Holy cow what a weekend. 3 days of racing at PPIR and I am dead man walking!
Headed down to PPIR on Friday afternoon to get setup. I have never rode this track before just cornerworked it and it is a overwhelming facility to say the least. The huge NASCAR banks, pit garages, security forces ect.
Ralph talked me into working off my hours on saturday am so we could race together in the endurance race. I figured ok, I will still have a nice endurance practice before the race. Cornerworking was pretty uneventfull besides a few crashes in the practice sessions. Near the end Ralph comes over the radio and lets me know there will be a heat race to get into it though... DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!
Get back to the pits gear up and head out to the track. I am so fricken nervous it is not even funny to say the least. Needless to say I let the other riders pass me at the start and just go at a comfortable pace since this is a damn technical track. I do not make the cut, no suprise to me, 2nd to last. At least not last.
Put away the gear, call it a day and get fully drunk with a couple friends that came down for two days with me.
Sunday, finally I get some practice time. I get my times down to about 1:08 pretty consitantly. This is a good time for a novice on a old ass bike and never riding the track before besides the 3 lap heat race on Sat. Up comes Novice GTU. Gridded way in the back, I think in the 15th row or something. I ended up finishing 29th or so which was good. Had a 1:06.8 which I was extact about. I also had some excellent passes in turn 4 which is a long wheel shape turn. I was feeling superb!!!!
Ralph yet again had a clutch problem in one of his races and had to start ripping her apart to get fixed for Sunday (which he did)
Next up was Sportsman. My favorite race. This is a race setup for 1st and 2nd year type novices to have a race where they can actually compete with eachother and the MRA sets a time limit your laptimes have to be under to keep sand bagging to a minimum. I have been close to timing out of this in the past but always rode the line and kept my places. Well I think I came in 5th or 6th but guess what??? D.Q.'d because I was too fast. Oh yeah!!!! Jonny boy is getting faster kiddies (there are no contigancy or trophies offered for this race so it is no big deal, it is just a fun race to run)
Fuggen great day, time to get drunk again.
Monday Monday Monday!!!!!!
Novice GTU....
I am near the front in the second wave. Have a real nice start but having issues with a lot of the yellows not holding thier lines again and getting spooked when getting passed. It makes it really hard to deal with some of these guys when all I want to do is get around them but whenever I show them a wheel they get all spooked and don't hold thier lines. Ug. Come in 30th out of about 41 or so. I met a guy Joe earlier this year and we have been dicing it up in the past 2 weekends. This was no differn't, we traded places a few times and it was a total blast. Again, ok but I want to do better in this race dammit.
Ralph had a couple great races on Monday once his bike was up and running. He is getting much faster too.
Onto the greatest race experience thus far of my short race life. SPORTSMAN again.
I am gridded 3rd row in the middle. Joe is right ahead of me and one of my biggest nemisis' (Moriah)from last year is to his right on her 600RR. The light goes green and to my suprise I nail the start. Right before turn one I am in 4th or 5th place. I remember vividly thinking this will just not do so I really turn it on. I pass 2-3 people right off the bat in turn one and head after Joe who is in 1st place. Ralph is at start finish with his lovely gf who works start finish too doing checkered flag and meatball flags. They keep giving me signals on how far back the person behind me is. The more laps the bigger the space... EXCELLENT. Near lap 7 (8 total) I start tailing Joe setting up for a pass in turn 4. My tires start giving out as this is the 7th or 8th race they have run + multiple practice sessions. I am hitting turn 3 sideways and exiting turn 6 sideways. It is getting hairy but not toooooo bad. At the last lap we come up to the back markers and Joe times passing the 3 stragglers perfect in turn 4 and I get stuck behind them in the S's. DAMIT DAMIT DAMIT!!!! I pass them in turn 6 but Joe is over the finish line. As I come up to the checkered I see a meatball flag out (WTF?) and my number is on the plate! Bwahahahahahahahahah Oh Ralphy, very funny!!!! Anwhoo Flesh got 2nd place!!! HELL YES!!!!!!!!!! Still got DQ'd but who cares, I was second across that line and it felt good, it feld DAMN GOOD.
All in all I am very sad about the end of this season for me. Both race weekends were great. I think I already have my bike sold which is good. My body positioning is exactly where I want it now, my times are improving, my confidence is sky high. I hope to move to expert sometime next year and start racing a SV650 in the twins type races.
I cannot thank my sponsors enough. I really do not know what to say to all of them but thank you for everything. Ron Ayers, Gixxer.com, Stalemate27 Custom paint, Cal-Sportbike, my dad and mom, Accomp3d Graphics, TFOG motorsports, Morse Racing products, GP Composites, TK motorsports, and of course BRECKENRIDGE BREW PUB!!!!!!!! Thank you all so much for letting me do something I love.
Many thanks also go out to Ralph, Donna, Alan, Bob, Hoopty, Milehigh GSXR, The Gecco, Gene, JOe, Matt, Alex, Russ S, MV, Bigtime, Ytry, Zach,Hotrod and every single cornerworker and so many more. I cannot wait until next season.
Here are a few picts of Fleshy and one of Ralph
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