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Mid-O, Autumn is Here

Cool weather and sketchy rain conditions presented themselves both today and yesterday. I started off practice Thursday morning in the 1:40 range (second time to the track, first on the new pavement) and ended up getting into a high 1:34. James, my dad and I were pretty happy with the progress.

Today went well except for the sketchy rain conditions. I dropped into a low 1:34 range early on which was good, but we (and many others) have been tearing through tires. I think it's a combination of the cooler weather and abrasive Mid-Ohio asphalt. While I've had fun sliding the bike around more than I ever have, it's not helping get me around the track as fast as I'd like, and the tires aren't lasting long enough (we've gone through 3 rears and it's only Friday).

Overall though, the event has been great. There's a lot of (fast) guys here and the track environment and facilities at Mid-Ohio are top notch. We had three qualifying sessions today – 600 Superbike, 750 Superbike and 600 Supersport. With about 24-26 bikes in each class, I wound up in 8th, 6th and 19th. I was real happy with the first two sessions, as I set my fastest times and going roughly a half second faster would have moved me up several spots. The third qualifying (which was the most important) didn't go nearly as well. We made two changes during the session (one too many on my part), so I didn't get in any good laps before it started sprinkling. Most everybody came off, but I stayed out there as I had to try to put in a couple fast laps, which wasn't able to happen. Oh well. I need to finish in the top 20 in for this race, so nothing like a little pressure to move through the pack come Sunday.

Other than that, there's a lot of talk about how the track is going to be in the wet. From some sighting laps on the track when wet by a few riders, there's a lot of questions on the safety of the newer asphalt/sealer strips. WERA cancelled the last four qualifying sessions today and moved them to tomorrow morning (one of which I'm in). The AMA won't run this track in the rain, so it will be interesting to see how it pans out if we run in the rain. From all accounts so far, it's going to be a bit sketchy.

Tomorrow is practice, one qualifying session for us, and two races. With a wet forecast, hopefully I'll have some good news to report back tomorrow night. James and my dad have been a huge help, as we've made a bunch of changes to the bike the past two days. We've definitely made improvements, but as we've started going faster, we're running into some new handling and tire issues. As it stands now, I need to find two seconds under dry conditions; if that even exists tomorrow.

It's also been a good time hanging out with Dave, Garry, Brian and Jeff in the WERA portion of the pits, trying to put together a good showing and represent the two WERA teams well. More updates to come ..

Cheers.

Friday, September 22nd, 2006 | POSTED AT: 9:14 PM
FILED UNDER: General, Race Reports

2 Comments on “Mid-O, Autumn is Here”

Wes wrote on 22 September, 2006, 9:53 PM
Hey Eddie-
Nice job on qualifying, saw the news on RRW website & hopped on over here for the inside scoop-real cool to see how well you got going until the sprinkles. Mid-Ohio is one of my favorite track layouts, just wish we weren’t always dealing with surface issues.

Anywho, Maggo, stay positive and have a great weekend!!!

Wish we wuz there……..Wes & Jan
Eddie wrote on 23 September, 2006, 10:39 PM
Hey Wes,

Wish you guys were here too. It’s turning into an expensive weekend, but it’s sort of a mini-GNF for us. Hopefully tomorrow goes better than today did. Tell Jan my dad and I both said hello .. Talk to you soon –

Eddie