I got 14th out 28 in GTO today. It was me against a bunch of liter bikes. It was good.
Ok, the race (a two person, 2 1/2 hour race) before mine was red flagged about 10 laps in due to a fucking horrific crash in the horseshoe. Two riders got tangled on the entry to the horseshoe and couldn't get the bikes apart. The rider on te inside jumped off and slid on his ass across the infield unharmed. The rider on the outside, on a ZX10, could not get himself off the bike and rode it full speed (120-130 mph) into the tire wall. I'm pretty sure he's dead. So I saw that happen knowing I had to be ready to ride in a couple of hours.....just great.
They call my race to the grid and I head to pit out, my heart is about to jump out of my chest. They send us out for our warm up lap and I was feeling pretty good about things. I got to the grid and into position (fourth row, 16th spot). At this point everything goes quite. It was weird, I heard nothing, and all I saw was the green flag in the hands of the starter. I watched and waited for her hand to twitch. It did and I launched. I got a good start and I picked off three bikes before turn one. We hit turn one and it's a cluster fuck, at least three bikes blow it and run off into the grass. I focus on picking through the remaining bikes and setting up for the kink before the horeshoe. I'm running into the horseshoe faster than I have all week and I'm cool with it. I crank the bike way over and jump back on the gas hard at the apex, the back tire spins up big time on the exit and then hooks up and away we go. It was at about this point where I thought to myself "this is the most fun I've ever had with my clothes on." I settled into a battle with two other riders. One was a guy riding waaay over his head (this guy was just scary) and the other was a very solid rider who I really enjoyed dicing with. We went back and forth for the next 10 laps 'til the red flag came out after a nasty crash in turn one.
My race in the morning is my best chance at a podium and I'll be turning it up quite a bit. I put fresh tires on after my race today, so I'll have nothing to worry about but riding my ass off.
I rode faster and harder today than I have all week. It was a very good day, and I'm as happy as a pig in shit with my results.
And oh yeah, Geoff May passed me on the banking today like I was parked. It was the entry to the banking, I was doing about 130, and that dude went by about 6" away at about 155. It was awesome. Oh and I met Josh Hayes today too. Cool guy. He signed my CCS credentials.