So, woot woot!, I raced in Round 2 this past weekend.
Saturday was all practice, and my the first time I had been on the track since racing in Round 1, as both track nights were cancelled due to weather.
The first time out for the morning was slow going, and a little off.
My second session, however, was the most amazing session! For starters, I FINALLY consistently hit redline in 6th going down the front straight, when I was lucky to hit 5th gear before. I also got my knee down through 2 corners, which was another first (I had dragged knee consistently on the mini-track last year, but this was the first time I got it down on the big track). And I wore off the remaining 1/4" of my chicken strip on my rear tire.
Aside from my foot slipping off my peg when I was coming out of the bus-stop, I rode without incident.. which is pretty much another first!
I went back on Sunday for the races.
My start on my first race was damn near perfect; although, I did have my first wheelie.
I gained four positions down the front straight, and entered the corner mid-pack, but then something happened, and I lost EVERYONE in the front pack. I tried to catch back up, but I just couldn't get there. My second lap felt like I was hitting everything wrong. I'm really surprised that I didn't eat it in a bunch of places. Race 1 felt like I was just out there doing laps. No one lapped me, and I wasn't in last place or anything, but it didn't feel good at all.
My second race was started off with a pretty hard-landing wheelie, which put me at the back of the front pack going hard into corner one. But, I wanted it. I wasn't going to be left behind. For the first four or five laps, I was keeping up with everyone. They would sometimes lose me on the back straight, then I would catch up by the entrance to the carousel. I made two aggressive passes, that I'm so super proud of - one at the crest of a blind hill/corner 9, and another one I dove under a rider going into the carousel. I lost traction on my rear tire going around the corner that I crashed in a month ago, but regained it and carried on about my business. I also ran over a gopher, and the rider behind me said that it just exploded. I kinda wish he had an on-board camera.
Over the weekend, I dropped my lap times by 6 seconds, and gained two top-8 finishes.
