Todays Race Results by China_Racer_1
Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 5:39 am
Well I made it back in one piece. Here is how it all went down.
Rained in the AM so we went on the morning practice on rain tires. However by the time our practice heat came up it stopped raining and the track dried. So dry track + rain tires…. Not good.
So I went a bit slow but no issue just wanted to get out there and get around the track to see the condition due to the large amount of construction going on. Last few days there have been mud clogs on the track and dirt and crap. Today it was cleared up though.
Came time to get on the grid at 2:15 PM. I went up to the #10 spot where I knew I was supposed to be on the grid. The officials said no go to the back. I argued that yesterday I was confirmed in #10 Spot.
I went to the back after a futile argument and called over my team manager. He went and talked to them. They finally admitted they screwed up. However we were all on the grid in our spots and they said to bad he has to start form there because we don’t want to change everyone now.
So I was on the exact last row with a rider on either side of me. Total 25 bikes on the starting grid. I was pissed of to say the least.
So at that point when I could see there was nothing I could do about it I simply accepted it and concentrated on my race plan and lowering my personal best race time which was a 1:17.89. I also told my self to go kick ass and pass as many of these guys as I could to at least give a fair showing to the 15 or so friends that were there to support me.
They al wondered why I was in the back as well since I told them I was grid spot #10. Oh well.
The warm up lap came. I had put tire warmers on the bike, as it was a bit cool form the morning rain. My warm up lap was good and I made sure I pushed it to get the heat back up from sitting idle on the grid. I gave no second thought to tire heat or if they would hold first lap. I knew I was good to go.
My position on the grid was second form the left last row. The flag dropped and I hit it hard. Wheel got light but not off the ground. One of my better starts. I cut right as since I knew the up coming hairpin left turn would be jammed on the inside. I went right – outside and immediately passed 4 riders. Game on.
The rest of the race was a bit of a blur really other than I passed every Mo-Fo I could. If I saw them I caught them and passed them. All I knew when I finished was I had passed a bunch of riders. At least on per lap. No one passed me but one guy and I re passed him and never saw him again.
I was relaxed, calculated and enjoyed the race. After waiting to see where I was since I had no clue who was a back marker and who was not I got the final result.
I pulled off a 6th place form starting in 23rd on the grid. My best lap time was 1:16.47 thats about 1.5 seconds better than last time on a 1.2 mile-14 turn track, so no ill feelings about that. Thats a lot of time I think to drop on such a short track.
So I felt pretty damned good about that. The first place guy was doing a 1:15.68. #5 rider had a best time of 1:17 32, but he was grid in spot #3.
I was about 3 bike lengths behind the #5 rider at teh checkered flag so a few more turns I might have caught him but alas that’s racing I ran out of laps ha ha.
Overall I feel pretty good with my performance. I really ticked off a lot of riders as I stuffed them in the corners but that’s all about racing her. No holds bar and go for the throat so no one complained.
Well that’s it. Showered up and ready to go eat like a starving Ethiopian.
Oh I have pictures on the way so give me about 24 hours I will post them here on this thread. Also they put a camera on my bike so I will get footage of me passing some of these guys. Not sure if it will be on you tube or what but I will let you know.
Update - I called the team manager and he said the footage did nt come out. Maybe a bad memory card or something. Bummer I whould have had some good on baord passing footage too. Crap!
Rained in the AM so we went on the morning practice on rain tires. However by the time our practice heat came up it stopped raining and the track dried. So dry track + rain tires…. Not good.
So I went a bit slow but no issue just wanted to get out there and get around the track to see the condition due to the large amount of construction going on. Last few days there have been mud clogs on the track and dirt and crap. Today it was cleared up though.
Came time to get on the grid at 2:15 PM. I went up to the #10 spot where I knew I was supposed to be on the grid. The officials said no go to the back. I argued that yesterday I was confirmed in #10 Spot.
I went to the back after a futile argument and called over my team manager. He went and talked to them. They finally admitted they screwed up. However we were all on the grid in our spots and they said to bad he has to start form there because we don’t want to change everyone now.
So I was on the exact last row with a rider on either side of me. Total 25 bikes on the starting grid. I was pissed of to say the least.
So at that point when I could see there was nothing I could do about it I simply accepted it and concentrated on my race plan and lowering my personal best race time which was a 1:17.89. I also told my self to go kick ass and pass as many of these guys as I could to at least give a fair showing to the 15 or so friends that were there to support me.
They al wondered why I was in the back as well since I told them I was grid spot #10. Oh well.
The warm up lap came. I had put tire warmers on the bike, as it was a bit cool form the morning rain. My warm up lap was good and I made sure I pushed it to get the heat back up from sitting idle on the grid. I gave no second thought to tire heat or if they would hold first lap. I knew I was good to go.
My position on the grid was second form the left last row. The flag dropped and I hit it hard. Wheel got light but not off the ground. One of my better starts. I cut right as since I knew the up coming hairpin left turn would be jammed on the inside. I went right – outside and immediately passed 4 riders. Game on.
The rest of the race was a bit of a blur really other than I passed every Mo-Fo I could. If I saw them I caught them and passed them. All I knew when I finished was I had passed a bunch of riders. At least on per lap. No one passed me but one guy and I re passed him and never saw him again.
I was relaxed, calculated and enjoyed the race. After waiting to see where I was since I had no clue who was a back marker and who was not I got the final result.
I pulled off a 6th place form starting in 23rd on the grid. My best lap time was 1:16.47 thats about 1.5 seconds better than last time on a 1.2 mile-14 turn track, so no ill feelings about that. Thats a lot of time I think to drop on such a short track.
So I felt pretty damned good about that. The first place guy was doing a 1:15.68. #5 rider had a best time of 1:17 32, but he was grid in spot #3.
I was about 3 bike lengths behind the #5 rider at teh checkered flag so a few more turns I might have caught him but alas that’s racing I ran out of laps ha ha.
Overall I feel pretty good with my performance. I really ticked off a lot of riders as I stuffed them in the corners but that’s all about racing her. No holds bar and go for the throat so no one complained.
Well that’s it. Showered up and ready to go eat like a starving Ethiopian.
Oh I have pictures on the way so give me about 24 hours I will post them here on this thread. Also they put a camera on my bike so I will get footage of me passing some of these guys. Not sure if it will be on you tube or what but I will let you know.
Update - I called the team manager and he said the footage did nt come out. Maybe a bad memory card or something. Bummer I whould have had some good on baord passing footage too. Crap!
