Pictures
Alright, well, It wasn’t one of my best
weekends. I’m
not sure if I over-trained in the week prior to the race
or if I’m still subconsciously timid from my last crash.
I spent all day Saturday chasing a vibration in the front
end of the 600. I had just finished putting the bike
together and the faster I would go, the more the thing
would vibrate on the brakes. I knew the wheel had been
bent so I threw it out and replaced it. I loosened up the
forks in the triple clamps and it didn’t help much either.
Finally, Sunday morning I threw the ‘old’ stock rotors on
the bike and it worked beautifully. Somehow the old rotors
were bent in the crash eventhough they didn’t have a scratch
on them. I immediately took 2 seconds off my lap time. I
did the iron-man on Saturday by participating in the
middleweight and heavyweight expert 16 lap solo races. I
didn’t see anyone do both. I think I got 11th in one and
12th in the other. I was suffering from the vibrations
issues as I explained above. It was very frustrating to ride
behind guys I normally check out from.
Sunday morning I sorted out the 600 and began to feel a little
more comfortable but not by much. I was very timid all
weekend going into just about every corner. I don’t know if
it was because I crashed passing someone up the inside five
weeks ago or If I was just so mentally drained that I could
hardly get excited about the races. Maybe it was the heat?
I’ve been doing 2 hour Mt. bike rides in this kind of heat to
put myself in the best shape I could be. It didn’t help that
Kelly had the flu and kept me up most of Saturday night with
frequent trips to visit the porcelain god. I won both of the
heavyweight expert twins races but not by my usual margin. I
was only lapping in the 1:21’s and I was really hoping for 19’s
this weekend. I’ve never been so glad to be done with a race
weekend. I hope I don’t ever feel like this again. Maybe I was
sick and didn’t know it. Or maybe I just hate Summit Point and
all of it’s 90mph off camber turns with 20 ft of run-off room.
What a funky weekend.
