Subject: Race update
Author: Ken Pitts
Date: Oct 11, 2001, 9:58 AM
Post ID: 1708562997
We arrived at the track late Thursday afternoon & woke up Friday to
threatening skies, soon it cleared off & turned into quite a nice day.
Talladega GP track is a very nice 1.5 mile, 9 turn road coarse. Practice went
well even if it did seem to take me a while to get the hang of the track. It
stormed all Friday night & into Saturday morning. I could have done a couple
of practice sessions in the morning but the forecast was for a dry track by
the time of my race so I saw no point in going out on a wet rainy track. Sure
enough it cleared by mid day & the track quickly dried. We had a good turn
out in our class, my main competition was a very fast BMW that I have been
chasing all year & a Norton that I have beaten twice. Unknown to me at the
time I should have also been worried about the guy on the Yamaha as well, he
turned out to be an HD test rider that knew the track very well. Being fifth
in the points going into the race I had pole position for the start.
Unfortunately it did not last long, as soon as the green flag dropped the
Norton, BMW & the Yamaha jump out in front with me right behind them. With
the exception on the BMW & the Norton trading places a couple of times, the
way we entered turn one is the way we crossed the finish line. Sunday played
out about the same way with me taking fourth again, except this time Walt on
his BMW edged out the Norton for first.
My two forth place finishes moved me from fifth to third in the points
standings but I needed two seconds or better to still have a chance at the
championship. With one more race to go I have a good chance to take the
regional Dixie cup tittle & finish second in the nation.
This is the first year I have run the Guzzi & it has done a great job of
running with some better equipped bikes. Over the winter I am making changes
that will bring the bike up to a more level playing field for next year & I
hope to see some of you guys at the races.
Last race of the season- Oct 19, 20 & 21 at Carolina Motor Sports Park,
Kershaw, SC
Ken
Asheville, NC