ECK #187 LRRS weekend #1 race report.

[OreoGaborio]

WOOT! This past weekend was the first Loudon Road Racing Series event of 2009 and what a weekend it was....

So far, 2009 has been a year of "news"..

New helmet
New paint job
New team
New teammates
New sponsors
New tires
New suspension set-up
New personal best lap time
New NUMBER PLATES

And "firsts"...
First expert race
First expert top 10 finishes (three of them)
First battle with some of my old friends
(Unfortunately no first place finishes )

Anyway, you get the idea. On to the race summaries...


Saturday morning practice went well and the bike felt amazing. I've never had a bike fall into a corner quite like this. Between the fresh suspension & more triangular Pirelli Diablo Supercorsas, the bike felt like it was reading my mind. I had to push back my turn-in markers slightly to compensate for how quickly & easily I was able to get to full lean.

Sat Race 2 - GTL (20 minute GT): My first Expert race

Due to a lucky computer glitch, I was gridded second row, right behind LRRS champions Todd Babcock and Rick Doucette... I got an AMAZING launch & settled in smack dab in the middle of the lead pack going into turn 1.... this would be the theme of the weekend as I was able to get great launches in all 4 of my races. I settled into a pace that was aggressive but manageable and kept my head down for a full 20 minutes. I rattled off a whole string of 1:22's with a couple of 23's mixed in, finished off the race with a trio of 21's with a best of 1:21.3 on lap 12 of 14. I finished smack dab in the middle of the pack and took my first Expert top 10 finish (out of 20).

Sat Race 7 - LWSB: Gridded behind Babcock and Doucette again and stuck with them for the first 1/2 a lap after getting another great launch. But by the time we came back around to start lap 2 I had dropped back a few spots. I had a fun battle with #39 Alan Quinn on his Duc 1000 and he pulled me down to a new best lap of a 1:21.1 which would be my best lap of the weekend. He was able to pull away & gap out on me mid race, but towards the end I could tell he was getting drained. He made a few mistakes in the bowl & 9 and I was able to reel him in by the white flag. I lined him up in a couple places but wasn't quite able to take him. I got a much better drive out of 12 than he did and came along side him down the stretch, but he had more motor and beat me to the checkered so I ended up 12th place out of 15.



Sunday morning practice, thanks to a heads up from my teammate Jamie & friend Tim, I concentrated on my drive out of turn 12 onto the front straight. By picking up the throttle sooner & harder I was able to pick up a few mph down the stretch.

Sun Race 7 - LWSS: The 1:19 that wasn't

After another great start I think I was in 5th place coming out of turn 12 after the 1st lap. I was able to latch onto a couple of others and had a good time battling with John Tansey, #608 and believe it or not, super fast guy Rick Doucette. He was on someone's MWPTwins bike and it was moving around on him quite a bit.... I could tell he was just riding around smelling the dasies, but it was a trip trying to stick with him none the less. My buddy Chris (Jersey) was glued to my rear tire for the first few laps and tried an outside pass on me in turn 1... but not until AFTER Doucette got past me... well I decided to try and stick with him through 1, 1a and 2 and it was on that lap that Jersey tried to get me around the outside but quickly found out that I had more balls than brains & decided to stick with Rick, so he runs wide & ended up in the grass, but kept it up and didn't loose any spots. I ended up finishing 7th out of 11 and had a best lap time of 1:21.6.

After the races I went over to check the results & when they got posted all I saw was X1.19.7..... not realizing I was looking at the TOTAL RACE time I thought I did a 1:19 and flipped my shit, ran around the pits & told the world. Oh well :lao

Sun Race 11 - LWGP:

The last race of the weekend, once again gridded behind Babcock & Doucette... once again a great launch... and once again right with the lead pack through turn 1. The lead pack gapped out on me through 1a and 2 but I kept my head down & ran my race.... by mid race I was just waiting for my old buddies Brian Oxx & Jersey to pass me but it didn't come for the longest time. Jersey showed me a wheel coming into turn 3 early in the race but wasn't able to make the pass... Shortly after that though he DID get me on the outside of turn 6. I kept with him to turn 12 where he ran 11a wide and took the grassy "tight" line in 12 and got right back onto the track. I got him easily on the front straight but around lap 6 or 7 he made another move and got me under braking coming into turn 3. We were both coming in hot and he ran it a little wide so I held onto the brakes for as long as I could, squared it up & got on the gas hard out of 3. I got a great run into 4 and almost pulled even with him, but he gave me a good ole "WELCOME TO EXPERT" move and just SLAMMED the door shut on me at the turn 4 apex cone. I had to chop the throttle which killed my drive and that allowed Oxx to take me on the inside heading into turn 6. I was able to keep them in sight to the checkered but I was all used up by that point and they both clocked off 1:20's to my 1:22 on the white flag lap and finished 10th outta 12.

It was such a rush holding them off and I soooo wanted to finish in front of them, but just knowing I could keep a couple of veteran experts like those two guys at bay for so long felt great. :cheers


Huge thanks to my teammates Arcy, Jamie, Gene W. & the rest of the ECK Racing crew, BostonMoto Pirelli, all of the ECK sponsors listed in my sig & everyone else from the paddocks. It was great seeing all you guys again and I'm lookin forward to a GREAT 2009 season. :beer