The pace has picked up
JenningsGP - Jennings, FL
April 2/3, 2005

Ah yes, time to start the racing season. This will be my second season on the 125 and I'm looking forward to concentrating on my riding skills. The bike is plenty fast so I need to focus on riding faster, improving my skills, and suspension setup. I need to resist buying any go-fast parts. Until later next year.

Due to the fact that we'll be missing 2 races in FL, and a double points weekend in Sept, I'm pretty much out of contention for any class championship this year, unless something spectacular happens. With that decided, I plan to make this a year of practice and learning. - less tuning and fiddling trying to make the bike faster, more focus on the rider skills and suspension setup to help lower lap times, in preparation for next year.

The areas where I'm getting beat, and need to improve on are: Learning brake markers and turn in markers, being smooth through turns, being more aggresive off the start, and getting on the gas earlier.

With all this in mind, we head down to FL for the USGPRU National season-opener. We head down I-95 and just about an hour north of Jacksonville, we decide to take a shortcut. About an hour later we stop at Wendy's to get some food. We're on our way again and I hear a big "WHACK". Rebecca screams which then scares the shit out of me. I look in my right side mirror and see this bird attempting to fly up about 20' in the air, then suddenly drop straight down and hit the road. We look over and there's a feather stuck in the crack of the window and the siding. Rebecca being grossed out for some reason makes me roll down the window and remove it.

So we truck on through the back road shortcut and it starts pouring rain. This sux. We finally arrive at Jennings and it's just soaked. The paddock is like a mini lake. Parking is limited and we plop down on the dryest spot we could find.

The next day (Sat) we get to the track and do the practice day. It's going well, and the track is fun. The bike is running OK, and I'm finding places to improve on. By the end of the day, I'm feeling confident, but not confident enough for qualifying, as I only qualify in 13th and .2 seconds slower than last year. Uggh.

I head out for the GTL race, first of the day... get a shitty start, but I recover and play catchup. I manage to work my way through traffic and get up to 6th. Damn.. 1 away from a payout. Oh well

Next on the schedule is the 125GP regional race. I get a decent start and it's a fairly good race for me. I manage to hold my position and finish in 6th. Hopefully this will be an indication of the national race, but unfortunately it won't be. 1 more before the National, is the LWGP race. The toughest race for me. However it turns out to be the best.. I try to catch up to 2nd but just can't pass him, so I finish 3rd.

Last is the USGPRU race... Lots of new kids and young guns racing this year. I get passed by a couple guys, but hold my own and finish a respectable 17th out of 35.

The weather held out but was really windy on Sat, and overall a great weekend. Well worth the drive and on the way back we stop at a friend's house outside of Jacksonville to stay overnite and get some rest for the drive home on Monday.