When: Sep 28 - 29, 2002
Where: NHIS
Friday 8/30
Traffic sucked. Nothing new here.
Saturday 8/31
I skipped first practice.. I have a lot of excuses... it was cold out.. there was some
work to be done on the bike (new oil, clutch springs, ignition coil, brake pads, etc).. it
had rained all day and night on Friday and the track was green. I'm not much of a
morning person, so I got the bike in order and went out for second practice only. It
was slippery out there. There were a lot of crashes in T6.
GTL
I went out and got a great start... I was battling with Marshall in the first few laps of the race. We got a couple good passes back and forth, and had a good time. I was running a medium compound rear, and it was kind of chilly out. As the race wore on, the back end of the bike wasn't sticking so well. I ended up having to slow down and let a lot of people by. Just after halfway through the race, the back end of the bike was really getting out of shape in T6 and T10. I didn't feel like being added to the list of people who crashed, so I came in after the 14th lap. I was disappointed.
GP Singles
I got another great start (gotta love it when the clutch is set up properly!) and
went into T1 with the expert clump. I was a little more aggressive, and was psyched
that it looked like I would actually beat Marshall to T3 (for once!). Just at the
last minute, Marshall put his bike in front of me on the brakes into T3 (bastard!) and did
a great job of getting through the pack. I got stuck in a wad of traffic and ended
up behind a Motard. I battled with the Motard for a couple laps, while Marshall and
Paul put some distance on me. I passed the Motard guy on the straight and he cut
back in front of me into T1, about 3 inches from taking my front wheel out. I had to
feather the brakes and prepared to hit the ground. Luckily I didn't fall. I
finally got by him going into the bowl and didn't look back. I was really hoping to
go play with Marshall, but he and Paul had put too much distance between us. Dane
was right behind me and managed to pass me, but with a sprained ankle, he blew some shifts
into T3, and I managed to stay in front of him. He was fast though, and next year
will probably kick my ass. lol. I got a best lap in the 1:26 range (which I
wasn't too happy about) and picked up 6th place for 7 points..
LWGP
Another good start from your man in action. I battled with Dane again in this one.
he was hanging back planing on making a move near the end, when the race got red
flagged. The leaders had completed 4 laps, so they didn't restart. I ended up
with 14th place. And so ends the racing at NHIS for the year.
Sun 9/1
I didn't bother practicing, but sent my garage mate Rick out on the 125 for a test ride
during second practice. He came back with a large smile on his face, and offered to
trade me his '92 250 for the 125 LOL.
Special thanks to everyone for a really fun safe year of racing. Thanks a million
to all my garage mates who have spent countless hours working together to fix problems, go
faster and generally have a bitchin fun time! See you all next year!