Last time i rode on the track was Barber in Sept 07 and i tossed it down in t12 untill this past weekend at Roebling, Friday started of with butterflies and uncertainty, i go out 1st practice, circulate a 3 or 4 laps and the session gets red flagged due to a mechanical of another rider. Great i didn't fall, yea! Session 2, pit out 1st iirc by t3 i'm getting passed on the left and right. I think,"oh shit" i'm holding everyone up, then remembered to hold my line and do my thing, they will get by. Session 3 & 4 was the same tho i felt i was going a bit better, I was still getting blazed by everyone. Remember my goal to stay on 2 wheels and hold my lines. Made it thru on 2 wheels, feeling good, woot! Sat morn registered for my planned 1 race(Senior MW Nov),place transponder on bike, get a few pointers from David Brown and head out for 1st practice. Well there they go again to the left of me, to the right of me. Holy shit these dudes and girls are fast. Embarrased by the lap times on practice(tell you them in a bit) Make it thru 2nd practice, still getting passed but finding a little bit of speed(if thats what you want to call it,LOL) and feeling comfortable. Race time... grid up last position(I'm badass!)Green drops for experts, they get missing, board turns for us, green flag drops and WTF do i do, stand that bitch up on rear tire(11 o'clock) and damn near loop it. So everyone is way out on me, i'm pissed, so i got down to business catching up. I reel in a guy and have me a race, i think he wound up pulling in, idk what happened, I got lapped by, Carpenter, Brown , Long and another dude(fast mf'ers). So i'm doing my thing and catch up to and pass a guy coming out of 9 to take white flag, run last lap waiting for him to get me back but he showed me mercy. Took the checkered and had a huge smile inside my Arai! Now the funny part, my lap times. 1st lap in Sat practice was a 1:43.0( stop laughing) last lap of my race was a 1:25.7. I guess thats not to bad for a old dude who had ZERO track time since 07 and had never been to RRR. I plan on doing some passing next time and dropping a few more seconds off my time. I want to thank all the riders in 600 cc novice practice group for making clean passes on me and hopefully not getting pissed while doing so. Also thanks to David Brown for the pointers, support and encouragement, Russell Masecar for prodding me and encourging me to get back out there and to Curtis Murray for the positive words. N
I've been waiting for this.:up: Gary, that's great! Glad that you got back out there. Congratulations old man!
It was good seeing you out there actually riding! Let's not make it another 4yrs before you come out again :up:
Tally is a maybe, was leaning toward Road A AMA round to watch Curtis since i cant take friday off for practice. Will let ya know for sure
I had a f'm great time, forgot how much fun it was. No more long layoffs. Thanks for the props Heather and thanks for the concert Curt.
Great write up. Very inspiring. Congratulations on coming back. Maybe We'll meet one day at a track. I'll buy You a beer.
About time. :up: Laptimes will come, it's all about track time. When you step off for that long, Roebling is a bit of a trial by fire.