My Blog

I knew going into the weekend that it was going to be a long, tiring, adventure. With 4 days of racing, including a single points race, a double points pre-race and 2 Nationals, who wouldn't be tired. Thursday kicked off things with a race at the local track. I raced a combined class and used the evening to work on my gate starts and track speed. Rode well and ended up with a 1st place finish. Friday was the pre-race for the Southwest Nationals and we had our own pit space inside the convention center. Maggie Maye's Tucson Tattoo helped sponsor the booth and we had temporary tattoos and stickers to give away all weekend. While a noble attempt was taken by a rider to bump me out of the lead on Friday, it was not meant to be for him. 1st place finish in the pre-race for me. Saturday was day 1 of the Nationals and as expected, the heavier competition was in town. I hit the gate in the first moto, but still had enough pull down the first straight and with the help of an inside lane, qualified for the main. A decent gate start from the outside in the main had me in contention for top 3 until "the accordian effect" by other riders left me un-clipped and off the back of the pack. 7th place finish on day 1 of the Nationals. Sunday was the last day of Nationals and I wanted to have a strong showing. Again, had a enough pull down the first straight to qualify first moto. And again, end up with an outside lane in the main. Not the best gate leaves me [playing catch-up going into the first turn. I avoid the crash in the first turn and take over 4th to the finsh line. All in all, a great weekend of racing! I can't wait for Reno!

-Steve

You can check out pics at this link:
http://www.loopd.com/Applications/Default.aspx?incmd=1%2c14%2c142#%7B%22__s%22%3A%7B%22history%22%3A%221%2C14%2C143%3FresourceCategoryId%3D22ca65e1-cde4-4d74-a5ce-54156bb5a8ca%26resourceCategoryName%3D2008%2BSouthwest%2BNationals%26__sysArgPage%3D0%22%7D%7D

And I have a video of the main on day 2 of Nationals here:
http://www.loopd.com/members/stevegray/Videos.aspx?resourceId=eb28ae8c-79e4-462c-aedc-2897129fe728