Just got a letter in the mail from WERA. I've officially been moved to the expert class!!

trackday

National Finals at Road Atlanta!! I can't wait!!!

results posted from Barber Motorsports!!

Motorsports. I will be posting some good vids, pics, and a race report later this week!!

weekend at Barber Motorsports!!

This weekend started out pretty rough.  Friday night the gates were supposed to close at 10:00pm sharp and we arrived at 10:10pm.  We caught the guy that runs the gate/sign-in as he was leaving, and he was kind enough to let us in.  Saturday morning started out well getting registered, tech'd in, and fresh tires.  As soon as I got on the track for 1st practice, I realized that my shifter was WAY too low from when I took it off to inspect the front sprocket.  I still managed some good lap times despite being uncomfortable on the bike (due to the shifter).  About half way through the 2nd practice, my quickshifter quit working, but once again, I still managed to turn some good lap times.  I found that the wire that goes to the quickshifter had broke.  No big deal.  The MW Solo 20 (20 laps) was another story.  I started 14th on the grid with 17 in the class.  I got a decent start and in the first 5-6 laps managed to work my way up to 5th.  My brakes were beginning to fade, so I reached up to adjust the brake lever and accidentally hit the killswitch.  I restarted the bike (took a minute to realize it was started since we wear ear plugs) only to find out at the end of the straightaway, I had NO front brakes now.  The rear brake (as little as it does) and downshifting saved me.  I immediately pulled into the pits thinking that I had broken a brake pad.  Everything appeared to be ok, so I went back out on the track.  Knowing I had lost too much time to catch back up, I used the remaining 10-12 laps as practice, so obviously my finish was no good.
Sunday turned out much better for me.  I only ran 1 practice in the morning since the tires weren't in the best of shape anymore.  In my first race the C-Superstock class, I usually don't do very good in due to bad luck or minor problems, but today was different.  I started 12th on the grid with 21 in the class.  I got another decent start, and managed to work my way up to 3rd place including a good 2 lap battle with one rider.  My best finish in that class so far!!
In C-Superbike, I got a front row grid with 16 in the class.  I managed to pull the holeshot and lead the first 6 or 8 laps before my brakes began to fade.  I had 2 riders pass me at this point, but I sure didn't give the positions away.  They had to work for it!!!  I stayed right with 1st and 2nd place for the last 2 laps ready to capitalize on any small mistake, but they rode really good so the opportunity didn't come about.  Once again, I finished in 3rd, my best finish in this class so far with over 11 second lead over 4th place!!!  Oh, and that puts me to 2nd in the points championship!!
Overall, I call it a good weekend.  Saturday was rough, but sunday more than made up for it.  I'm stoked to get not one but TWO 3rd place finishes.  Now I've got my sights set a little higher.
I would like to give a special thanks to Inner Cooler Performance Wraps.  They make a great product that absolutely exceeded my expectations!!  Even wearing full leathers (and racing at the front of the pack), I still hardly broke a sweat!! I usually carry a towel around after each race to wipe my face and neck, but this weekend, I never even took it out of the trailer!!  If you don't already have one, then GET ONE!!! They are worth every penny!!  Thanks Inner Cooler!!

Craziest weekend yet!!  It all started with some trailer wiring problems that I had to work on when we were supposed to be leaving.  Then we got stuck in traffic in Atlanta where it took 1 hr to go 12 miles.  After 9 hrs of being in the truck, we arrived at the track and hung out with our friends for a while.  At about 10:30 we decided to setup camp, and go to sleep.  While setting up the air mattress, we discover a hole in it, so we had to patch it and wait about an hour before laying on it.   Saturday morning we got our 2 practice sessions in, and I was feeling pretty good.  Once again, I was running the solo race to use it as practice.  It was already extremely hot at this point!!  I started 20th on the grid, and after turn 1, I was in 6th place only to see a red flag waving because of a crash on the start.  So after going back to the pits, only to be called right back up, I was already really hot.  We did another site lap, and sit on the grid for what seemed like an hour, we got started.  I didn't get as good of a start this time, but was still doing ok.  This was a 16 lap race because its a bigger track (instead of 20) and on about lap 9, I started getting really dizzy and confused.  I was exhausted and stopped sweating.  Not good!!! I finished the race, but was suffering from heatstroke.  That is a very scary experience!!  40 people started the race, 29 finished (because of the heat), and I still finished in 9th place.  I spent the next hour trying to catch my breath and trying to get the strength to walk.  After laying the trailer with the air-conditioning for a while, I woke to find that all the oil in the generator was leaking out onto the pavement.  No more generator!! Being exhausted, I still worked on the generator and THOUGHT I had it fixed.  About an hour later, it did the same thing.  I didn't have the energy to work on it anymore, so we went and got a hotel room. 
Sunday morning I was feeling pretty good after a good nights rest, and practice went great for me.  In C-superbike, I got a good start, and on lap 3, I had just made the pass for 3rd place when the red flag came out again.  I was not very happy, but thats racing.  So the race had to be restarted since we weren't past the halfway point.  I still came back to finish in 5th place.  The C-superstock race was a disaster.  I got a decent start, and was running near the front of the pack with a HUGE gap behind me to the next rider when the ambulance flag came out.  I pulled into the pits with a pack of riders only to find that we are NOT supposed to pit with an ambulance on the track!! We are supposed to race with an ambulance on the course (which doesn't make sense to me anyway).  When we pulled back onto the track, I was already so far behind that I pulled in a lap early and decided to call it a day.   I'm not contending for points in that class anyway, so there was no point.
It was a very long ride home, especially getting caught in construction in Nashville that took us an hour to go 1 mile, and we didn't get home until 1am.
It was a very rough weekend, but I still love it.  I am now in 3rd place in the points in C-superbike which is great considering I missed the first race of the year, and if I finish in the top 5 in points at the end of the year, I get moved to up to expert which I'm excited about.   I'm planning on doing a trackday to work a little more on bike setup before the next race which isn't until the end of August.  Maybe that weekend will go a little smoother!!

A little late posting about Tally, but overall it was a pretty good weekend.  We had storms on friday night, and saturday morning, so my first time riding this track was in the rain.  Its a pretty small track, so 2 practice sessions on saturday morning was plenty.  I decided to run the Solo20 race to use it as practice but ended up finishing in 3rd place on a track I'd never been to.  I was very happy with that, considering this was the first time I had rode in the rain since crashing in the rain at Barber.
Sunday morning we woke up to some really nice weather.  Got 2 good practice session in on a dry track.  I was excited to see what I could do on this track in the dry.  Right before the races started, a friend told me to keep my rain tires close by.  Weather forecast the night before said it was gonna be nice, but they totally missed that forecast!!  So right as race 1 started, a huge storm blew in.  We were all holding canopies down with rain blowing in sideways and lightning striking all around us for 45 minutes.  After the rain let up just a little, they resumed racing.  I was race number 4, and it was still coming a pretty good rain during my race.  When the green flag dropped, my shield was completely fogged up and I could not see for the first half lap.  Very scary, but I finished 8th.  In C-superbike, the track started drying a little, and I still finished in 5th place.