Nick Hayman is my main competition in the points for Open Twins this year in Open Twins. He is 3rd and holds a lead over me in 4th after I crashed out of the last round. This weekend, Nick let me ride his bike against him. What a stand-up guy, and a real sportsman. Thank you, Nick. I won't be able to forget this weekend.
Here's the story:
I got to the track late Friday and rode 3 sessions on Saturday when my motor broke.
Nick Hayman was riding well in practice on Saturday, but his bike needed too many parts to fix after being taken out in Turn 10. Nick's fortunate enough to find Pat Blackburn and borrow his 848.
I call around, but no one has a Ducati racebike sitting around that I can pick up and ride. I approach Nick, and he agrees to let me use parts off my bike to get his bike up and running.
I get GP Frame & Wheel to measure the bike. "Crooked, but rideable." I stay up late swapping throttle cables, brakes, wheels, rearsets, clip-ons, shock, fairing stay, dash, shifter, rear brake pedal and plunger, and a couple other small odds and ends.
I only got in a couple laps in the morning warmup, so I had to use my first two races to prepare for Open Twins (race 11).
F1 goes "okay" -- I got a mediocre start, but immediately start moving backwards. In the last two laps, Mr. AFM President comes by and gives me a tow, helping me drop a couple seconds a lap and getting back up to competitive pace (1:56.3).
750 Superbike is back-to-back with Open Twins, but it gives me some more seat time so I go for it. I am in the back of the pack (beat one rider who finished the race), but I picked up a couple points and kept it upright and got warmed up for Open Twins.
Open Twins -- flag drops and I'm in 5th position through turn 2 behind Craig Smith, Matt Green, Eric Gulbransen on the Super Duke, and Nick Hayman on Pat's 848. Nick started gapping me a bit on the first lap, but I was able to close up behind him by the time we got on the brakes going into 14. I lined up and drove hard out of 15 and the 999 was able to outmotor the 848 going into 1 (I left a big cushion, since we were both on borrowed bikes!). From there, I started going after Gulbransen, and I noticed he larger and larger each lap as I got closer. After the end of the 4th lap, I was right on Eric in turn 3. I started trying to line him up for a pass going into 4, but didn't quite have it. When I tipped it in for turn 4, I felt the rear slide in a weird way. I tried to maintain contact with Eric, but he started pulling away and I couldn't push it with a rear tire that was giving me bad feedback. Unfortunately, going into the final lap, Pat Blackburn motors past me and I could not fight back. *sigh*.
I ended up 4th, turning a 1:55.7. Over a second a lap slower than last month, but not too shabby on a borrowed bike with a rear tire that had started chunking (I'll share the picture later, but long story short -- GOOD THING I did not try to fight back on the last 2 laps).
Thanks again to Nick for saving my weekend. *Way cool*, Mate!
Cheers,
Tigre / Steve
AFM #944
TigerBike Racing
