| Author | Message | ||
     Eeeeek |
First, I’d like to dedicate my race weekend to my friend Tracker. I got word on Friday that he had been found dead in his apartment. Tracker was a larger than life fellow, literally and figuratively, and I often find myself telling stories of his antics. While he only stood a mere 6’5”, he could make the pre-Adkins Creech look small. He had a genuine, easy smile and he will be missed. So I’ll get to the good stuff, first. I crashed out of my second race. The last corner of my last lap. So why would I dedicate this weekend to Tracker? Well, things didn’t always go Tracker’s way either. In fact, they often conspired against him. He always kept an upbeat attitude and moved on without dwelling. I was pissed. I put together a string of 1:46s, oh so close to a 45 now and then (1:46.026) and had a great battle with Will Bouch the entire race. I passed Will in turn 11 by shoving it under him, only to have him repass me as I came over 3a when I spun up the rear. We split some poor novice coming into 7…spooked him enough that he ran really wide. I was working my way through back markers and thinking back to when I started. I was passing in places that I had never thought of passing in before. I made sure they were clean, but they weren’t always nice. Then, I went down in 11 because I simply tried to go fast in a slow corner. I tucked the front, sprung up, ran to my bike, shut it off and then picked it up. I looked at the checkered flag and then rode my bike through the back of the wall to tech. My first race was much more successful. I spent most of my time dicing with Lance Williams. If you watched the races, you’d remember Lance. He’s the guy with the super long dreadlocks. I know he runs a few AMA rounds and one of my goals is to race at least one AMA round next year, so that was a good feeling. I hung onto him for the entire race and was only a second or two back at the finish line. I hit my goal of 1:46s during this race and most importantly, felt good with the pace. I started thinking abut places I could pick up a few more tenths of a second. Back to my second race. After getting re-teched I rolled back to my pit to have a drink of water and stretch out a little. My third race was coming up soon and I was feeling pretty good. My crash was entirely due to my input and the bike was running great. Then the world went quiet. I heard 600 Superbike start and less than a minute later, there were no bikes. Then the call for the crew/family of riders xxx and xxx to the race director, followed by the life flight helicopter. I looked around and decided to call it a day. I had nothing to gain by running my third race. I had only run Open Prod twice before this year, so I decided to call it a good weekend. And it was. It was a very good weekend. I pushed hard, and then pushed harder. I got bit when I tried the wrong thing in the wrong place, and I’ll do my best to not repeat that again. I was talking to Stanton later on and he said “that was a very graceful crash in eleven.” Me: “Yeah, I crashed out of the last corner of the last race.” Stanton: “I did the same thing last year.” I’m not saying I’m half the rider that Dave is. I’m just saying we all make mistakes. I’d like to thank my Endurance Team: Formula Pathetic. Greg, Brian, Dave, thank you all. With little to no organization, we ran strong and overcame all the little weird things that came our way. From an unscheduled tire change to a stealth lowside, we kept going and put in laps. I learned a lot running an hour straight in the endurance race. It’s the best learning tool yet, but that’s all for another story. Finally, thank you to Kevin, Sam, Noel and Karena for helping in the pits. | ||
| Eeeeek |
Cuz pics are good. Turn 9: In front of Lance  Behind Lance  |
