Road A x's 2

Sorry its been a while since Ive updated this.. I raced at Road Atlanta the last week of June. I was real excited to see the new track to see what the new changes were like (read about it here http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=33100) Over all the the new chicane for turn 4 just didn't cut it.. I dont know what they were thinking when they drew it out but it just did not work.. It's not just totally useless though, its fixable. And the new turn 12 rocked!! Anyways, In Saturday practice, I got down to 1:33's. That's using the esses instead of the revised turn 4. I was getting more and more comfterable on the bike and track and started to turn some decent lap times. In the race, Middle weight Solo 16, I started last row, I think it was row 6 or 7, I dont exactly remember. After just the first lap I was in 6th, then worked to 4th by the end of the second lap and then 3rd on the 5th lap when Ryan Clay crashed in turn 5. I spent the next 11 laps there until coming out of the last turn when I stepped the back end out on the last lap letting Brett Sassaman to just edge his front tire in front of mine.. I was kinda bummed that he beat me just before the line with me in front of him the whole race. My times were still in the 33's though so I guess it wasn't to bad.

In Sunday's races, C SuperStock Expert, and B SuperStock Expert, I finished 3rd in both. In 600 SS I had a lead opened on the first lap but the race was red flagged which deffinitely did not work to my advantage. On the restart I came out in third by the end of the first lap and was really mad about it. The first 3 laps, I screwed up the esses and my times were 33's, I fought past that and stayed in front of Parkerson, both Sassamans, Day, Stokes and Clay before fixing the problem and dropping my times by 2 seconds!! I pulled away from the group and kept a consistent gap between me and Jenson and Knapp up front. I was kinda mad at my self at the end of race knowing that I could have been with the leaders at the beginning of the race if I woulda not made mistakes..

In 750 SS, I was in 3rd at the top of the hill behind Opie and Jenson, I tried to stay with them but made a mistake entering turn 3 and let them gap me.. the rest of the race I spent in 3rd.. kinda lonely. The rest of the race, I just kept my pace fast and kept my times in the 31's! I was happy with that but I coulda been closer up front..

After loading up and getting home, we had a lot of work to do to the bikes before leaving for Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for the CCS/ASRA race at Road America. Lisa Gerloff (mom of Garrett and Grayson) picked me, mom and all my stuff up on Tuesday and made our long trip up there getting there on Wednesday. I signed up for the practice day Thursday for the 600. I was also picking up one of the Moriwaki MD250H Hondas while there. Well in the first practice session, I had mechanical issues and ended up switching practice stickers so I could make laps on the Moriwaki. It was a fun bike to ride but I think I woulda rather made laps on the big bike.. I think I needed it more on it. That night, Lisa drove me and mom to Mark Junges house (thanks a ton!!) to pick up a spare motor. When we got back, my dad put it in with help from Mark Gerloff (the dad) who came up together that morning. Friday qualifying was canceled due to time restrictions so I the only time I got on the new motor, and only real session was in practice that morning. In the first session, I noticed how different the slipper clutch was.. It allowed the back tire to slide around a little more on decel and it really got me mixed up. Going into the last turn a few laps in, I got on the brakes and the back end slid around, I caught it and turned in but the previous mistake pointed my front tire right over the curb on the inside and I tucked the front. The crash was so mellow that I never even let go of the bike while sliding, I just picked it up and rode across the track to the trailer. That night after everything was over and after getting thing on both bikes organized, I went to supper with Josh and Melissa Hayes with Mark Rozema (mechanic for Chaz Davies) a guy from RRX who I never got a name from (he even sat beside me) and Joe AKA the guy who kept me entertained for the most part.. So did Josh's Dave Chapelle impressions and our very drunk waitress.

The next morning, after a great night of sleep, I woke up ready to ride and went out for first practice. After practice, I sat around all day waiting on the Moriwaki race, the only race of the day. Everything on the Moriwaki will be in a RoadRacing World Magazine coming out soon.
That night I went to bed kinda early for race day the next day. I felt great on the bike in practice, but was still only turning 2:26 laptimes. Garret Carter was in the 22's so I knew I had a lot of work to do. My first race was the CCS Middle Weight SuperSport. I started 31st in the back and came up to 4th place. The race was shortened due to a red flag or I really think I could have done better. The next race was ASRA Super bike, where I started from the back of the grid again, on 4th row. I came back to 4th again having a real fun battle with Mark Junge (thanks again for the motor!!) and barely beating him at the line. In the last and final race of the day, ASRA Factory Pro Sport Bike, which was shortened from 12 laps to 8 laps then down to 5 laps due to more time restrictions, I started again from the back on the 3rd row (small crowd). I worked up to 3rd place on the 4th lap when a red flag came out because the organization lost track privileges at 6 and guess what time it was. We did Podium shots then dyno'd the bikes. They had a 105 limit and was under that on the test run we did earlier. After dyno'ing a few bikes 4 times max, the dyno'd mine 4 times, let it sit for a minute allowing it to cool off with the fans blowing on it, then did it a few more times when on the 7th run, it came out as 105.7! They docked me 3 positions and left a sour taste in my mouth. I was kinda upset that they kept going at it til it barely went over.. Next race on the list is at Barber in a few weeks.