So here's my slightly overdue write up for race 2 at Pikes Peak International Raceway on May 22 and 23. First of all PPIR is awesome in that if you sign up early enough you can rent a garage which is the best way to pit ever! We all made it down to practice on Friday and things went pretty well, Swift crashed early but not bad and didn't even miss a session. I steadily made progress all day thanks to a 45 minute lesson on how to ride a racebike from Shane Turpin where he gave me the most valuable advice that I've ever received and it changed the way I ride entirely. SLOW DOWN! He told us to slow down all the movements on the bike. Everything from changing body positioning to rolling on the throttle to grabbing the brakes. Just slow it all down to keep the bike settled and damn if it didn't work. The bike got way easier to ride since I'm not fighting an unsettled bike and lap times came down.
Saturday came and I continued to work on all the things that Shane told us and ended up taking another 4th place finish in the Heavyweight Endurance race. But the most surprising thing is that at the end of the race I wasn't completely exhausted and wrecked. Slowing things down and not fighting the bike made the whole race use way less effort.
Sunday rolled around and things were feeling pretty good in practice, new rubber went on for the Middleweight Superbike race and my start sucked and I ended up in 13th. The dudes in that class are fast! Then Amateur GTU. I got a really good start from the second row that put me in 3rd into turn 1. After a little battling Eric Cromer and ended up in the front and stretched out a good sized lead. I made one pass but it put me too deep on the brakes and I ran wide and Eric came right back around. So I lead the race for about 25 feet! By the end of the race I could stay right with him, but couldn't get around and finished a very close second. My first ever top 3 finish! Pretty stoked, it was a good weekend. Hopefully I can carry my momentum and confidence to HPR for round 3 on June 12 and 13. Thanks again to everyone who helped out, friends, family, sponsors and especially ST! Here's a few more pics...
carl
Margaret Oliver took the on track shots, and Lacy took the garage shots.
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