Race weekend results

The weekend went pretty well! it was cold as hell at night, which made it hard to sleep in the tent, but the days were nice. we arrived at the track friday night at about 9:30. set up the tent, blew up our air mattresses and tried to get some sleep. it got down to around 30º. combine that with excitment for the race to come and i didnt' get much sleep.

we awake at about 5:30am. Mom and Dad head out to the corner workers meeting (they work the track while i race) and i start taking care of all the pre-race business while trying to stay warm.

Our team owner, Roger, recently broke his finger and had some pins sticking out of it, so we weren't as efficient as we could be. This was also the first time that the three of us had ever been on a team together. We didn't make practice, but i don't think that mattered much. We've all been on this track before, so we know it well. we'd just have to adjust quickly to a new bike.

we started the 4 hour race with me on the bike. I goofed the start and started from the back of the pack, but was quickly passing those bikes i could. the bike we run is an XR100 dirtbike that is converted for roadracing. it falls into the slowest (smallest displacement) class in the field, so theres only so many people we can pass. to put it another way, there was 38 bikes in the race, and only 3 of them in our class... yet we finished 19th overall. that tells you we were doing pretty well. We also got 1st in class with a lead of 17 laps over 2nd place.

I did take one good spill at the very end of my second hour long stint. i was in a back and forth battle with another rider for several laps. i got a good run on him through turn 5 (a fast right hand turn that you go through at top speed if you're good) and made it past him before turn 6. unfortunatley i went into the turn too hot and lost the front at turn in. my shoulder and head quickly smacked the pavement and i slid off the track about 25 feet in that position. once i hit the grass the tumbling started. after about 3 of those i stoped and sat up on my knees to take a mental inventory of injuries. I was ok, but i couldnt' really see straight. i pick up the bike and its got a bent handle bar and some earth stuck in it in various places, but it looks ok. i get it started and head to the pits to let Darrell take over for the rest of the race. i think we only lost one or two laps.

the crash gouged out a nice hole in the shoulder of my new leathers, but it sounds like the good guys at Komodo are going to fix that up for me when i take them in for some alterations this week. By the way, the new leathers are awesome. i love em. that was the roughest crash i've had, and it was at about 50mph which makes it the fastest too. the protected me very well. my Shoei helmet did a great job too. i was dazed but no concusion.

well... since helmets protect your head by self destructing on impact, i'm off to do some new helmet shopping. luckly we made enough money working the track over the weekend to pay for it.

More picts can be found on my flickr account