Busy weekend. 5 sprints and the Team Challenge, except that’s not where the weekend begins. Let’s rewind to the prior weekend where some discomfort starts to show up in my left flank (kidney area) while working on the bike. This goes on for the entire week and gets worse on Friday before it’s time to leave for NJMP. At this point, I assume it’s a kidney stone. Since everything is already packed I thought it would be a good idea to go to the E.R. just to make sure it’s what it appears to be. After couple hours in there I get the news that there is no infection and it’s a large kidney stone (1/4″) that is stuck. That is the information I needed to hear to send me on my way to Jersey. They wanted to hook up i.v. for pain relief but opted out as Jersey is a 2 hour drive and this time it was a 4 hour drive due to some traffic in the Philadelphia area. It was all worth it as I see the nice welcoming crew waiting at Jersey.
Ben says I need a photo of the ER wrist band for the next “Am I a Racer?” post.
Goals for the weekend were very simple. #1: Continue the moment from Summit and improve on lap times. #2: Finish the Team Challenge. Both were very met with flying colors.
Saturday’s racing couldn’t have gone much better. My previous best lap time was a 1:34 flat and in the GTL almost every single lap was a 1:33! The last lap however was not a 1:33, it was a 1:32 and did this get me excited. 7th out of 15 riders was pretty good for my short expert career so far. Next up was the Ultra-light Superbike race, again this couldn’t have gone much better. Got the holeshot and lead the first lap. Bart passed me on the front straight before the line but from there the race was on. Great battle with Bart, Hoffman, and McGlade. I finished the race almost touching Bart’s rear tire who was in 3rd place. This race was a gigantic confidence booster for me. I’ve never been able to keep up with those guys for 3 corners let a lone an entire race. Also another personal best lap time of a 1:31.789! I had back to back races, next was Supertwins. Here I battled with Eaton on his Ducati for 2nd place. Hoffman got away in the front but towards the end Mike and I started to real him in. Had another personal best in this race, 1:31.725.
Sunday started off with Lil Mazz testing the bike in practice. He said the bike was great everywhere but turn 2 which had some bad headshake so we were going to use McGlade’s damper which we got mounted up and then Markbilt shows up….starts making too many adjustments to the rear shock. I was worried with this as the bike was on rails Saturday and didn’t think anything needed to be adjusted. And I was right, the bike had major rear traction issues during the Team Challenge. Head shake gone but that is thanks to the second steering damper. Will started the the race and his goal (from me) was to be in the 1:35 range, possibly 1:34 range and he did it. Also threw in a 1:33 one lap. Our pit stops were a bit slow because of the slow dump can but we didn’t use much fuel. Mazziotto went out second with lap times ranging from 1:31 to 1:34. I went last and instantly almost highsided 3 corners in. Feet over rear tail. For the 18 or so laps out there it was scary. Rear traction was gone and it was very slippy. Still managed laps in 1:34-1:35 range. We were running in 3rd place when my stint started. We got lucky. 2nd place had some kind of radiator issue and had to DNF. We were 6-7 laps down from first but a 2nd place is more than alright in my book. Couldn’t be happier with the way Will and Anthony rode this bike that was lacking traction. I’m really kicking myself for letting Markbilt go near my bike, but live and learn.
Weekend Results
GTL – 7th
Ultralight-SBk – 4th
Supertwins – 3rd
Team Challenge – 2nd
Thunderbike – 5th
Lightweight SBK – 4th
Very happy to see the LWT Racer guys on the podium in #2 and #2 spot.
Katie snaps one during the TC
Fixing the gas cap before my stint in the Team Challenge.
