When: May 20, 2001
Where: NHIS, Loudon NH
Sunday May 20
Got back from riding the Blue Ridge Parkway, Deals' Gap and the Chalahara Skyway on
Saturday May 19 (2500 miles in a week), so I missed Saturday's racing. Got to the track
Sunday morning by 8, got my transponder and post-registered. Got the bike and helmet
through tech inspection with no problems, and put the new tire warmers to work. Got out
for second practice.
GTL
I started dead last (again) but passed a few people by the time turn 3 arrived. About 4
laps past halfway the race was red flagged due to a crash in T6. I only got 12 laps in,
but managed to lower my average lap times to 1:36 !!! That's 5 seconds better than the
last race weekend.. and I did a 1:34 as my best lap in that race..!
Lightweight Grand Prix
Took off the tire warmers and headed out. This is a sprint race (8 laps) and I was
ultra motivated. I started dead last again, and passed a few people through the race.
During the entire race I was trying to catch the guy in front of me, but couldn't
get him. I would screw something up somewhere, lose time, then catch up and screw up
again. A missed shift on a 125gp bike is about 3 seconds of lost time... On the last
lap, the leaders came around and he got slowed down a bit. I put my head down and
went to work! I made awesome time in T3 and T6, flew out of T10 towards the
chicane... got the bike stood up, did some hard braking, downshifting, and got a killer
drive out of T12. I put my body into the bubble, pushed hard, and managed to beat him by
about 2/10 of a second with a draft pass!! woo hoo! I even pulled a best lap of
1:33!! I LOVE this racing thing!
I didn't get any points, but managed to not finish last, and dropped my best lap time by 5
seconds over the first race weekend.