Late follow up post from Sunday eliminations. First out Sunday morning was the first round eliminations for pro ET. Because you have to enter 2 days of Pro ET to qualify for top sportsman, I used this round as a time run to get my bike dialed in. The idea was even if I won this round, I probably would not go back up for 2nd round. My primary purpose for the race was just to run top sportsman because I was also entered in 2 other classes and I didn't want to run my wife or myself ragged. I dialed in at an 8.06 to my opponents 8.18. He left first and I gave chase only for the bike not to shift into 3rd via autoshift so I plugged the override button myself. I had lost a good deal of ground so i rolled out of the throttle to an 11.29 pass. I was disappointed with no useable data but I didn't see any oil or broken parts at the end of the track. Back in the pit area, I checked the bike over and never found a problem. Maybe it was just a gremlin!! They were calling first round of top sportsman to the lanes just as I was buttoning everything back up from my hurried inspection. I already knew who I was paired with so I rolled my bike into the lanes at the designated number and waited. Odd thing, as I was sitting there waiting, my opponent from the pro ET round came up and congratulates me on the win. What??? Turns out he actually broke out and lost. Crazy!! Even stranger, my opponent in T/S was Robin Procoppio. I had raced this lady at the Virginia event and lost because I rolled out of the throttle to far away from the finish line. I knew I wouldn't make that mistake today. I kept my8.06 dial in. She was shooting for a 7.96 dial in so I got to leave first. We both staged up and I released when I saw the last yellow bulb. Damn, I let go a tad too early and red lighted but made the full pass anyway. As I crossed the stripe, I felt something dumb going on with the handling of the bike. The slower I got the worst it felt and then I could he's a dragging moise. Crap, did the brake stay come loose our something?? I got the bike stopped and looked to the right rear to see my nitrous oxide bottle hanging from under the bike. It was being drug as I crossed the stripe by the braided steel line. I counted my blessings because the bottle could have gotten completely under that 10" wide drag slick and thrown the bike into the air. Or even worse, it could have dislodged itself and hit the other rider. I took the body off and luckily had a wrench in the tow scooter to disconnect the line for the trip back to the pit area. They were then calling for first round in the 1/8 mile, 5.60 index class. As soon as we parked the top sportsman bike, I jumped on the 5.60 index bike for the tow to the lanes. They don't use,a ladder to pair this class until 3rd round. For now, it was random draw by the cards. I knew my bike was too quick for the index so I had to have a better reaction time than my opponent so I control the stripe. I staged first on the 4 tenths pro tree and my opponent turned on his top bulb afterwards but he then turned on both his bulbs for a split second before deep staging (turning off the prestage bulb). The heck?? Its allowed to deep stage but then he pulls back to turn both lights on again. I didn't allow myself to get caught up in that game so when the tree flashed, I release and was out front. I was looking back at the guy and still thinking I didn't want to go to quick and breakout. I was short shifting the bike to scrub ET. I even bumped the shift button a few times to momentarily kill the engine and knock off a little time. I guess I played a bit too much because he caught me,at the stripe and crossed first. I ran a slowing 5.73 to his quicker 5.65. His constant momentum pushed him past for the win. Dang it. Won't do that again. I've got to detune the bike to get closer to the index. My crew chief towed me back to the pit area in time to get ready for street ET.This would be my final chance for the weekend to make rounds. I was trusting the faithful CB to help me reach my goal. I dialed a 10.55 against a quicker opponent. I had been redlighting every pass so I had a self talk about waiting a little longer before releasing the clutch lever. I rolled into the beams slowly to be aware of shallow staging. I didn't want to loose the race,at the starting Lin or this was going to be a short day for the team. Once all 4 ambers were lit, my tree started to drop. I was only concentrating on the 3rd yellow bulb as I normally would. I released when the bulb was staring me in the face only to turned on the blasted red eye once again. Crap. Day over. I counted my blessings once again even though I was done for the weekend. I hadn't gotten hurt, I didn't hurt anyone, and all my bikes were in working order. 7 hours later we arrived home safely. It was a good weekend of racing.
