shaggy
05-17-2005, 01:35 PM
whew, what a long hot weekend. Got up there Saturday afternoon to watch Aaron, Troy, and Bryant practice and get ready for the GTU 20 lap race saturday afternoon. Got all set up and before I knew it it was 5:30 and time to race. I was really looking forward to this 50 mile race as a good practice session to get lots of time in before sundays raes but wasn't expecting to do all that well. I lucked out and was gridded 2nd in GTU! got a decent start and watched the two leaders simply walk away in the first lap. Got settled into an epic battle or 3rd throughout the entire race. Made a crazy pass up the inside of two riders going into turn 9 and actually made a little progress on Turn 1(which I still suck balls at and brake way to early... :cry: ) Towards the end of the race we had passed a few backmarkers from the GtO race when I look ahead and see Bryant ahed of us going into turn 8. The two guys ahead of me make it cleanly past and not wanting to lose touch of em I stuffed it right up the inside of 9 and got past Bryant also. his tires were done so I gave him a peace sign over my left shoulder in the middle of 9 then he came rocketing back past me on the front straight! man his bike is fast! coming back out of turn 1 he didn't want me to loose any time to the guys I was running with so in perfect team strategy style moved over and waved me past! thanks Bryant!
My plan was to sit back in 5th until the end of the race and then make a charge for it because I knew I was faster than the two riders ahead of me. Of course I completely lost track of what lap we where on and was really suprised when the white flag was out. I put my head down and went for it, planning another bonzai move inside of nine to try for 3rd place! Jacob West decide to spoil my plan in turn 5 when he came from nowhere to lap me and stuffed it right inside of me in T5. Got a ****ty drive out of there and then had an azz puckering experience in T8 when at full lean angle the front end slowly pushed away from me, the bars went fully to the right lock (this is when my leathers got spoiled...) then just as I actually heard the tire screech it popped right back up and drove towards turn 9! I was to far back to do anything and brought her across the line for 5th! I was pretty stoked and even more suprised that I had run consistent 29's most of the race with the fastest lap being my last! guess I wasn't to worn out after all!
Sunday race day I threw on a new set of USA Gp's and hoped for some really good finishes. first race was 600modprod and I was gridded 15th got a ok start but was held to the outside by one of the ruff riderz and ended up coming out of T1 way back in the grid. saw dustin going past a rider wide into turn 2 so I dove down inside both of them for the pass. Unfortunaetly Dustin was going for the same spot on the track and we came together at max lean in turn 2! holy sheit batman, he was pulling my foot off the peg and I thought he was gona kick my shift lever down also! I didn't reealize his arm was caught on me and pulling his hand off the throttle! he also had another rider bumping him on the outside so we had a little sandwhich thing going on through 2 until Dustin squirted outta there and blasted in front. I Made a couple passes but just couldn't make up any ground to the pack ahead of me. I felt good but just wasn't fast...finished 11th
race 2 was 650 superbike, not exactly my race but fun none the less. Got off to another decent start but pushed wide again in T1 so had some serious making up to do. This race sucked, plain and simple. I never got into it and just never made up any ground on the guys ahead. Managed to get back to 14th at the line but wasn't all that excited about my result...all well superstock was next!
I was really looking forward to this race. Last month I had finished 8th and knew I was faster than a couple of the guys that had beaten me. I was gridded 11th right behind Michael Beck and Jason Perez! got a pretty good start and came through T1 somewhere around 7th. Blair sullenger brushed past in T2 and I had hoped to try to latch on to him and have him drag me around. coming out of turn 4 I could still see beck and perez just ahead diving into T5! I was doing good! then over T6 the fast guys simply drove away, even in the draft I couldn't hold on to the faster bikes :cry: ended up falling all the way back to 12th with a rear tire going way south after about halfway :cry: not exactly the finish I was hoping for.
All in all I had a really good weekend and it was great seeing everyone else do so well! Aaron running fastest lap of the novice race, my bro finishing 5th, Troy whooping some serious AZZ!
