Daytona Update?

[r6_philly]

just came back from Daytona.

it was very cold on Fri. everyone falls down. Am's and Ex's. time were down a couple seconds across the board for most people.

Lots and lots of Experts in the races, I was stuck in second wave in most of the races.

superdave is a super cool guy!  :)

for the big race, I started on the 10the row and finished 33rd (out of 50 I think). Went 2 seconds faster than all of the weekend during the Sportbike race. Got lapped on the last lap by top 3, and held up Chris Peris pretty good  ;D not intentional, but just how it happened, he had to go superlow on the banking to get around me...

Out of my pit, my 2 teammates crashed 4 times on 3 different bikes. I came away with no crashes :D real happy about that, and went faster than I did last year. Still couldn't find a good set up on my new bike because of the cold and limited tracktime, but I am happy to have gone faster.

Starts in a FUSA Expert race scares the crap out of me. My first Ex race GTU was red flagged twice before we completed 1 lap. 3 starts! I thought AM races did that :p

put on new tires for qualifying, you go faster  ;D (I didn't)

all in all I had lots of fun. Was frustrating until I went faster. I could have gone faster still if had 2 more days, I finially learned a few things during the sportbike race.

Bill Keros crashes big on the trioval, his bike turned into a ball, but he only got a few rashes...

Bart Defrancesco crashes big onto the banking and breaking his leg and shoulder, should be leaving hospital tomorrow.

More later, just some ramblings...

[r6racer]

Dafan, you were pitted a few garages down from me.  Actually when I showed up on Thursday morning all you guys had stolen my garage ;D
You had like 5 bikes in one half of the garage so I said fug it and pitted w/ a friend of mine.  No worries.  Sounds like you had just as frustrating a time as I did.

My starts were all from row 2 & 3.  Try feeling good about coming out of 1 in 5th or 6th and then get overrun by the likes of Pegram, Raap, Peris et al :o

That was some of the most fun I had all weekend being up there with those guys for 2 turns

[Photo_Chick]

We were down there shooting the CCS races, and it was very cold the first couple days.  The wind was kicking our butt as well.  There were a lot of crashes, a few delays, etc. but most everyone had a great time

[r6_philly]

Steve, sorry about the garage, I wasn't there, I would have worked something out. I thought we had gotten 2, but showed up to see only one :( Actually it wouldn't been bad if they didn't keep crashing the darn things. We would have only have 3 bikes if they would keep them off the ground. Then have to use space to fix them...

the only bike which didn't get crashed was my new bike. We had to fix on something most of the time  :o

Hey lucky you with the 2nd and 3rd row starts. The best start on my CCS races was 11th row, which is the front of second wave. I end up just behind the group you are in every race, by the time I catch up its the end of the race, it was real frustrating. (well I guess I could have just gone faster  ;D but I couldn't ) why didn't you do sportbike? I Think we would have been right there dicing if you did.

[OmniGLH]

I guess it was 45 degrees, cold tire crashes :-/ I hope for the best for everyone thats down there! Good job Jim Ptak. Representing the MW!


Stumpy

Thanks Stumpy!  I was worried it was going to take me awhile to get up to pace, being that I was on a new bike, and it's really the first time I was going to "try" since I broke my shoulder last April.  But things turned out pretty good!  Weekend results ended with 1 win, 2 seconds, and 1 3rd.  I am happy, bike works great!  Weather SUCKED though... 43 degrees and cloudy isn't my idea of "Florida" weather - all I brought down with me were shorts and T-shirts!  I am freaking sick as a dog now  :(  so I can't wait to get home (came straight from the airport this morning to the office.)  I am going to load up on NyQuil, play a little XBOX and pass out!

[motobenco]

Nice job Jim!  I would say it feels good to be back in Chicago, but I'd be lying. Yep the cold track caught me out in the Horseshoe, at least I wasn't alone in the Medical Center (GTU). Otherwise definitely some speed recalibration going on, maybe not the best track to hop on after a few months off, but it was still fun. As for everyone in the 80 something garages I couldn't have picked a better bunch of guys to pit with. Anyone that was around me feel free to stay in touch I was in a bit of a rush to get the trailer out if the infield during lunch. Nothing like driving straight through either, 20 hours down and 19.5 back, no tickets and pull in to my buddies house with one of the trailer tires losing air. Just made it.

[Thingy]

I was there on Saturday.  Sounds like everybody dropped their bikes on Friday.

Hanson was building his backup bike.

Tez was recovering from a nice head-jarring from Friday.

Gordon did pretty well in the F-USA races.  He was always around 5th place.

Super Dave and Jesse did OK and had a few nice battles with each other along the way.

[kevin_nolde]

Daytona is the best. All day at the track and fresh Seafood, lots of bikes, I wish I was going to be there next week. I ran a 2:07.02 on th estock Kaw 600, Stosk with Michilin M's first lap is tricky the rest was great. See you all in October.. Kevin Nolde CoS manager