ECK #187 Round 4 - Loudon Classic weekend

[OreoGaborio]

6/11-13/10

Great weekend! And another LONNGG arse report to go along with it.

I'm a little late on writing this up so I can't say this is going to be a perfectly accurate report since I'm a little fuzzy on all of the details... but even if the details might end up being slightly fictitious or out of sequence, one thing that's sure to be accurate are the finishes & lap times... Besides, these things are just as much, if not more for my own entertainment/education as everyone else's. :P

To give you guys a little bit of background, this weekend was the big 87th Annual Loudon Classic event that kicked off Bike Week in Laconia. It's a three day race weekend that included the visiting ASRA Series as well as vintage AND modern Sidecar racing, which was really cool to watch!


Anyway, here goes. See bottom for Cliff's notes.


Saturday:
LWSS
Lots of rain in the morning during practice, but by race 4, the track was 99% dry and very few racers, if any, showed up to pre-grid on rain tires. I also made the last minute switch and it was definitely the right call... On the opening lap, however, after getting a great start from the front row and slotting into 3rd place behind the Babcock and Doucette show, I found a wet spot and had a biiiig slide in turn 3 just after the first transition. Mark Dages, Scott Mullin, Chris Cucinotta and Briant Kent were all on my tail and went from seeing the BACK of my bike to seeing the SIDE of my bike. But through some stroke of luck/act of God I was able to keep it on two wheels, stay on the track and continue on, while thinking "Are my pants still clean?". I'm pretty sure that slide meant all of the guys named above were able to make their way past me and I dropped all the way back to 7th (?), but I was able to keep the fast pack in sight and eventually made a pass on Chris Cucinotta, I think heading into turn 1 for 6th. I couldn't make much headway on the fast five up front but in an unfortunate incident, Todd Babcock crashed late in the race (re-breaking his collar bone), which moved me up a spot to 5th. The cold pavement and damp weather meant I settled into a mild rhythm and it stayed that way until we began catching up to lap traffic. As we caught up to the back of the field Brian Kent slowly started inching ever closer and closer, but he was able to hold me off all the way to the checkered and I had to settle for 5th place.

LWGP
Gridded on the front row with Doucette on my left and no Babcock to be seen. A little bit of mixed feelings about that. I get an awesome jump off the line and a perfect drive to turn 1 to take my first SOLID expert holeshot. I put my head down and crank out a nice 1:21.6 opening lap. I hold the lead for a good 3-4 laps while Doucette puts around (for him) behind our own Eric Connolly. Eventually he had enough of watching me inch away so he put the screws down and blew past me down the straight on lap 4 or 5. I held onto 2nd for another lap or two until catching up to lap traffic. I got a bit of bad luck and that allowed young gun Alex Guilbeault to catch up on his 250 GP machine. Approaching turn 6 I was just barely too far away to pass Kevin Quinn and his old school '92 TZR250 under braking. I take a low exit and try to get under him by turn 7 but it wasn't to be and I had to back off.... And in the blink of an eye, here comes Alex Guilbeault around my outside. Over the course of the next nano second I hug turn 7 JUST a bit and delay my hard turn-in for 8 EVER so slightly, both to give me a better angle for an outside pass on Kevin AND give Alex some room to move in next to me, but instead of taking me up on my "offer" he shoots underneath the old school two smoker and passes Kevin up the inside SO far on the rumble strips that I'm surprised he didn't kick up any grass.... AMAZING display of brass balls (though I'm sure you can come up with some other words to describe it, depending on how you look at it ) by the young teenager! I was able to stay close to his rear tire for the little time that remained before the checkered, but was never quite close enough to make a solid attempt at a re-pass and finished 3rd. After the race I made sure to find Kevin and Alex to re-live that gutsy move and congratulate Alex on his 2nd place finish. Good race.


