http:\/\/youtu.be\/ZjhITaJr-6M<\/a><\/p>\nJuly\u2026<\/p>\n
So does this mean the season is half over??\u00a0 I hope not, I\u2019m starting to really get into things now. \u00a0I\u2019ve got some trips I\u2019d like to do and other tracks I wanna go visit, but of course as it always does, it comes down to money. \u00a0Things aren\u2019t looking as great I had hoped they would.\u00a0 People have been laid off at work, no raises this year, and no more OT. \u00a0That last one is the killer for me.\u00a0 OT was how I funded most of my traveling.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019ll just have to make sure I throw everything I can into racing with SMRI. \u00a0With that in mind, I wanted to continue with the things I learned at the last race weekend. \u00a0No more not putting 100% into the races, I wanted consist lap times for the entire race and I wanted to better my personal best time. \u00a0So I managed 2 of the 3 things\u2026 the 2 more important items too.<\/p>\n
Am Thunderbike being the first race of the day, seems to usually be my best race of the day.\u00a0 I was determined for that to not be the case this weekend. \u00a0Not sure what has changed, but my launches have just been stellar. \u00a0I launched into 3rd<\/sup> place as we all hit turn 1.\u00a0 I lost a position on the exit to a liter bike (twin). \u00a0I held that right up until the 4th<\/sup> lap when I missed a down shift going into the hairpin, that allowed one of the guys to get under me and push me out on the exit. \u00a0I spent the rest of the race trying to get back around him, since I knew that I was a little bit faster. \u00a0I just couldn\u2019t get it done before we came up on some lap traffic. \u00a0At that point I lost too much ground when I was stuck behind one of them for a turn and he made clean before the turn. \u00a0I had to settle for 4th<\/sup>.\u00a0 The upside was that more consistent times then I have, until the traffic got in the way. \u00a0I was still pleased with it.<\/p>\nNext was the Am U race, it was already getting miserably hot out and I haven\u2019t been doing very well with the heat. \u00a0I considered not going out, but figured I go and see what I was able to do. \u00a0I hit turn 1 in 4th place again, and coming into turn 2 almost ran into the back of the guy in 3rd, it spooked me enough to allow the guy behind me to get by me. \u00a0The three of us spent the whole race looking for ways to get around each other. \u00a0It was a fun race and it ended with me disappointed that I hadn\u2019t been able to get clear and go put down some faster lap times. \u00a0\u00a0Once back I checked on the lap times and they were consistent but just a bit slower then I know I can go. \u00a0I\u2019ve now really got to work on taking the pass when I see it and not over thinking it so much.<\/p>\n
After lunch and cooling down a bit I had MW superbike.\u00a0 I was determined to not let that guy get in front of me again. \u00a0Esp not after his 4 year old was talking smack about her daddy was so much faster then me and I was really slow\u2026. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I just couldn\u2019t take that\u2026\u00a0 \ud83d\ude1b\u00a0\u00a0 I had a great start, I was shocked, third one in a row!!! \u00a0I knew that I was ahead of Doug and that was the goal, I just had to focus and not make a mistake this time that would let him by. \u00a0After lap 4 I could see him on the back straight as I was entering turn 5. \u00a0I knew there was no way he would be able to catch up at that point and when\u00a0 looked again on the white flag lap he was no where to be seen. \u00a0I was pretty pleased.\u00a0 The laps where consist and roughly the same pace as my first race of the day. \u00a0Yippieee!\u00a0\u00a0 I knew that I could work on finding some places to drop time now that things are more consistent. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I get back to the pits and Doug is there, what? \u00a0He had pulled off on lap 5 because he knew that there was no catching me. \u00a0\ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n
Last race of the day, Formula Femme and thanks to my giant goof up last time I was on the outside of the first row.\u00a0 Not where I like to be.\u00a0 So the start was going to be critical to my success.\u00a0 \u00a0I did okay, and hit turn 1 in third again, again almost running into the back of 2nd<\/sup> in turn 2 because they drifted over and then tipped in. \u00a0I knew that as early as they tipped in I could get a better drive to turn 3 and if they took their usual line I\u2019d be able to get them coming out. \u00a0I did.\u00a0 From that point on I focused on consistent and as fast a laps as I\u00a0 could. \u00a0No repeat of the last race.\u00a0 I really wanted around the Modern Vintage guy in front of me, since he was holding me up, but his unpredictable and strange lines made me too nervous about passing in the spots where I could have and then since he was on a liter bike I couldn\u2019t get him on the straights. \u00a0Frustrating.\u00a0 I saw by lap 6 again that the girl behind me was still on the back straight as I was entering turn 5 so I got comfortable with not worrying about riding defensive line and try to figure out how to get around bizarre line dude in front of me. \u00a0I had it worked out until we hit the lappers and then he gapped me on the last lap so I couldn\u2019t. \u00a0In all the plan worked and I have new things to work on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From June races: Am Thunderbike Video: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=x2bJthrO99s&feature=youtu.be Am GTU Video http:\/\/youtu.be\/ZjhITaJr-6M July\u2026 So does this mean the season is half […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":805,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions\/805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}