so we're half way through the race season. After a huge crash at Summit Point last time (I'll send pictures when I get them), I'm 21st in the region. I need to get top 15 to be invited to the Grand National Finals at Atlanta in October. That's like 5 days of racing!

The plan was to leave for Nelson Ledges Ohio Thursday at 5pm (6 hour drive!). Dave and I signed up for an all day practice session on friday, so I wanted to get there and get some sleep. Didn't leave work till 6pm(bastard programmers!!!) Didn't leave home till 8pm. Get there 2am in the rain with a broken tail pipe on my truck.

get up after 4 or 5 hours of sleep on a rock (sleeping pad was packed deep within the truck) and head to the track - 5 min away. There were only 4 open practice session guys there (including dave and I), so we had an hour and a half of open practice before their rider school hit the track. didn't actually ride all that time. the carousel (long (really long) right hand turn) was still wet from the morning dew, so we set up the pit and let things dry out some.

Finally get out on the track. IT SUCKS! the track is basically 2 miles of pot holes, pavement transitions and patches. Grass was actually growing through the pavement in turn 1. I had no idea what line to follow or how to get around the track without crashing. Meanwhile dave does crash in turn 13. he was breaking in a new top end and wasn't paying attention. went off the track and slide to the other side. it was a slow crash. no big deal. for the next practice session he tells me to follow the orange dots on the track. It's so bad, someone was nice enough to paint orange dots for the one and only good race line. Following that makes a huge difference. Then I meet up with another guy who's sort of a local. he gives me a few pointers about some of the turns. things get even better. I was doing pretty good by friday afternoon, but was getting tired from lack of sleep. I pull out the rest of the day and relax. no reason to get tired and crash when there's no corner workers anywhere on the track (that's bad, but what do you expect for $65 open practice).

Saturday morning practice goes even better. I'm really getting used to the track and the one good line. Turns out the faster you go, the better things get. Brian Roach (he's first in points in my class) helped me out with some issues on form and how I hold my body through the turns. What a world of difference that made. I'm going even faster now. meanwhile dave is hating it. he just can't get fast enough, and the carousel sucks for him. We didn't race saturday.

sunday morning practice was ok, but not like saturday. little dehydrated I guess. My first race was THE first race on sunday. I hate going first. not enough time to work out the butterflies in your stomach. anyway, the start was ok. could have been better, but there's not a whole lot of room at the start/finish line of this track. Follow the leaders for about half a lap, then get sucky. I wasn't relaxed and had all the wrong body positions. It just wasn't good. Dave was timing me, and my first couple of laps were 1:25's. Way slow compared to saturday (didn't have lap times from sat. but it felt slow). Basically had 2 riders ahead of me that I could see. Decided to try and relax and catch up to them. slowly each lap I was gaining on them. finally pass them both out of the carousel onto the back straight. By this time I'm doing 1:22's, but still not as fast as saturday. May have been a lap or not even, but the one rider passed me back. couldn't catch her (yes it was a girl) and she beat me. talking to some guys later they said that's her trademark. if you pass her, she'll pass you back, so don't pass her till the very end. Finished 6th in that race.

the second race was Formula 2. Usually don't care much about this race, but felt better than the first. was a lot more relaxed and did better. still not like saturday. nothing too eventful in that race either. I finished 8th.

need to adjust my ride height for the next race. I was dragging my exhaust and brake pedal in the carousel and turn 13.

packed up and left around 6pm. roll in around 12:30 last night to find my neighbors car parked in front of the garage. how the hell am I going to back my trailer in the garage? Luckily it was his VW Thing. i simply took off the parking brake and pushed it out of the way (almost creamed my other neighbors car). got the trailer in the garage, pushed the VW back and went to bed.

so that was it for Nelson Ledges. have to go back the end of July and labor day weekend. It's a nasty track, but the fast line is fast. the labor day weekend is a double points event too.