Mid Ohio was perhaps the best attended weekend yet on the AMA Pro Racing Calender. We had a lot of fun, and apparently the huge crowds did too.
All the racing was great this weekend, but perhaps not as good for us. Rapp's 6th place qualifying had been a disappointment. We thought his second place effort with 5 minutes left might hold up for a front row starting grid. Everyone else just stepped it up as the seconds clicked away and pushed him off the front row. Nevertheless, as soon as the flag dropped Rapp was racing, and sixth off the line. Second lap he set up a pass on Pegram under hard braking and had him, but the fork bottomed out and the front tire slid...... The bike pushed wide. He regained control, but not before he ran out of track and was fortunate to keep the bike up in the grass. Rejoining in 11th position, was not what we had in mind. Two laps later Red Flag. Ouch, Fellow BMW rider Chris Peris had a nasty fall and got an ambulance ride. 10 minutes to restart. Hey we might as well stiffen up the front end a bit to keep it from bottoming out. It's amazing how much harder someone can ride in the race.
On the re-start, Steve was 6th again, but loosing touch with the leaders. Well, I guess we got it a bit too stiff as Steve spent the rest of the race trying to get the bike to steer and couldn't run the same pace as before. For most of us a 8th place finish in an AMA Superbike race would be great, but Steve was obviously disappointed. So were we. Not with Steve's performance, but with our own in not giving him a bike he could win on. Jeremy on the other hand was have a good race and had worked his way up to 12th. We have struggled with Jeremy's set-up for the last few rounds, but today he was riding hard and having fun. Both wanted to finish better here and knew they could if we could improve the set-up. So we set about to do just that for Sunday's race two.
Unfortunately, the Racing Gremlins were out full force for the second race. Only 5 laps in, Steve's engine locked up and unceremoniously threw him to the ground. The bike tumbled and we have lots of parts to replace (maybe we should sell the broke bits for souvenirs). Fortunately, Steve is unhurt and that's whats important, especially with only two weeks to Laguna Seca. Jeremy had a similar race to the first, but was able to get closer this time. Close enough on the last lap to challenge Geoff May for 10th in the final corner, while at the same time holding off a charging Chris Clark. Jeremy tried to set up Geoff, and Chris tried to get them both. They came through the last turn leaning on each other. In the end the positions hadn't changed, but it was fun to watch.
Not too bad 11th and 12th for Jeremy. Rapp continues his streak of top tens at every round. Not bad for a private team. Not bad,,,,, But not good enough. We will be back for more at Laguna Seca in two weeks. Hope to see you there.
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