What a second day! Had a decent start in race 2 and was getting into a rhythm. Finally cracked the two minute barrier and was feeling good. Then on lap four The bike went off song. Not pulling and back firing. It wasn't getting any worse, so decided to carry on at a reduced pace. Post race inspection revealed the problem. The number three carburetor had come loose, fallen out of the manifold,and the piston had siezed! I had changed the main jets yesterday and must have jarred the carb loose. Fortunately each cylinder is separate and I had brought one spare. Craig, a friend who used to race and maintain his own bikes has joined me on the trip. We swapped out the cylinder and put a used piston and new ring on. Could not have done it in time for race three with out him. Heat cycled the motor three times and it was time to race.
Got careless and moved before the lights went out. Since I had stopped I thought no harm no foul. Was with a pack of a half dozen racers for the first three laps and got around a couple. Then on the last lap the motor gave several loud pops. I coasted on to the front straight and took the checkered flag sure I had siezed again. The crash truck picked me up in turn one and brought me back to our pit. Craig started removing the gas tank to check the sparkplugs when he told me it was my lucky day. Not a drop of gas in the tank! Even Finding out I was accessed a ten second penalty for jumping the start did not dampen my joy that I had not seized again.
Tomorrow is a light day with just one race. Plan to get out and watch the International Challenge races and Ago MV demonstration laps. Jeremy McWilliams won race one of the IC with David Johnson taking race two. Jason Pridmore has two fourth places, Jake Zemke two top tens, and Colin Edwards a fifth and thirteenth. Team score after two races is AUS 341, UK 335, US 288, NZ 184.
