Well it's taken me a while to sit down and analyse what was done right, what was done wrong and where I might improve.
Although I had a couple of reaction times that were a little sluggish, on the whole they didn't look that bad and I was never beaten off the line, that is apart from the last round where I had to push the tree very hard and red lighted by five thousandths of a second. Here are my lights in descending order with my opponents.
.106 .485.
.103 -.003.
.087 .107.
.085 .142.
.060 -.047.
.010 -.030.
.008 .370.
.007 .169.
-005 .028.
The first round on Saturday saw me do something that felt real strange, I had to chase a slower bike.
I came up against a Harley that had dialed a 14 dead to my 12.25. My .008 to his .370 light soon had me catching him which I did just after half track, I rolled it off and took an easy win.
The second round win came even easier when my opponent red lighted but I didn't see the win light was on until just before the line and I rolled off the gas.
Now came the time to find out what I might be doing wrong. Early roll offs don't tell you how fast you MIGHT have run if you hadn't rolled off early.
The third round saw me matched with a 10.50 Buell. I had him on the tree and I crossed the line first which caused him to fractionally to break out with a 10.496. The sad news was that I had broken out also with a whopping 12.062 pass on the 12.25 dial. Ok, it was out on a PB but reminder to ones self, when you have early shut offs and the 60s are near 2.0s and the half track is coming up just in the 7s, you're on a hot one and running low 12s...lesson learned.
8.30 Sunday morning saw us in the lanes for the first qualifying/time trial. The motor was warmed up with a lap of the pits and a time of 12.143 told us that we had to dial in the 11s for the first time ever in competition because the second pass is always that bit quicker.
As the queue moved forward, I realised that I was matched up against a Japanese rider riding one of the Ricky Gadson ZX14 school bikes, hands were shaken and the customary bow from my Japanese opponent which I returned and we were ready to do battle.
I cut an .010 light and went for it and at half track after i took my eyes off the tach, I noticed my win light was on, he had red lighted but I hadn't learned my lesson, THAT'S RIGHT, I backed off the gas.
The second round was going to be a tough one as I had lined up with Bay Bay Yarboro, one of the Souths most respected riders.
I killed him on the tree with a .007 to his .169 light and didn't look back till after the 1000 foot mark and seeing him way behind I did it again, YES, I rolled it off and missed out on an 11 second pass recording a personal best of 12.051 at just 112.73 mph across the stripe. DAMN.
After a wait that seemed like forever it was back to the line at 4.30pm. At 4.31pm I was out to my first red light of the weekend.
Many thanks go out to Billy, Jerry, Larry, Wilbur, Keith, Frank and Big Jim French for their help in keeping me running and to Jon Weeks for keeping me focused on the job, I'm a slow learner but I'm sure we will get there in the end, here's to Virginia and that 11.
Sam.
