| Author | Message | ||
     Paint_shaker |
I was half planning to go to Road Atlanta and thought it was around the 25th as usual. On wed I found out it was the 8th, 9th and 10th. As of the 7th, I was still on the fence when I got a call from a fellow racer asking if I would fill in on his endurance team for the 6 hour endurance race. I told him sure, but I wasn't sure how much time I could put in on the bike. I packed up the horse (power) trailer and headed north! I arrived around 8:30pm and found a spot. For Friday practive I got about 4 laps to learn an SV 650, on slicks with GP shift, then I was 4th on deck for the endurance race. I got on the bike and hoped to give at least 30 minutes. I had my moments trying to remember GP shift and blew a few turns wide, and even ran off once in T-3. I kept the bike up right and didn't shift wrong. I also fought off a cramp in my right hip for almost 2 laps. Next thing I knew the 60 minute board was out. At this point I signaled to pit and came in and turned it over to the next rider. Despite my best efforts as a rolling chicane, my team managed a 3rd place on the box!!! For Sat; I tried switching my bike to GP shift, but found I was concentrating so hard on making the correct shifts I was messing my braking points up. Switched back to STD shift and had no furhter shifting issues. I finished 12th in F-2 and 11th in LWTSB. LWTSB was called due to a crash on the 2nd lap. The rain moved in about 11:30 Sat night. For Sun; Woke up to rain. I was already already registered, but didn't have the funds for rain tires. I decided NOT to do the morning practice and get a hot breakfast at the cracker barrell. The rain stopped and the track began to dry. Then the rain moved back in and poured!!! Racing was supposed to start at noon. At 2 they called a special riders meeting. During the meeting the anounced the delay was due to the jet drier truck leaking a large amount of kerosene on the wet track while it was trying to help dry it. They said it was cleaned up and decided to go on with the racing. I softened my suspension up in anticipation of a wet race track on DOT tires. By the end of the 5th race, the track was pretty much dry. I had to change my suspension settings back. For my only race of the day, F-2, I managed a 7th. Packed up my stuff, had dinner with local Buell Shred and then headed home. Caught about 3 1/2 hours of sleep at the Florida/Georgia border before I finally rolled in the driveway about 6:10 on the am today.... |
