I’m starting to get behind on posts, I’m going to blame work in addition to having too many fun things to do on two wheels.<\/p>\n
The first the 4th of July holiday.\u00a0 I spent that doing all the day trips that I’ve not had time to do for the past few years.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ride Map for 4th of July\u00a0 <\/a>This was just one of the days… it’s just two of my favorites and is my version of the Enchanted Circle.\u00a0 Makes for a really long day of riding, but so worth it.<\/p>\n Next up for July was the SMRI track and race days.\u00a0 I really like the combo wknds, even if they are more work up front, it just seems to flow better and I don’t end up using two wknds for the Club.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I had a great time on the new config, I’m learning more and more each time I race the 250.\u00a0 Once I get back on the 675, I’m just a bit more comfortable and a hair quicker in spots.\u00a0 I’ve just gotta put it all together.\u00a0 I finally broke my personal best on the new config, not by much but it’s a start.\u00a0\u00a0 Even though it was super stinkin’ hot the highlight of the track day was headed out on the 250 the help heather with lines and body positioning.\u00a0 She is having so much fun on that bike it’s contagious. Of all the races the nex day I enjoyed the most was Thunderbike the most, I had a great start, and I was on Brandon’s back tire for the entire race.\u00a0 I managed to get by him coming into the hairpin, only to have him take it right back.\u00a0 Dang, those 1125 Buells for having so much torque.<\/p>\n The rest of the month wasn’t tied up with racing, well not really.\u00a0 The following weekend I rode my street bike up to CO Spg. to hang out at Pike’s Peak International Raceway with a bunch of racers for Rybo’s surprise birthday party.\u00a0 What a great time, I don’t remember the last time I was at a track and not riding.\u00a0 I was shocked that I could have that much fun not racing.\u00a0 I’ve been very lucky to have found so many\u00a0 great friends through racing.<\/p>\n Next up was leaving for Durango on Monday for \u00a0Rocky Mountain Adventure Riders (RMAR<\/a>)\u00a0 The original plan was to be Silverton for 2 days before the\u00a0 RMAR Rendezvous<\/a> Once I got up to Silverton, I knew it had been worth the wait.\u00a0 I picked my camp site, got unloaded and started to set up.\u00a0 I had to change things around a few times to get it right.\u00a0 Then I changed clothes and went for a rider with Dave and Larry.\u00a0 Headed up to Animas Fork the around on Picayne Gulch trail back into Silverton.\u00a0 Great ride for my first time out on the DRZ400.\u00a0 Didn’t have a single issue, but I wished they had given me more.. heck how about any warning about the 3 foot drop off on the trail.\u00a0 I was working my way down, rounded a corner to see both of them sitting there looking back at me, then I saw the drop.\u00a0 Rats… It was too late to think about it so I just rode straight off it.\u00a0 The bike did good, I stayed up right and kept going.<\/p>\n The next two days of riding passes were awesome!\u00a0 I fell a few times, okay I fell down 3x on Thurs and 1x Friday.\u00a0 I did hear from people who had been up there a number of times that the trails were in some of the worst conditions they had ever seen.\u00a0 So I felt a bit better about it.\u00a0 I’m not sure what I don’t like more… babyheads or sand.\u00a0 I’m thinking the rocks are worse, they leave bruises.\u00a0\u00a0 I would have like to ride on Sat and Sunday, but I had to head back to SF so I could unload, and load up for the races on Sunday.\u00a0 I did pick up some company for the ride back.\u00a0 One of the riders up there had his BMW die and he needed a lift to the dealership.\u00a0 Nice guy, so the trip back went quick.\u00a0 I dropped him and his bike off at the dealership and made my dash home to prep for Sunday’s races.<\/p>\n It was kind of a nice break not dealing with registration on race day.\u00a0 Since I’d been out of town and they insisted on putting the make up date then… someone else had to cover registration.\u00a0 I did have to make a few trips to the office to help the IT professional work the printer… pft.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m going to enjoy the few races I do with them next year.\u00a0 Not having people coming up to me all day, wow…\u00a0 I’m looking forward to traveling to more tracks like I did a few years ago.<\/p>\n Not running around like a crazy person actually makes practice go well.\u00a0 I wasn’t quite on pace but I was better then I usually am.\u00a0 The first race went better as well I got a great start. I was in 3rd into the first turn but fell back to 4th by the time we got to the 2nd turn.\u00a0 That’s when it all got interesting….\u00a0\u00a0 There were 6 of us all in a row heading into the hairpin, I find my apex, and look up just in time to watch Daryl, start to lose the back end of the bike.\u00a0 Then see him hit the ground, and start to roll right in front of Brandon, who was right in front of me.\u00a0 If Daryl had completed his roll on the track, Brandon would have run him over, he would have also gone down, and it would have left me only bikes or people to run over but, as luck would have it, Daryl just stopped, Brandon and I managed to avoid clipping him as we went off the edge of the track and got around him.\u00a0 So out came a red flag and we all had to exit the track. They sent us straight back to the grid for a restart.\u00a0 Once again, I had a great start and had 2nd entering the first turn, but got pinched off on the exit which put me back into 3rd.\u00a0 I tried to get around Brandon pretty much the whole race and even managed to late brake him a couple of times, but I just couldn’t keep him behind me so I had to settle for 3rd.<\/p>\n The 250SS race was another great start followed by dicing it up with Jereme for the first couple of laps.\u00a0 I got by him in Turn 3 and he got back by me in 5 then I got him again in 3.\u00a0 After that I decided to concentrate on putting some distance between us so I wouldn’t have to run such defensive lines.\u00a0 As we all know, that’s not the fastest way around the track.\u00a0 lol.\u00a0 It worked by the time we got to the last two laps, I couldn’t see him behind me in the hairpin.<\/p>\n The last noteworthy race for the day was the Formula Femme race, for three reasons. First it was the second red flag for the day, because I ran out of gas as I was leaving the track for the red flag.\u00a0 I ended up pushing the bike to Pit Out.\u00a0 I did get crash to bring me gas so I could make the restart.\u00a0 It was super nice of John and Franny to delay so that I could make the grid.\u00a0 On the first start, Franny managed to get in front of me and her HP advantage made it hard for me to get by her and stay in front of her.\u00a0 But, on the restart I got a better start, I actually got the whole shot!!!\u00a0 I had clear track for about 2 laps and then John who was out there for the Ultra-LW class got in front of me.\u00a0 I have to say I was shocked when a 50 year old Ducati pulled the 250 on the straights.\u00a0 Dang!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But I know I had much better corner speed then he did. So I stalked him for a couple of laps. I got him in Turn 5 only to have him out motor me again.\u00a0 So I followed him again until the last lap I got him in the hair pin and managed to pull some distance between us so that I could beat him to the Start\/Finish line.\u00a0 If there had been another lap he’d have out motored me on the back straight again, but that was one of the most fun races at Napa for a sometime.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m starting to get behind on posts, I’m going to blame work in addition to having too many fun things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-not-racing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1039,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions\/1039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nso I could get in more rides.\u00a0 But, best laid plans and all….\u00a0 The KTM wasn’t ready, and I ended up having to do some work off site before I could go have more fun.<\/p>\n