When: June 25 - 27, 2004
Where: VIR
Wednesday 6/23
I was headed down to VIR with Steve and Sean, so I got home after work, finished
up a few items and waited for their arrival. We left Boston around 7pm.
Thursday 6/24
We drove until about 4am, took a nap for a couple hours, then went on to VIR.
We got set up, registered and teched, and made sure the bikes were set up for the
weekend. Sean had made reservations for us at the local motel, so we went off to
dinner and then slept.
Friday 6/25
Got up, had breakfast and headed off to the track. We got two quick
sessions of practice in the morning, then had CCS races in the afternoon.
GTL
The race went without incident for me. It got red flagged 8 laps in and they called
the race. My best lap time was in the low 1:43 range, less than a second off from
last years' best time. I finished in 12th spot out of 38 people. My times were
good enough for 8th, but I didn't get a very good start.
Saturday 6/26
Saturday morning saw some rain, and our first session was slightly wet. Most of us
went out on slicks, and there was some pretty good traction. I did well in the wet,
and passed a lot of people in practice. I was hoping for rain, but it wasn't to be.
125 GP (CCS)
I got a bad start and ended up near the back of the pack. I felt myself doing well
and managed to finish 13th out of 25 people. I also broke my last year record by
about half a second with a low 1:42 lap time.
LW GP
Since they were running so behind schedule, our race was shortened to 5 laps. I got
another completely horrible start, and hung out at the back for a while. I was a bit
spooked for this race, so I let the big bikes go and just concentrated on putting in some
good laps. There was a red flag, and we sat on pit road for a while, but they
eventually restarted the race. I got another horrible start and ended up mid-pack.
I finished 17th out of 29 people, and my best lap was back in the low 1:43 range.
125 Qualifying
I got out for qualifying and stayed out the whole time. I tried to relax and enjoy
the track time, and got into a groove. I pulled off another 1:42 lap time, which put
me into 20th on the starting grid.
Sunday 6/27
We had one practice in the morning. I got out there jsut to get the day
going and took my time.
125 GP (USGPRU)
Since VIR puts gaps after every 5 rows of the starting grid, I had a big hole in front of
me to the 5th row. I was determined though, and got a great start. I ended up
being 5th into Turn 1 from my 6th row start. I put my head down and went to work.
I managed to pass some people, and felt reallly confident about the race.
About 3/4 of the way through, I started to fade and slow down a bit. The second to
last lap I almost threw it away between T16 and T17. I went way offline and ended up
in some really bad pavement. The front wheel got some pretty bad headshakes, but I
managed to keep it from falling over. On teh last lap I was a bit hesitant and got
draft passed heading for the checkered flag. It was a wheel to wheel finish, but I
lost the position. Overall I ended up 15th out of 38 people, and got a new best lap
time of 1:39.778. I was psyched!
Special thanks to Steve and Sean.