Sorry for the delay of the write up...
The big change for this round was that I switched back to Pirelli tires. I tried for half of the season to get the Continentals to work for me and even after all the suspension tuning, I just couldn't get the confidence I need in the rear tire. I'm definitely not saying they are a bad tire, I just couldn't get them to work for me. I did feel bad switching only because I think the MRA Continental vendor, Mike Applehans is such a good guy and would go out of his way to help anyone. But in the end, I had to go back to the Pirellis where I know the tires and how they act and I can get my confidence on the gas back.
Practice went good on Friday. Cory from Intermountain Racer Supply, the Pirelli vendor, gave me a set of take offs to practice on and set the bike up. It went well, had to make very few small changes and the bike felt great again.
Saturday I raced the Middleweight and Heavyweight Supersport races and faired ok, two 6th place finishes. Saturday had the addition of a one off 4 hour endurance race that the club does once a season. I hadn't planned on running it, but then got asked by a team of pretty heavy hitters to be the 4th guy on the team, so I said yes and signed up. The team consisted of Mike Applehans, Glenn Conser, Rick Gross and I. We made the whole race and did pretty well getting a 4th place finish, which is in the money! I've never won purse money at the end of a race, so it felt pretty good!
Sunday came around and it was hot as hell, as it had been all weekend, and the bike was running a bit hot. I made it through Thunderbike with a second place finish. I tried like hell to catch Pat Lansu in first, but I just didn't have it this weekend. He's a super fast, experienced rider with an ungodly fast bike. It's now my season goal to catch and pass him! I ran the Heavyweight Superbike race, but 3 laps in the bike was running really hot and it had burped water all over my boot, causing me to slip off the peg a few times, so rather than risk falling, or worse, putting water on the track and causing someone else to fall, I pulled in after 3 laps. So I now have a little work to do to get her to run cooler, but I think I have it covered.
Thanks to John Chadwick for the on track pictures, and Lacy for the pit shot.
Want to throw a big thank you to all my sponsors, and Cory and Intermountain Racer Supply for the Pirellis. Couldn't do this without all of your help!