How did your weekend go Brian?
Saturday was great, Sunday sucked Brian. The good, the bad, and ugly follows.......
Bike was fast off the trailer, and a rocket down the straights. I could pull anyone on the back straight in practice, and was seeing 7K+ in 5th @ the 100ft marker. Started the qualifying in 7th, and got a good start, but had to stay there until the back straight. Got by two on the back straight on motor, and a great launch out of the hairpin. Thanks to MikeR, the upper middle & top end were very strong, just need to add some compression to complete the package. Chased Vic around to the front straight. He has a right chair, and turn #1 is a right. So I took advantage, and passed him on the outside, 5th flat on the exit.
Took another lap to run down the bike in 3rd (bike that won the championship in 2012, but with new team this year), and also passed him on the outside of #1, only this time had the throttle WO at the apex. Brent, figure if Stacy Nessbit can do it, so can I, great fun. That got me up to 3rd, which lasted for another lap and a bit. However, a bobble into 2 (out-braked myself
), and wrong gear let him back past. Chased him around to the hairpin (right), and slid wide dropping the chair into the grass, the other tyres had about 2" left of pavement. Lost a bunch of ground.
We where heading around to start lap 6, and wasn't going to make it back up in the last 2 laps. So I decided to take 4th and the outside grid position, as that outside line into 1 was working so well for me. Best lap (133.047) was 1 1/2 sec off the P2 lap record set in 2012. However the race winner set a new lap record that was 2+ sec fast than me. And so ended Saturday.
Sunday sucked. Engine went a little off song in practice. Checked things over but....? Then when the final was called it would start, but die as soon as you let the clutch out. Wouldn't take and throttle. So a DNS.