skill. I start to show him a wheel here and there, go for a pass going into T1 but I didn't make it happen. White flag. Alan comes into T3 a little hot and when he rolls on the throttle mid turn the rear steps out, about two feet out. Thank you. I get around nice and easy and finish up in 4th place. Not what I was going for but considering the start I got and the times the first 3 riders were running it was good enough.
GTO. Better start but not by much. I get around some riders and start to get hung up with some faster guys. After a few laps I got through the quicker riders and got up to my pace. I had come up on the back of the pack and was weaving through the other riders like it was my fucking job. It was fun because I would get around someone coming into 3, or 6, and I knew who ever was chasing me couldn't get around them until the end of the turn.
I get around Brian Keith (707) on the exit of T10 when his plan to get around a slower rider doesn't pan out, I sneak through on the inside and run like hell. One or two (or three?) more laps and I cross the line in first.
Alan and I go check the times, I ran five 1:17's and one 1:16.8, my best times to date. Alan ran a 1:18, his best time as well.
Supertwins. I get a good start off the front row and fall in behind Todd Stryker (612) for a lap or two before I make my move. I stay out front and try to just push hard enough to stay there. I'm toast from the GTO race. I finish first and put the bike away.
This was the best weekend out of the four I've done so far. Got to meet Denno, CEO8675309, scottyducati, and that gangsta dolla bill. Thanks for the tire help Scott, those slicks rock! Also thanks to Todd Stryker for dicing it up clean and being an overall cool guy, it was great to see someone so exited about good racing.
The rest of the 'another grand' crew ran their best times to date, and we had zero crashed. This was my last weekend as a novice, I have 10 races and my index is good.
Todd.
