The weekend started off great. Got to Summit Point early on Friday with enough day light to set up and do some work to the bike. Got a brand new Bridgestone R10 Evo put on the rear, changed oil, and a general check of the bike. Saturday was a practice day and I hoped to get a lot of laps in.
First couple sessions were going good except the rear tire was destroyed. Checked suspension, made sure sag was set, set compression and rebound to what Zoran recommends to start at. First session after lunch started off great. Couple of laps riding with, what should be, my two main competitors; Brian and Tommy. We were going good, passing each other, until a 125 decided to insert himself into our fun time. Video below shows what happened.
Coming into the corner I really couldn’t see the 125 and was carrying a decent amount of corner speed. Next thing I know Brian and Tommy split the 125 leaving him clear in my sights at almost a dead stop. After watching the video I feel that I could have avoided him but with my momentum and the amount of front brake I had applied made it difficult. Wreck wasn’t bad. Broken footpage, banged up bar which was stopping throttle tube and bent fairing stay was the damage. My thumb got puffed up pretty fast. The rear tire was alo pretty much gone. Fixed the bike, ice hand, and got some other work done on hand in hope of racing on Sunday.
I skipped first session Sunday and went out in second session for a couple laps. Hand hurt and was a real pain to get into my glove but it was bearable. First race was the GTL, which I knew was going to be a struggle……. and it was. I pulled off half way through. Both my hands were killing me and it wasn’t worth the risk. I say both because the right hand still has a bone sticking up.
Last race of the day was Thunderbike. Got a bad start, hit false neutral again. Sat back most of the race, didn’t want to push hard on my hands and the shot rear tire which was sliding all over the place. Was sitting in 6th until the last lap then pushed a little bit last 4 corners to get by 5th and 4th place. Finished the race in 4th. Not happy but at least I was out there riding. Lap times are well off anything from last year.
Monday I had 3 races. They went about the same as the Thunderbike race did. Bad starts and hand hurting. Couple of 5ths. I skipped the last race…..I’ll wait till next weekend and heal up.
