Pictures
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Hey guys, kind of a mixed weekend of feelings. We
were very excited to get out and race the new Ducati
848 for the first time against serious competition.
Saturday went very well for us. We started out on the 4th row of the
Middleweight Solo race against some national level heavy hitters. I
launched the
bike off the line really well. I don't know if it's
the wet clutch on the 848 but I have ripped off the
line 4 out of 4 times I've launched it. Anyways, I got into
Turn 1 in 2nd place behind Mike Smith. I
stayed there for about 2 laps when I was passed by
Taylor Knapp. I was later passed by David Rose and Sam Gaige.
I finished 4th out of 30+ bikes on the grid. I felt really good
about the result. We ran
in the low 1:34's on the new bike.
I was pretty certain that making a few small changes
on Sunday I was going to be able to drop into the 33's
and possibly 32's. Unfortunately, several things
happenned. The weather was way too cold in the morning for me to
push the bike hard during practice. I
was still riding the bike too much like I rode the
998 from Last year. I didn't have the right gearing and shift
points nailed down on the 848 yet.
Here's where things got really bad. 600 Superbike race was called
and I went out for my warm up lap. When
I got to the end of the straightaway, and down-
shifted from 4th to 2nd, the shifter got stuck. The
bike was also acting funny like it was in between gears.
I pulled off the track and it was terminal. My day
was over. We didn't have the parts to pull the side cover off of the
motor and fix the problem. We were pretty sure of what it was but it
was too time consuming to fix. The day would've been over by the
time we were done so we packed up and left.
We left VIR feeling really good about our potential to be solid
contenders against the 600's. Now we'll have to wait until Summit
Point on 4/19/08 to see
what we can do. I want to thank all of our sponsors
that are still here with us watching us improve every
year. We wouldn't have gotten to this point in our
carrer without their support: BR-111 Exotic Hardwood Floors, Battley
Cycles, Maximum Hardwood Floors, Sienna Motors, Sobre Rodas
Magazine, Duc-Shop
Performance Center, Ducati, Genesis Accounting, Engead, Achieve
Fitness, Design By Duno, Top Stop Autobody, Pirelli and EBC Brakes.
Thanks,
DP
