Race reports

June 26-27: VIR

Pat #233

Went out for saturday morning practice, missed the first session since it couldn't make up its mind whether it was raining or dry, didn't want to go mope around on slicks but didn't want to chew up my rain tires, so I only got one practice session

Lightweight GP amateur, saturday June 26 - Luckily the grid sheet had more than 10 people on it, so I was pretty happy about that! There were two other 250's in the race, one  Aprilia and one Yamaha. There was also a few 125's on there also. Cool! We were the last sprint race of the day before the FUSA qualifying sessions, and about halfway through the day they announced that they were running behind and were shortening our race to 5 laps from 7. NOT VERY HAPPY ABOUT THAT! We paid good money to race and get shorted at the last second by two laps, to make room for a race school "mock race" ? Definitely not very cool, and I think that was a terrible decision on the part of CCS. Well since I did not pre-register for this weekend due to shortage of funds, I was in the second to last row. I got a great start though and got all the way up to 4th place heading into turn 1. I could have went banzai on the brakes on the inside and stuffed everybody, but I wanted to stick behind the lead pack for the first lap or so and see where everyone was running. That was a bad decision! An SV parked it on the brakes in T3 and I almost ran into him, checked up and grabbed some brake at full lean, thought I was going down. The front 3 guys were all over the place, changing lines, parking on the brakes, trying to pass each other. I figured I'll just hang back and draft pass them all on the front straight. We got through the roller coaster and I got a great drive coming out and launched past everyone on the front straight to take first place crossing the stripe for the end of the first lap. Went hard into turn 1, came out went through turn 2 and then saw the red flag going into turn 3. So we came around the track, ambulance came out near turn 8, and I saw a bike off the outside of the roller coaster, and the ambulance went over to that rider. We sat on hot pit for a while and I ran back to the pits to get some more gas and some water, just in case. After learning my lesson last year I'd rather have way too much gas in the tank than just enough. We sat for a while then went back out for another warm-up lap. I was really worried that my clutch might not survive another launch. Luckily for me it did and I got a decent start, but not like I had the first time. I'm getting much better at launching the TZ but its still tricky. It will wheelie easily if you over-rev it but will bog it you let out the clutch too fast. I bogged a little bit but went hard on the brakes past a lot of guys into turn 1 in 3rd place. I got around the leaders and started making some good laps, only a few mistakes. I thought I had a decent lead and when coming around to take the white flag I looked behind me on the front straight to see an SV right on me! I put my head down and went for a flying last lap. I missed a shift coming out of turn 7 and I thought "don't let this guy by on the back section of the last lap". Luckily he didn't come by and I took the checkered flag in first place. I didn't see the other 250's in the race so I don't know where they were? Maybe I just missed them, all I saw were SV's and a Buell. Well overall it was a decent race and I finished first - and on 2 wheels :)

USGPRU 250 GP - sunday June 27 - I qualified with a terrible lap time of 1:43.544 - which is 2 seconds slower than my best lap at VIR. I only got one real full lap in because I had a sparkplug backing out of the top cylinder! The bike would bog really bad at 11K rpm, so I figured it was electrical. I pulled into the hot pit and lifted the tank, and the sparkplug was loose. I had no tools so I hand-tightened it and it only lasted one lap before doing it again. I pulled in the grass near turn 4 to try again but it wouldn't hold in there. Overall not a good qualifying session. Well I was gridded in row6 so it wasn't that terrible. The race was big, there were a lot of competitors including Chuck Sorensen who qualified with a 1:31 laptime (YOWZERS!). I knew I was going to have to dice with a lot of guys since there were a lot of folks in the 1:41-1:45 timeframe. I got a decent start and got going pretty good, it was very different with a lot of 125's and 250's in the race instead of other bikes. I made a few small mistakes, Merle #425 came by me on the inside of turn 17 and scared me to death, pushed me to the outside and 4 or 5 pesky 125's came whizzing by. I took most of them on the brakes going back into turn 1, but Stu and someone else got by me and stayed that way. It was a fun race but my gas cap vent came loose and since I had a completely full tank I had reddish premix splashing all over my windscreen, clipons, tank etc.  Chuck and Brian Kracget came by me with a few laps to go and I lasso'd them and had them pull me around the track to run my fastest lap time of 1:41.5, so I was happy about that. Although I ran 42 and 43's most of the race I should be faster than that, consistently. There was a red flag where #731 bike was in the track in the esses, and the race was over. I finished 20th. I was tired, it was a long race with grueling battles, but a whole lot of fun. I was glad to pack up and get home, there had been so many red flags during the FUSA races that this race didn't start until 6pm.... so I knew I was going to get home late and be tired for work the next day. Overall a fun weekend, no crashes, good battles, and I got more accustomed to my new leather suit and boots, which is key.

Once again, the whole USGPRU experience was great - I *really* applaud them for their efforts and the series as a whole. I want to thank all the USGPRU series sponsors also. We had an awards ceremony after the 250 race where they handed out the cash and the prizes offered up by some sponsors. I won a $100 gift certificate from Speed Fiber USA !!!! visit them at www.speedfiberusa.com 

Thanks a lot guys !!! For more information on the USGPRU series, visit www.usgpru.net

I'd also like to thank Sam at Dunlop for flipping my tires over free, I definitely had them cooked on one side and the other was still in decent shape, I wouldn't have been able to keep a decent pace in the USGPRU 250GP 16-lap race without it!