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AMA Grand Championships Recap – Day 1

Thursday:

My dad, Gina and I arrived at the track around 6:30pm on Wednesday night. The rest of our WERA team (Dave Grey and Sam Gaige, along with Eric Johnston and Nik VonMatt) had all arrived as well. We set up shop, went through registration/tech, and were ready to go for the weekend.

Thursday was an all-day practice and a bit of a mess. An amateur oiled the track in the first session, which caused a lengthy delay. From what I heard, he didn't have his oil filter safety-wired, and it came loose while he was riding. His bike oiled about half the track, making it virtually unrideable, so we spent a lot of time in the pits. We ended up getting a few practice sessions in by the end of the day, negotiating through oil-dry that kept the track a bit sketchy.

Doug and Marion Cornett had arrived around lunch and Doug jumped right into helping my dad manage things. We were progressing well, setting a best lap time of a 1:34.8, which was only .8 off my best lap time from all of last year; and all without a completely clean track.

The worst news of the day was that Dave had a bent valve in his motor and would be done for the weekend. Up until this point Dave was riding extremely well and off to a great start for the weekend. We were all extremely bummed out – Dave of course the most, but he bounced back and helped all of us out the rest of the weekend, which really showed the kind of person he is.

We all went out to eat that night, looking forward to Friday morning practice and then qualifying in the afternoon. We would have a busy day with five qualifying sessions. 600 Superbike, 600 Supersport, 750 Superbike, 750 Supersport, and the 600 Pro/Am class ..

Monday, September 24th, 2007 | POSTED AT: 6:43 AM
FILED UNDER: Race Reports