Vol. 3, #5
Gateway International Raceway, St. Louis MO./ August 17, 2008
Troy Walbaum, Dave Abbas and I headed to St Louis's Gateway International Raceway for round five of the CCS Great Plains series. The main reason for traveling so far from home was that it was also a double points weekend.
All three of us attended the track day on Saturday and we were all surprised at how techincal this 1.6 mile track was in places. The transisions onto the banked NASCAR oval track was, well, exilerating!! It was big fun running down the front straight and dropping off the high bank also!!
The track day was well worth the time although I never really got comfortable on one of the right hand corners. I had a few off road excertions but fortunately without incident.
Sunday morning arrived with perfect weather, clear, sunny and calm. I got ready to race feeling good but knowing I would be competing with several locals on their home track so my plan was to not try to be a hero but to keep it upright and race smart. It was great having Dave with us as a spotter to critique us and help in the pits. Thanks, Dave!!
Race #1 - Lightweight SuperSport
I had a great start and ran right with the experts through the first sections of lap one but my nemisis corner allowed them to break away and a few of the amateurs got by on the front stretch so I remembered my original plan and settled in trying to keep the contact and stay out of trouble. It worked out as I placed 4th and felt like I was starting to get a handle on this tricky little track.
Race #2 - Lightweight Formula 40
This was a good race but the field was small so my main goal was to continue to gain confidence and attempt to lower my lap times. When one of the fast local amateurs came sailing by me on lap 4 of 8, I put my head down to go after him but his track knowledge kept me in second place. I was happy with my efforts and found out I later that the guy had entered the race after the start and was docked a lap handing the victory to me!! Hey, a win is a win, right, and it is my first!!
Race #3 - Thunderbike
I'm not sure why there were only three amateurs in this class but I knew if I kept the bike upright and kept my head I'd at least place third and be eligible to collect $100.00 in Buell factory congingency money. Now I'm as competitive as the next guy but I know a good thing when it lands in my lap! I had a great start and ran well during the first several laps but Buell racers Matt and Troy squeezed by so I concentrated on maintaining cosistant lap times and collect the cash, so I'm very happy with the third place finish in this race.
So all in all this was a great weekend!! With 4th, 3rd and 1st place finishes on a double points weekend I'm getting a major boost in the chase for the points which is a big plus since I missed several early races! This is starting to get interesting!!
A great shot of all three of us during the track day on Saturday. Dave, me, Troy thanks to Al Schwartz Photo, LLC
Stay tuned...
