Diary 2007

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April 21 - 22, 2006

Route 66 Raceway, Joliet IL (April 21 - 22, 2007)

A brand new season

Saturday, April 21, 2007 - by Kevyn Ashbay (crew)

Well, its finally here. A new season is upon us and everyone is ready to go. The bike has had little changes since we went all those rounds in Indianapolis. Personally, I've gotten used to winning because of how well last year went. I'm looking forward to getting our first race victory this year in Joliet. Maybe even a Wally at the ND race or the King of the Track race.

Today is just Test and Tune. The plan is to get down the track and break in the freshened motor a few times and then change the clutch around to see what it will do in this weather. The weather even happens to be 100% sun shine and very warm. Nothing like the 6 to 8 inches of snow we had in Michigan only a couple weeks ago. In that sense, I'm kind of surprised we are here, especially with such beautiful weather.

I really can't do a diary entry without telling you about all the cool cars here to test. There are a few Top Alchol Funny Cars here, including Mick Snyder. The Greek is here with is Top Fuel dragster (I saw him go by when I was sitting in the doorway of the trailor, I would guess it was over 300 MPH). A couple of Pro Mod cars are here. I love them! and a few Pro Stock cars came over to make some runs. Amongst other, I believe I heard it was over 280 cars on the grounds, which makes for a very long day.

Saturday, April 22, 2007

Today starts the new points series. Race #1 and we are anxious to get it started. Everything went extremely well yesterday in testing so I don't see why we can't go a few rounds today. Going up to the starting line for time trial one, there were eighteen bikes, so that makes for a good bracket. Lots of bikes means lots of rounds and lots of points to be had. I know it is the only the first race, but no better time to jump up to the top of the class then now!

Couple of things happened today: First, Greg Darm basically split is motor case in two. Lots of oil on the track and almost an hour of cleanup. That on top of the tech department already WAY behind, so that gave them time to catch up. Secondly, our first round got scrapped when the computer never got switched to the CrossTalk mode. So we actually thought we lost and started to pack up when they announced that everyone would be rerun. That was all great until we got to the lanes and the started repairing everyone until the end when one rider couldn't show up and they gave 2 bye runs to 2 different riders. I am not sure why they did that but that was only the beginning. Later in the race, the officials seemed to change their minds again and let one bike have another bye run (first and second rounds). So consequently, that made everyone in the class upset. I love when they change their minds half-way through something.

But all and all, it was a good weekend. Getting back to the track after all those months off is one of the best feelings in the world. Not breaking anything of Saturday and going rounds on Sunday made of a memorable start to the 2007 season. Hopefully its the start of something good!

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