I had a great time. Kelli and I got there early Friday night and stole two spots; it was packed already due to the trackday earlier. Set up and proceeded to wait; and wait and wait. Tim showed up and Remmy stuck around after Tim and the clan went to the hotel room. Then Kelli, Remmy and myself waited, and continued to wait........................Then after midnight John and Mark showed up.
...................I went to bed! :nanana
Got up really late and it was hot as a bitch out there; I mean Africa hot..........Tarzan hot.............it was hot ok?
I didn't feel like waiting in line for an hour or longer so I waited till the absolute last minute to register; they closed the door after I walked in.
I didn't bother to register for the 16 lap solo as I knew I wouldn't have been able to make that many laps in that heat. There's no way. MY padding for my leathers is in my liner; so I have to wear it if I want some protection. So I registered for the two sprints on Sunday alone.
Missed the first practice session on Saturday due to the waiting till said last minute to register. Made the second one and pitted early................it was too damn hot.
Watched Mark and John race.............Mark is pretty fast, but the few guys up front during the solo were just carrying a little bit more corner speed. I believe he was in second during the second lap. Awesome job!
To make a long story short I pitted early in both practice sessions Sunday morning as well; still too hot.
First race was red flagged due to allot of wrecks...............lemme tell ya; watching a bike bounce 30ft in the air is no joke. I stayed on the throttle and prayed it was gonna bounce right; it did. Ask John, he stayed on the throttle right behind me!!
Then seeing a body in the *road* just added to everything else and the red came out. Had to wait on ambulances and such before a restart. Restarted and we were off!
I was doing ok, about middle of the pack.............and I got off track. I wasn't really pushed per say, but the asshole in front of me who didn't have a clue (again you can ask John, he had to deal with the same guy) hit his rear brake or some crap in turn 5 and bounced his rear right at me..........no other choice but to go off.
I grabbed a fistfull of brakes (I have no rears) and prayed. I stopped pretty quickly and didn't wait to get back on the track, I saw dudes coming and figured that they could see me as well. I merged pretty well I guess, but I'm told I lost about 10 spots.........
Needless to say I was gunning for a yellow RR the rest of the race. In the carosel of the last lap he was only 2 spots ahead of me and I swear I was gonna get him in 9 or 10 and shove him off.........but he beat me to it when someone wrecked in front of him and he just didn't get out of the way. He could have avoided it (I did) but he went left instead of right and went straight into the tire wall off of 9........................I didn't shed a tear.
Decided to run the same tires for my next race...........bad decision as I had already tucked the front a few times. The rear was holding up fine so I figured I was good to go. NOT! I'm not using it as an excuse, but during the second lap in turn 1 my rear slid pretty bad, then caught. I really thought I was gonna highside. So I took it down a notch.
I didn't think I was going that slow till I didn't see any other lap traffic around me. Then I knew I was dead last. I hadn't seen a pink bike pass me so I didn't know what was up.
Kelli told me that there were 3 behind me that got lapped by the leader, but that the leader was nowhere close to lapping me. So I guess I was the fastest of the slow guys?? :confused
One thing I learned is that I'm never again running on scrubs for a race. I think I've improved enough to where I need good tires to be able to rely upon.
All in all a good weekend and I'm looking forward to the next one!!