Thanks agian to my lovely girlfriend who was crazy enough to RIDE up there to watch and support me, Love you so much!
Thanks to Bryant, Jerry, Mike, Aaron, Mikey, Troy, Cheyl(?), Karen, Jae...everyone who helped out and Mike from Catylist Composites for working so hard to get Bryant out ther this month! Andy from ACT Racing for coming out and getting a new suit for me ready for next month, Goodridge for helping me stop, and everyone else who has heloed me out.
Hope to do a little better next month and have some of James's mojo rub off on me and get back in the game! I should have a new motor, suit, gloves, boots...and hopefully some new fast lap times next month! we'll see...
My plan was to sit back in 5th until the end of the race and then make a charge for it because I knew I was faster than the two riders ahead of me. Of course I completely lost track of what lap we where on and was really suprised when the white flag was out. I put my head down and went for it, planning another bonzai move inside of nine to try for 3rd place! Jacob West decide to spoil my plan in turn 5 when he came from nowhere to lap me and stuffed it right inside of me in T5. Got a ****ty drive out of there and then had an azz puckering experience in T8 when at full lean angle the front end slowly pushed away from me, the bars went fully to the right lock (this is when my leathers got spoiled...) then just as I actually heard the tire screech it popped right back up and drove towards turn 9! I was to far back to do anything and brought her across the line for 5th! I was pretty stoked and even more suprised that I had run consistent 29's most of the race with the fastest lap being my last! guess I wasn't to worn out after all!
Sunday race day I threw on a new set of USA Gp's and hoped for some really good finishes. first race was 600modprod and I was gridded 15th got a ok start but was held to the outside by one of the ruff riderz and ended up coming out of T1 way back in the grid. saw dustin going past a rider wide into turn 2 so I dove down inside both of them for the pass. Unfortunaetly Dustin was going for the same spot on the track and we came together at max lean in turn 2! holy sheit batman, he was pulling my foot off the peg and I thought he was gona kick my shift lever down also! I didn't reealize his arm was caught on me and pulling his hand off the throttle! he also had another rider bumping him on the outside so we had a little sandwhich thing going on through 2 until Dustin squirted outta there and blasted in front. I Made a couple passes but just couldn't make up any ground to the pack ahead of me. I felt good but just wasn't fast...finished 11th
race 2 was 650 superbike, not exactly my race but fun none the less. Got off to another decent start but pushed wide again in T1 so had some serious making up to do. This race sucked, plain and simple. I never got into it and just never made up any ground on the guys ahead. Managed to get back to 14th at the line but wasn't all that excited about my result...all well superstock was next!
I was really looking forward to this race. Last month I had finished 8th and knew I was faster than a couple of the guys that had beaten me. I was gridded 11th right behind Michael Beck and Jason Perez! got a pretty good start and came through T1 somewhere around 7th. Blair sullenger brushed past in T2 and I had hoped to try to latch on to him and have him drag me around. coming out of turn 4 I could still see beck and perez just ahead diving into T5! I was doing good! then over T6 the fast guys simply drove away, even in the draft I couldn't hold on to the faster bikes :cry: ended up falling all the way back to 12th with a rear tire going way south after about halfway :cry: not exactly the finish I was hoping for.
All in all I had a really good weekend and it was great seeing everyone else do so well! Aaron running fastest lap of the novice race, my bro finishing 5th, Troy whooping some serious AZZ!
Thanks agian to my lovely girlfriend who was crazy enough to RIDE up there to watch and support me, Love you so much!
Thanks to Bryant, Jerry, Mike, Aaron, Mikey, Troy, Cheyl(?), Karen, Jae...everyone who helped out and Mike from Catylist Composites for working so hard to get Bryant out ther this month! Andy from ACT Racing for coming out and getting a new suit for me ready for next month, Goodridge for helping me stop, and everyone else who has heloed me out.
Hope to do a little better next month and have some of James's mojo rub off on me and get back in the game! I should have a new motor, suit, gloves, boots...and hopefully some new fast lap times next month! we'll see...