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.