April 2004
Well, not such a good month. I was determined to continue to pick up the pace. I put a new clutch in, which it turns out the bike really needed. I did the basic maintenance, and everything was in really good shape. It was weird though, because I kept having the feeling that I was going to crash. So, guess what? I did. Second session on Saturday practice I was going on the outside of 5 and the tires didn't stick. Lowsided and went into the dirt. It was about as uneventful as a crash can be, but still it caused enough damage that I spent most of the rest of the day fixing the bike. I had gone out on old tires that had been flipped. The rear was pretty worn on the left side, and 5 is a left. I went too hard too early on an old tire on a cold track. Pretty dumb. Learned that lesson. I had to get gloves, trashed the helmet, replaced the rear-sets, and taped the bodywork back together in order to get back on the track. I had a couple of sessions just to see if everything was ok, and to get the shifter and rear-sets adjusted.
On Sunday I was very tentative in the morning practices. So slow that I almost got yanked from the PRO practice session. Still, I got it together and started running 1:30's again. I ran four races, F-40 (sixth place), F-Twins (4th place and should have gotten a third but I was a wimp), BOTT-Middleweight (2nd), and F-2 (way down there somewhere).
I am sort of happy with the second place BOTT-MW, but if I had run the pace I ran last month I would have won. Also, I think the crash did something to the bike because it was vibrating so bad in the F-2 race my hands went numb. Looks like it's time for the motor to come out. Oh well. One year on a 748 Race Motor is about all I could have hoped for I guess.
We'll see how it goes next month,,,