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AMA Grand Championships Recap – Day 3

Saturday:

I hadn't slept well Friday night. I was up thinking about Saturday's races. Practice started off well however, as we were 2nd or 3rd fastest in the morning practice sessions (although Westby wasn't running his transponder). It made no matter, as we knew his times and my dad was telling me he was about half a second faster than we were. Same with Chapman. After practice, my dad had to leave and head back to Michigan for a wedding. He would be missing the two races, but be back early Sunday morning with my mom. Doug would be running the show with him gone.

The first race of the day was 750 Superbike. Chapman and Dominguez were off and away on their 750s. I think there were more 750s in the race as well, but I wasn't sure. I had a good launch and was running in 5th place, while getting into the 1:31's – new found territory. However Tony Kasper was catching me and passed me on the last lap on the back straight. I was maybe a little too defensive on the last lap and had a bad drive coming out of the keyhole onto the straight. Kasper capitalized and I wasn't able to get back past him before the checkered flag and had to settle for 6th place. I was the only WERA rider in the top 10. The rest of the top 10 were made up of CMRA and CCS riders.

600 Superbike was our next race. It didn't go well. I got stuck behind three guys, all who were slower than I was. One was trying to pass the other, and I couldn't find a way by. And when I did pass one, another would pass by and we'd all get tangled up. On the last lap there were four of us bunched together; one of which was Danny Kelsey, who had already run off the track earlier in the race. I came alongside him through Thunder Valley and was alongside him going into the left-hander T13. He didn't seem to care though and he just threw the bike over, chopping across my front end. I chopped the throttle and got onto the brakes, narrowly avoiding us making contact. I finished 8th.

On the cool down lap, I just rode by him shaking my head. At post tech, I asked him what his erratic riding was all about and he just gave me a thumbs up, as if to blow the incident off. I leaned in and asked him, "No, really, what was that?" He was pretty clueless and didn't give much of a response. Just some "uh, uh". I just shook my head and rode back to the pits, thinking what a schmuck this guy was.

The disappointment in that race was that 1:31's would have been good enough for 4th place. I didn't have any clean laps in that race and went a second slower than in the first race. The pack in front of me were all in the mid-high 1:32 range. With a better start and being able to latch onto Chapman and Westby, who knows what could have happened.

Once all the races were done, Eric, Nik, Dave, Bill (Stranahan) and I did a track walk. We had already done one Thursday morning, but I didn't mind doing another one. We were gone for about an hour and it was well worth it. Dave and Bill presented some different views on lines and fast ways around the track (they've both ran well at Mid-O) and it gave me a real sense of confidence heading into Sunday's races. I knew where I could pick up time. Rather than the nervous excitement I had Friday night, Saturday night was the opposite. I was eager, relaxed and ready for Sunday ..

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 | POSTED AT: 6:00 AM
FILED UNDER: Race Reports