diary of an Endorphin Junkie

Sunday was a day of hard battles, even harder given just how cold it was. The track never warmed up, and we were sliding both wheels in every corner. We had a lot of outside races, with both SoCal racers coming to visit and Canadian racers coming down for a roaming championship.

I had to work out issues with new EBC brake pads that apparently had the wrong springs in the box, as well as just general working on my staying relaxed and loose on the bars.

Formula Extreme is stock full of extreme bikes now, no more gimme trophies for showing up. I finished 9th out of 10.

Expert Trophy Dash I finished 4th, losing out to Bryan (habitual winner I was right behind) and two 50lb kids who killed us with power/weight ratio.

Super 50 I finished 5th, but first person greater than 100lb over the line.

Mod Thunder I finished 3rd. I had 2nd in the bag clean and clear, but when I caught the lappers I made a bad choice to go inside, got shut down by a kid who locked up the brakes and nearly stopped and Ernie swooped around the outside to snag second at the line. Dang!

I'm at Infineon raceway this morning and it already seems warmer than was predicted. This is good - I'm looking forward to good traction :-)

I spent today deliberately circulating at 6 seconds off my normal pace, focusing on relaxing my arms on the bars and keeping my weight on my feet under heavy braking. I was mostly successful in this, although consistency wasn't perfect.

The surprise was that later in the day I tried relaxing the rebound damping to see if it make it easier to get back on the gas early in turn 11. One click did exactly that, and felt good. A second click and suddenly the bike felt better *everywhere*. I was harder on the gas in turn 7, able to turn in at higher speed at the top of the carousel. I was having a great time all of the sudden.

Of course, right then raindrops began to fall so we packed up and left :-(

( pictures are behind the cut )