Smooth as butta'
Barber Motorsports Park - Leeds, AL
August 13-15, 2004

This is the weekend I've been looking forward to all year. As usual, I'm late getting started and I pick up Rebecca from work on Thurs. about 1 hour late. Not too bad, but we're on a timeline here. We need to get to the track before they close the gate at 9pm.

We make 2 small stop for gas and food. We hit Atlanta just around rush hour but it's not bad, but we're watching the clock, and it's gonna be close. As we get ~1 hour away Ryan calls us and checks to see where we are. He's there already, and is planning to meet us for dinner later. While talking to him, he reminds us that AL is 1 hour behind EST. WOOHOO..we've got another hour. So we end up getting there ~7:15 Barber time. Plenty of time to get registered and teched.

Friday, put on new tires and head out for practice. Everything goes well and I'm ready for my first race, GTL. I'm on pole, since I pre-registered, and I get as good a start as I can against the SVs. Going into T1, there's a small pile-up and a coupe SVs go down. They red-flag the race and we restart ~10 mins. later, but now it's a 6 lap sprint race. It's a quick race, and I pass a few SVs to claim 18th place. As I expected, a top-20 finish, on a National weekend.

Saturday, I saddle up for the 125GP and LWGP races. 125 GP goes well. Coming through T2/3 Steve Wenner is in front of me and smoke starts coming from his bike. More than normal. I think, 'Oh shit, he's leaking oil', so I move to the side ~1-2 feet just in case, so I don't run through any spill. Going into T4, he crosses his path, and lowsides right in front of me. Damn that sux. I have to check up and duck to the inside to avoid him. I continue on in the race and finish a happy 11th.

A few races later is LWGP. Again, this is my worst race for me (a 125). I get out there and try to hang with the SVs and 250s, and the SVs are just parking it in the turns, making it hard for me to keep up corner speed and get around them. I battle with a couple SVs for a few laps, and finally get around them with 2 laps to go. I finish in 18th position.

Sunday, the big day is here. The USGPRU East coast Final 125 race. I qualified 15th, which I'm happy about. We go out and it's a little rough starting and I'm not too aggressive off the line. After the first lap, I settle in and start to pick up the pace and start my race. I finish 17th, my usual position for the National races, and am happy to be in the top 20 in the race. And overall for the East coast I finish the season in 16th place.

The weather was incredibly nice. 80-85, 35% humidity all weekend. The bike ran well, I rode well, we got good rest and slept well. This was by far, the best, and most fun weekend that we've had all year. No glitches, and everything went smooth. Hopefully, the last weekend of the year, VIR in Sept, will go just as smoothly and provide a nice year end weekend for us.