brakstad
04-21-2008, 02:15 PM
Had signed up for two races: MW Novice and Formula 40 LW. Unfortunatley for me the races were back to back (race 4 and 5), but oh well...
Saturday afternoon was really windy and Sunday morning did not seem to be that much better. Temp in the high 30's for the first practice, so pretty cold. It did warm up pretty good, cold with the wind blowing.
Due to my previous success (1st place last month by 0.002 sec margin) I was furtunate enough to line up in pole position for the MW Novice race. The guy I beat (TJ) by 0.002 secs lined up next to me and the winner from February was on the front row as well. I got a bad start as I let the clutch out a bit too fast; had to shut it down to keep from looping it.. I was 3rd heading into T1 and came out 2nd. TJ was in 1st and I wanted to stay behind him. He had passed me pretty easily on the front straight in practice, so I didn't want to give him the opportunity do do that again (he was on a 636).
After a couple of laps he started to gap me a bit, but I was able to stay in touch and reeled him back in.. I decided to not make a move until T8 or T9 on the last lap bacause I knew he had good power so I didn't want him to draft me. I caught up between 8 and 9, pretty much wheel to wheel going into 9. I was wider than him, stayed wide to I could throw it in late and get a good drive. I had a better line and got a pretty good drive, but it did not help. When I got on the gas all I could do was to stay in his draft... Finished the race 0.079 secs behind him, but I was pleased with that. Gap down to 3rd was 15+ secs... I ran consistent times in the 1:29s...
I raced back to pit lane for some quick maintenance work (thanks GPTECH!). Right back on track and lined up 7th for the F40 LW race. Got a better start but got pinched off a bit before T1. Still managed to come out of T1 in 3rd place! On lap to I got absolutely smoked in T2 by a guy on a 250 2-stroke, felt like I was standing still! I tried to hang on the the lead group and did my best lap on that second lap (1:28.6).
By this time my lack of fitness started to kick in. After lap to my times got progressively worse, but I still managed to hang on to 4th place with a 5 sec or so margin back to 5th! I was VERY happy with that result for sure!! Tired as hell by the end...
Looking forward to next month with some more F40LW racing, and probably 600 mod-prod and maybe one more race. I'll just have to make sure they are not back to back and I guess it's time to get in shape!!!
Thanks to Jared for his help on Saturday, and thanks to GPTECH for his pit work on both days! Great to see Allan out there for both MW and HW Novice racing!!!
Hope to see more people out there next month (TECH, Jared, Shaggy, Allan, Lost, Adam, NoControl, who else?)!
Saturday afternoon was really windy and Sunday morning did not seem to be that much better. Temp in the high 30's for the first practice, so pretty cold. It did warm up pretty good, cold with the wind blowing.
Due to my previous success (1st place last month by 0.002 sec margin) I was furtunate enough to line up in pole position for the MW Novice race. The guy I beat (TJ) by 0.002 secs lined up next to me and the winner from February was on the front row as well. I got a bad start as I let the clutch out a bit too fast; had to shut it down to keep from looping it.. I was 3rd heading into T1 and came out 2nd. TJ was in 1st and I wanted to stay behind him. He had passed me pretty easily on the front straight in practice, so I didn't want to give him the opportunity do do that again (he was on a 636).
After a couple of laps he started to gap me a bit, but I was able to stay in touch and reeled him back in.. I decided to not make a move until T8 or T9 on the last lap bacause I knew he had good power so I didn't want him to draft me. I caught up between 8 and 9, pretty much wheel to wheel going into 9. I was wider than him, stayed wide to I could throw it in late and get a good drive. I had a better line and got a pretty good drive, but it did not help. When I got on the gas all I could do was to stay in his draft... Finished the race 0.079 secs behind him, but I was pleased with that. Gap down to 3rd was 15+ secs... I ran consistent times in the 1:29s...
I raced back to pit lane for some quick maintenance work (thanks GPTECH!). Right back on track and lined up 7th for the F40 LW race. Got a better start but got pinched off a bit before T1. Still managed to come out of T1 in 3rd place! On lap to I got absolutely smoked in T2 by a guy on a 250 2-stroke, felt like I was standing still! I tried to hang on the the lead group and did my best lap on that second lap (1:28.6).
By this time my lack of fitness started to kick in. After lap to my times got progressively worse, but I still managed to hang on to 4th place with a 5 sec or so margin back to 5th! I was VERY happy with that result for sure!! Tired as hell by the end...
Looking forward to next month with some more F40LW racing, and probably 600 mod-prod and maybe one more race. I'll just have to make sure they are not back to back and I guess it's time to get in shape!!!
Thanks to Jared for his help on Saturday, and thanks to GPTECH for his pit work on both days! Great to see Allan out there for both MW and HW Novice racing!!!
Hope to see more people out there next month (TECH, Jared, Shaggy, Allan, Lost, Adam, NoControl, who else?)!