Quick update. I was the only SOHC racer on the property this weekend. I'm not certain what happened to Jim Trent as he told me he'd be there but never emerged. Hopefully everything is well with him.
The weather was pwrfect for racing g all weekend. It did get into the 80's both days with mid to upper 60's for the lows. No rain but there was some brief overcast one day. The dew point was tricky on Friday and unfortunately may have been the cause of one on track accident by a super eliminator class rider. He was transported to the hospital and has numerous broken bones and other injuries. Thankfully there was no head trauma but he's got a very long road of recovery ahead.
As to my race experience, it was a mixed bag. I ran 3 classes to include street ET on the Honda. I qualified #21 in supercomp on my small tire KZ dragbike. My best pass was a 9 flat on the 8.90 index. The old bike just wasn't capable of running close to the index because it's in desperate need of a freshup. Its lost 2 tenths so I'll be tearing it down for a rebuild over the Sunday. I had a stellar .008 reaction time to my opponent s .107 but a brain fade caused the bike to sputter and spit off the line. Yeap, i forgot to turn the petcock on. My day in that classwas halted on the spot.In pro ET, I experienced an electrical glitch that I simply could not chase down. My reaction times were excellent but if a bike can't make a full pass, you're just in the way. Thus my day came to an early end with bike on sunday. With the Honda being the only bike I had left in contention, I was hoping for the best. As things advanced, I made it to the 4th round before I had an anomaly off the starting line. The bike left great initially but began to spin within the 60 foot zone. I knew once I lost traction and forward momentum, my day was going to end at the stripe. Sure enough my opponent easily drove around me as I watched the win light come on for his lane. My race weekend came to a disappointing close but I still felt satisfied to have been mentally and physically able to continue participating in a sport that I love.
I have a lot of work to do on the bikes over the winter time. I failed the equipment. In spite of it all, I finished in the top ten in 2 of the 3 classes and just outside of that at 11th in the other. Not my best season but I'm okay knowing I still have what it takes to compete at some level.
