The one thing I don’t like about racing in the summer is just how hot it gets at the track. Again, my truck was telling me it was 105 at the end of the day. I just hate it when that happens. No wonder I had a screaming headache when I got home. Note to self: 1 gallon of water wasn’t enough, drink more!
Now the good things about racing when it’s on the warm side, it that the tires are sticky! I was able to run some of my faster times in the AM Thunderbike class in the morning. Not sure, why it’s my only class in the morning. I wasn’t thinking when I picked classes this year.
So Thunderbike got off without a hitch, as per normal, my start was lack luster. I keep think that going to the drag strip would be a good idea. I may just have to look into that more seriously. I did manage to get into turn 1 in fourth, but lost the drag race down the back section to two other bikes. So that is where I stayed for the whole race, trying to catch back up to Xen and Brandon. I did get by Xen in turn 1, but he cut my front end off in turn 2. It was the scariest moment of the day, just a hair later to the brakes and I would have Tboned him, as I had the back wheel in the air trying to avoid him. That’s the second time in last two race weekends I’ve done that. I’m hoping it’s a trend I can break.
My first race in the afternoon was the 250 Supersport. The start went well, but I made a shifting mistake into turn 2 so I lost 3 places. I was making up ground on Tracy until I dragged the side stand mount point in the hair pin. It was a bit unnerving for me, I’m not a hung fan of dragging hard parts. I’m not even a fan of dragging my left knee.. I know it weird that the right is cool but the left give the willies, which is why I often pick it up just before it touches. This time my knee hit down pretty hard and the mount dragged, I stood the bike up, but it caused me to run wide coming out of the corner. The next lap I tried to keep the bike more up right and it still touched. At that point I decided that I didn’t really want 5th place that bad and I slowed down a bit.
The next race was MW Superbike, I’m not at all sure why I run this one, I must like being last. Well, okay not every time, but pretty close. I do have some good times, chasing people down and dicing it up with them. This time, I just chased down Dave, but wasn’t able to make a pass. I did however, have my own personal umbrella boy for the pregrid of the race. He’s the one who mounted the camera on the inside of my faring to get that show above. Love it. Thanks Luis!
The last race of the day wasn’t that exciting, the Formula Femme, was combined with the Vintage Ultra-LW race. Two of the girls had crashed earlier so they didn’t make the grid. I was bummed. I find it really depressing to only have a handful of girls on the grid, but there is hope that the class will be growing. New female racers are signing up for each of the race schools.
In all it was a nice day of racing. I’m hoping the new parts I picked up will help me eliminate the brake drag that I’ve had for awhile now.