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June 11 and 12 - Round 4 of championship - Summit Point, WV


By Dennys Passeto

Pictures

Another Successful weekend. Two victories and a couple of good results in some other "heavy hitter's" classes. The weekend started off kind of shaky. My goal for the weekend was to compete in a few other classes to see how I stacked up. I walked away pretty happy from those results. Saturday I was having some trouble with the GSXR600. It was having some sort of electrical problem in practice. I thought I had found the problem when I encountered a loose battery terminal. I had no way of testing it until the warm up lap of the race. So we get called up for the Middleweight Solo race and I find out on the warm up lap that the problem was not fixed. I gridded anyway only to almost get run over by the people behind me. The problem made the bike dangerous to ride so I pulled it in. Next up was the Heavyweight Solo race on the Ducati. They grid you by registration date and since I had just registered that morning, I started in 30th position. When the race started, I began picking off slower riders one by one. As we were finishing the third lap, there was a red flag. A horrible accident had taken place and it took a long time to clean it up. To keep the other races on schedule, they had to cancel the remainder of our race and award us with where we were on the 3rd lap. I had worked my way to 12th position so that's where I finished. http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=167103&highlight=12

My goal for the weekend was to break into the 1:20.xx lap time. Sunday was going to be the day to attempt this. My fastest up till then was a 1:21.22. I wasn't able to do it in the morning practices but I felt good. I lined up for the Heavyweight Twins Superstock race on pole. I don't have the horsepower to go into turn 1 in first place the Honda RC51's always win the dragrace into the first turn. I quickly passed for first by turn 3 and (I will have a video of the start of this race posted soon) took off. I put my head down and tried to put in some fast laps. I had a lot of clear track and I was sure that I was going to be in the 1:20's. It wasn't meant to be. I won the race by 17 seconds but managed to do a 1:20.057. http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=168451&highlight=5 I was so close!

The second race was 750 Superstock. I didn't have any points in this class so I started way in the back. My Ducati is down 30 horsepower to most of the bikes in this class and it also weighs about 50lbs. more! I started the race in 18th position and worked my way through traffic. I had a great battle for 7th on the last two laps but I just couldn't get around him. My lap times were 1.5 seconds faster than his but I couldn't make a pass safely so I got 8th place by .223 of a second. http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=168454&highlight=8

I managed a 1:21.012 in this race which was the 3rd fasted lap time of the race. I would have had a great battle for third place if I had started up front with the leaders. And don't forget my bike is down 30HP and 50lbs. Let's not forget my 215lb ass! Most of those guys are 170lbs.

The third race of the weekend was the Heavyweight Twins Superbike race. I started on Pole again but had to work through too much traffic. They let off 2 other classes in front of us and it was hard to get by the slower guys in those classes. I finished in first place in my category but I was not able to put down really good laps because of the traffic. I managed a 1:22.251. Oh, and I forgot to mention I lost my kneepuck in turn one on the first lap. I was blind without my puck. http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=168457&highlight=15

The last race was 750 superbike. I was exhausted. I didn't have a lot of clear track and my body didn't want me to push any harder. I started in 12th and finished in 9th. I only managed a 1:22.3. http://www.mylaps.com/results/newResults.jsp?id=168462&highlight=9

I'll try to save some energy for this race next time.

I now have a 25 point lead in both Twins classes. I could throw away a race and still be in 1st. I'll be at Road Atlanta on July 1st and 2nd. See you there!