Sunday:
LWSB
After practice it was time to put another new rear tire on... this getting fast thing is starting to suck! Gridded right on the front row with 1c between Doucette and Mullin. I get a great start and slot in right behind Mullin's bright green Kawi while fighting off a few others from row 2. I put my head down right from the get go and turn some great laps including a 1:20.8 out lap, a new lap 1 personal best thanks to chasing Scott and the fastest Lightweight lime on two wheels. As the race progresses the three of us space out a bit and begin to break away from the pack and I can see Doucette out front, not too far away from Scott. With Todd out of the picture, it's obvious he's planning on going JUST fast enough to take the win. Each time I cross the start/finish I can see the RSP Racing posse on hot pit wall letting me know I have a huge lead on 4th place... I back off EVER so slightly but my lap times hold at consistent high 17's to low 18's. I looked back and saw absolutely NO one and admittedly started thinking about what the hell I was going to say when Bruce the announcer handed me the mic in Victory Lane after the race.... But at that pace, I caught up to lap traffic pretty quick and unfortunately in the WORST places. I made my way through it as quickly as I could, but with the right (well, WRONG) combination of being TOO **** courteous and having HORRIBLE timing/luck, on lap 7 Chris Cucinotta had absolutely NO problem catching up to me. As my luck would have it, I got caught up in turn 9 by yet another lapper and wasn't able to make the pass by turn 10. I took a narrow exit and shot up the inside, but Chris took a sweeping outside line and was able to drive past us both as we approached the penultimate lap. I made a desperate late braking attempt into turn 3 and made the pass but ran JUST wide enough to open the door up the inside, which he promptly squeaked through. I latched right on his wheel for the last 3/4's of a lap but he kept a tidy line through the remainder of the race and I watched what should have been a 3rd turn into a 4th as he bumped me off of the podium and out of victory lane. A great race none the less.

ASRA Thunderbike
With ASRA qualifying on a rainy Saturday morning I qualified 8th out of 13 with a 1:30 flat in the wet and was gridded back on 3a. A few of the other entries opted out of the slippery qualifying session but 30 hours later the track was dry and we were all (with the exception of Todd Babcock and a couple of others) were ready to go... I wasn't sure what to expect with this race. I don't normally do LRRS Thunderbike, I wasn't sure how many ASRA guys were lurking in the midst and I haven't started back there in a while and I don't like starting from the A slot. So needless to say, I was a little anxious but excited to see how things would sort out but I got a GREAT start and squeaked through right up near the front of the pack. I settled into a decent rhythm behind Mark Dages and tried to latch on for a tow. We cranked out a string of 1:17's and a few laps into the 15 lap marathon he took a peek back going up turn 4 and I saw his eyes widen as he spotted me pretty close to his tail. He gave a thumbs up as he faced back around to head into the bowl but I caught a false neutral and play time was over before it even began. I got it back into gear and regained my rhythm, relaxing as much as I could for the remainder of the race. Lap traffic definitely make things interesting once again, but I took 5th to round out my weekend and pulled into the scales garages with a smile on my face.



LWSS - 5th
LWSB - 3rd
LWGP - 4th
ASRA Thunderbike - 5th

Best out lap - 1:20.896
Best Lap of the weekend - 1:17.461 (a tenth off my best.)


Current championship standings (just the top contenders):

LWSS
1 - 6 EX - Doucette, Rick - 130
2 - 24 EX - Mullin, Scott - 102
3 - 98 EX - Babcock, Todd - 100
4 - 187 EX - Gaboriault, Peter - 84
5 - 16 EX - Kent, Brian - 82
6 - 454 EX - Dages, Mark - 78

LWSB
1 - 6 EX - Doucette, Rick - 130
2 - 98 EX - Babcock, Todd - 100
3 - 187 EX - Gaboriault, Peter - 88
4 - 24 EX - Mullin, Scott - 82

LWGP
1 - 6 EX - Doucette, Rick - 125
2 - 98 EX - Babcock, Todd - 105
3 - 187 EX - Gaboriault, Peter - 96
4 - 26 EX - Connolly, Eric - 74
4 - 827 EX - Landau, Victor - 74
6 - 132 EX - Guilbeault, Alex - 70

Pirelli Diablo 600 Challenge
1 - 53 EX - Kasperuk, Wojciech - 74
2 - 79 EX - Holcomb, Zachary - 70
3 - 187 EX - Gaboriault, Peter - 65
4 - 535 AM - Kagan, David - 61


Huge thank to Motorcycles of Mancester, MTAG-Pirelli and OnTrack Media for their ongoing support