Pat, John and I are heading back to Mid-O on Thursday. This day is called "Ride with the Pros - Max Time Format". There are two classes; a combined Intermediate / Advanced class and an AMA/DMG Pro class. We will be swapping 20 minute sessions with any DMG Pros that sign up to get the track dialed in before the big race. Looking forward to it!

hope you kids had a good, safe day

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Had another great day at Mid-O with John and Pat! As usual, we watched the forecast and signed up last minute. The last few times the forecast seemed to go to Hell shortly after we signed up, but not this time it stayed pretty consistent. Pat met me at my office and we made a scene unloading and loading sportbikes in the parking lot. Pat met a bunch of people from my office, including my boss, who stopped over to check out the bikes and chat. We stayed at the Days Inn which I liked better than the Travelodge. We were at the track by around 7 AM and there was plenty of confusion with everything going on as all of the AMA race teams were arriving and setting up shop for this weekend's race. We were still able to make it through registration and get unloaded pretty quickly. We ended up parking close to the last couple of turns before the front straight (13 and 14?). John showed up as we were unloading and set up right next to us. This was the Ride With the Pro's day so I knew the format would be different and I thought we would be alternating 20 minute sessions with the Pros. We ended up having open track time from 9 AM - 11 AM, The Pro's had a session, we had a session and then broke for lunch. After lunch the pros were out for the first 40 minutes of every hour and we got the last 20 minutes. We got three 20 minute sessions in after lunch, and were done at 4 PM. We ended up getting lots of track time and I racked up 180 miles.

I was hoping that during the course of the day I would be able to improve on my best lap-time from my last day there of 1:46.98. I believe we were out for about 30 minutes in our first session and the best lap I did was a 1:48.93. Not too bad for still getting warmed up. The next session I went out behind Pat and John and we quickly got stuck behind slower traffic. We got a bit spread out as we worked through traffic and I lost touch with John but it seemed for a few laps I was one pass behind Pat (just as I'd make a pass on the guy behind Pat, he'd pass the guy in front of him). Once I got behind Pat we were running high 1:47's / low 1:48's. I tried to find a way around him and it was not easy. The last time we were at Mid-O I was able to carry a bit more entrance/mid-corner speed into turn #1 and get by him there. As John and I both learned, Pat's quick to make adjustments to his riding and he had picked up his pace going into #1. Two laps in a row I tried to pass him in #1 and he had it covered. I finally squeaked by him in the carousel and by this time John was long gone. I had some open track in front of me and managed to run a 1:46.03. I improved on my best lap from last time so "Mission Accomplished" but I was only 0.04 seconds away from getting down into the 1:45's. With all the track time left in the day, surely I'd get there. The next session I went out and my best lap was an identical time of 1:46.03. I ran a bunch of 1:46.XX's during the rest of the day but never got back down to, or improved on the two 1:46.03's.

It was fun to hang out under the ez-up in between session and watch the pros tear through turns 12 and 13. The new Dunlop 209 front worked great and both my tires had pretty much perfect wear for the day. John and Pat were both having some minor tearing on the rear tire, which seems to be common at Mid-O.

Thanks for the write up

I would like to get out there sometime, just a heck of a drive

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good stuff matt

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www.WickedRacing.com - Go Fast Parts & Gear for Riders and Their Motorcycles
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Here's a vid that Pat shot. I believe we were running 1:47/1:48's. The guys in front were holding me up but I couldn't even come close to passing them. John makes a nice pass on Pat (Pat was being held up, but it was still a nice pass) toward the end of the vid. He then passes me while I'm trying not to crash into the dude that decided he wanted to take pit lane as I was going around the outside of him. It would have been fun to dice it up with John for a bit but we got the checkered flag on that lap...

http://www.facebook.com/n/?video/video. ... 23629baG1d