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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlbzvvSOh2Y
I had a pretty good weekend and got my first expert win in the Heavyweight Twins Class, with some intense wheel to wheel competition between AMA pro Chase Vivion, last year's Class Champion Van Blaylock and myself.
It almost surprised me that I was able to pace Chase on the first lap. Despite a missed shift, I got a good start but he rocketed up from the 3rd row to grab the hole shot which killed my drive out of Turn 1. His bike wasn't running 100% and he was running extremely defensive lines. I tried to get past in the right/left after Everybody's Favorite but he squeezed me pretty hard so I backed off.
Then Van motored past me on the front straight and started his battle with Chase. I was able to keep them both within 4-5 bike lengths for the duration of the race and Van never could get past him for the lead. I'm really disappointed the forward looking camera decided to turn itself off. If it hadn't, you would have seen Chase and Van gapping me on the straights and me reeling them back in on the brakes, lap after lap.
On what I thought was the second to last lap I made a move. I was stronger than both of them in that right/left after Everybody's Favorite and got within 3 bike lengths. I started way wide and late into the Bus Stop which sent me in deep to the outside for a head start on the drive out to the right. And it also put me right on their tails. Van followed right behind Chase and they were both stuck to the inside curbing when Chase's motor blew in a spectacular fireball, and he started to pull off to the inside into the grass. I was already on the gas and driving through the gap between the two bikes as Van went out wide.
With me having the advantage the drag race up the hill was dead even. I could tell Van was glancing incredulously over at me by the situation. I didn't back out of the throttle after the crest until after he did and we were coming up fast on a lapper at the brake markers. I dove into the inside hoping I could clear the lapper and Van chose the outside line. He says the lapper stood it up as I went past which pushed him wide and killed his drive. On what I thought was the white flag lap I had gapped Van to .7 seconds.
Once I realized I had a chance to win I turned it on. That was my fastest lap with a :20.4 while Van did a :19.7 to close the gap by the last turn. I should have driven harder into that turn but my rear was sliding pretty good under power and I didn't want to meet the air fence. Van motored past to the checker to get me by a bike length, and with that my first Heavyweight win slipped away. Or so I thought.
It wasn't until we saw the results after the last race that both of us were dumbfounded. Timing and Scoring had me in 1st Place with him .7 seconds behind. He barely made the cutoff to protest and I just kind of hung around in the background and tried to figure out what had happened.
An hour later after video replays, manual scoring checks and the Race Director mediating we came to the conclusion that the Flag Marshal missed us for the official white flag, I guess we snuck past in a little traffic. When we split the lapper and saw the white for the first time it should have been the checker for us, so we inadvertently raced an extra lap! And ironically, my fastest lap was on the cool down lap.
I was running a hard compound rear since I was doing 3 sprints on the bike and the torquey beast tends to shred rear tires. If you've read all this then that explains the pucker factor at the 4:08 mark in the video. I think with a softer compound I would have easily gotten into the :19s and maybe an :18 if everything went right.
I had a pretty good weekend and got my first expert win in the Heavyweight Twins Class, with some intense wheel to wheel competition between AMA pro Chase Vivion, last year's Class Champion Van Blaylock and myself.
It almost surprised me that I was able to pace Chase on the first lap. Despite a missed shift, I got a good start but he rocketed up from the 3rd row to grab the hole shot which killed my drive out of Turn 1. His bike wasn't running 100% and he was running extremely defensive lines. I tried to get past in the right/left after Everybody's Favorite but he squeezed me pretty hard so I backed off.
Then Van motored past me on the front straight and started his battle with Chase. I was able to keep them both within 4-5 bike lengths for the duration of the race and Van never could get past him for the lead. I'm really disappointed the forward looking camera decided to turn itself off. If it hadn't, you would have seen Chase and Van gapping me on the straights and me reeling them back in on the brakes, lap after lap.
On what I thought was the second to last lap I made a move. I was stronger than both of them in that right/left after Everybody's Favorite and got within 3 bike lengths. I started way wide and late into the Bus Stop which sent me in deep to the outside for a head start on the drive out to the right. And it also put me right on their tails. Van followed right behind Chase and they were both stuck to the inside curbing when Chase's motor blew in a spectacular fireball, and he started to pull off to the inside into the grass. I was already on the gas and driving through the gap between the two bikes as Van went out wide.
With me having the advantage the drag race up the hill was dead even. I could tell Van was glancing incredulously over at me by the situation. I didn't back out of the throttle after the crest until after he did and we were coming up fast on a lapper at the brake markers. I dove into the inside hoping I could clear the lapper and Van chose the outside line. He says the lapper stood it up as I went past which pushed him wide and killed his drive. On what I thought was the white flag lap I had gapped Van to .7 seconds.
Once I realized I had a chance to win I turned it on. That was my fastest lap with a :20.4 while Van did a :19.7 to close the gap by the last turn. I should have driven harder into that turn but my rear was sliding pretty good under power and I didn't want to meet the air fence. Van motored past to the checker to get me by a bike length, and with that my first Heavyweight win slipped away. Or so I thought.
It wasn't until we saw the results after the last race that both of us were dumbfounded. Timing and Scoring had me in 1st Place with him .7 seconds behind. He barely made the cutoff to protest and I just kind of hung around in the background and tried to figure out what had happened.
An hour later after video replays, manual scoring checks and the Race Director mediating we came to the conclusion that the Flag Marshal missed us for the official white flag, I guess we snuck past in a little traffic. When we split the lapper and saw the white for the first time it should have been the checker for us, so we inadvertently raced an extra lap! And ironically, my fastest lap was on the cool down lap.
I was running a hard compound rear since I was doing 3 sprints on the bike and the torquey beast tends to shred rear tires. If you've read all this then that explains the pucker factor at the 4:08 mark in the video. I think with a softer compound I would have easily gotten into the :19s and maybe an :18 if everything went right.
