Barber 9/12/09
So, the weekend started off a little rough as usual. I read online that the gates were closing at 9:00pm so I nearly ran my truck out of gas and got there right at 9:00 only to find out they changed it to 10:00. Luckily we had generator gas to put in the truck to get us to a gas station. We were able to get a good parking spot right on the front row with electricity. Saturday morning, I was able to run 1 practice and ended up 2nd fastest so my confidence was up for my Sunday races. Since this was a national event, there were no solo races on saturday like at the regionals, but instead they had the 4hr endurance race. That was really cool to see in person with some top teams like Vesrah Suzuki doing some amazing racing and pit stops. I watched them up close do a pit stop that included putting the bike on the stands, rider getting off, fueling up bike, changing rear tire, rider get back on, and stand down in LESS than 10 SECONDS!! It was really neat. In the end, the Vesrah Suzuki Team won with 155 laps completed. Poor bikes!! The weather was perfect and we got to hang out the entire day with friends and watch some good racing.
Sunday morning, in 1st practice, I took it kinda easy just to get warmed up and comfortable. Turned some decent lap times, but nothing to brag about. Afterwards, I noticed my rear tire was wearing pretty bad, and it was a new tire put on the day before. In second practice, I only did 4 laps to try to save the tire, but it didn't help much. It was in pretty bad shape by then. I was only 6th fastest in practice so my confidence from the day before went back down. I needed to pickup nearly 3 seconds to be with the top 2 riders.
At this point I realized I was nearly out of gas for the bike. I normally only run 93 pump gas, so I decided to try some VP U4.2 to maybe help pickup a little time.
In my first race (C-Superstock), after sitting in staging for 7 minutes waiting on 2 crashed riders from the race before me, I didn't get a great start, then ran wide in turn 2 because I missed a shift (see videos). I tried to regain my composure and start working towards the front, only for it to start a light rain on lap 2. After counting 6-7 bikes down in 1 lap, I decided to back off some and just finish the race. I still ended up finishing 5th place with 25 in the class but wasn't happy with my performance. At this point my rear tire was completely toast. I found that I was using the wrong compound for this track/temp, so I went and bought a new Pirelli rear with the next harder compound before my second race.
My second race (C-Superbike) was another story. I got first grid (due to championship points), and got a great start. There were some riders really on top of their game this weekend. I fell back to 6th place on about lap 3. After stalking 2 riders for a few laps, on the final lap I was able to make a pass that I'm still not sure how I pulled it off. Fast downhill braking into the tightest corner on the track, and I passed both riders on the outside (see video). The rear tire was a little greasy after this, and I lost the rear coming out of the museum turn, but was able to save it. I finished in 4th place with 24 riders in the class, and was very happy with my performance. I really had to work for this one!! Oh, and I managed to pickup 2 of the 3 seconds I was looking for and was consistently turning 1:38's.
All in all, it was a good weekend. My next race is at Nashville Superspeedway on Sept 26-27th, and I'm already signed up for a Solo20 race on Saturday, and 2 sprint races on Sunday. Since it's our closest track, I have some friends and family coming to watch so I'm really excited!! Then we go to the Grand National Finals in Road Atlanta for the grand finale!!