ECK #187 LRRS weekend #1 race report.

[OreoGaborio]

WOOT! This past weekend was the first Loudon Road Racing Series event of 2009 and what a weekend it was....

So far, 2009 has been a year of "news"..

New helmet
New paint job
New team
New teammates
New sponsors
New tires
New suspension set-up
New personal best lap time
New NUMBER PLATES

And "firsts"...
First expert race
First expert top 10 finishes (three of them)
First battle with some of my old friends
(Unfortunately no first place finishes )

Anyway, you get the idea. On to the race summaries...


Saturday morning practice went well and the bike felt amazing. I've never had a bike fall into a corner quite like this. Between the fresh suspension & more triangular Pirelli Diablo Supercorsas, the bike felt like it was reading my mind. I had to push back my turn-in markers slightly to compensate for how quickly & easily I was able to get to full lean.

Sat Race 2 - GTL (20 minute GT): My first Expert race

Due to a lucky computer glitch, I was gridded second row, right behind LRRS champions Todd Babcock and Rick Doucette... I got an AMAZING launch & settled in smack dab in the middle of the lead pack going into turn 1.... this would be the theme of the weekend as I was able to get great launches in all 4 of my races. I settled into a pace that was aggressive but manageable and kept my head down for a full 20 minutes. I rattled off a whole string of 1:22's with a couple of 23's mixed in, finished off the race with a trio of 21's with a best of 1:21.3 on lap 12 of 14. I finished smack dab in the middle of the pack and took my first Expert top 10 finish (out of 20).

Sat Race 7 - LWSB: Gridded behind Babcock and Doucette again and stuck with them for the first 1/2 a lap after getting another great launch. But by the time we came back around to start lap 2 I had dropped back a few spots. I had a fun battle with #39 Alan Quinn on his Duc 1000 and he pulled me down to a new best lap of a 1:21.1 which would be my best lap of the weekend. He was able to pull away & gap out on me mid race, but towards the end I could tell he was getting drained. He made a few mistakes in the bowl & 9 and I was able to reel him in by the white flag. I lined him up in a couple places but wasn't quite able to take him. I got a much better drive out of 12 than he did and came along side him down the stretch, but he had more motor and beat me to the checkered so I ended up 12th place out of 15.



Sunday morning practice, thanks to a heads up from my teammate Jamie & friend Tim, I concentrated on my drive out of turn 12 onto the front straight. By picking up the throttle sooner & harder I was able to pick up a few mph down the stretch.

Sun Race 7 - LWSS: The 1:19 that wasn't

After another great start I think I was in 5th place coming out of turn 12 after the 1st lap. I was able to latch onto a couple of others and had a good time battling with John Tansey, #608 and believe it or not, super fast guy Rick Doucette. He was on someone's MWPTwins bike and it was moving around on him quite a bit.... I could tell he was just riding around smelling the dasies, but it was a trip trying to stick with him none the less. My buddy Chris (Jersey) was glued to my rear tire for the first few laps and tried an outside pass on me in turn 1... but not until AFTER Doucette got past me... well I decided to try and stick with him through 1, 1a and 2 and it was on that lap that Jersey tried to get me around the outside but quickly found out that I had more balls than brains & decided to stick with Rick, so he runs wide & ended up in the grass, but kept it up and didn't loose any spots. I ended up finishing 7th out of 11 and had a best lap time of 1:21.6.

After the races I went over to check the results & when they got posted all I saw was X1.19.7..... not realizing I was looking at the TOTAL RACE time I thought I did a 1:19 and flipped my shit, ran around the pits & told the world. Oh well :lao

Sun Race 11 - LWGP:

The last race of the weekend, once again gridded behind Babcock & Doucette... once again a great launch... and once again right with the lead pack through turn 1. The lead pack gapped out on me through 1a and 2 but I kept my head down & ran my race.... by mid race I was just waiting for my old buddies Brian Oxx & Jersey to pass me but it didn't come for the longest time. Jersey showed me a wheel coming into turn 3 early in the race but wasn't able to make the pass... Shortly after that though he DID get me on the outside of turn 6. I kept with him to turn 12 where he ran 11a wide and took the grassy "tight" line in 12 and got right back onto the track. I got him easily on the front straight but around lap 6 or 7 he made another move and got me under braking coming into turn 3. We were both coming in hot and he ran it a little wide so I held onto the brakes for as long as I could, squared it up & got on the gas hard out of 3. I got a great run into 4 and almost pulled even with him, but he gave me a good ole "WELCOME TO EXPERT" move and just SLAMMED the door shut on me at the turn 4 apex cone. I had to chop the throttle which killed my drive and that allowed Oxx to take me on the inside heading into turn 6. I was able to keep them in sight to the checkered but I was all used up by that point and they both clocked off 1:20's to my 1:22 on the white flag lap and finished 10th outta 12.

It was such a rush holding them off and I soooo wanted to finish in front of them, but just knowing I could keep a couple of veteran experts like those two guys at bay for so long felt great. :cheers


Huge thanks to my teammates Arcy, Jamie, Gene W. & the rest of the ECK Racing crew, BostonMoto Pirelli, all of the ECK sponsors listed in my sig & everyone else from the paddocks. It was great seeing all you guys again and I'm lookin forward to a GREAT 2009 season. :beer

[ceo012384]

Your bike looked awesome with the new team color scheme... and shit dude... low 21's on an SV is no joke.

[tached1000rr]

love the pics

[OreoGaborio]

Thanks guys Hopin to turn those 21's into 20's this coming weekend... and teens by the Loudon Classic.



Someone on another forum took a little dig on me cuz I said I got three top 10's, but the grids were small.... And he's right, but I wanna point out a few things....


1 - I didn't hide anything about my finishes in an attempt to build myself up into something I'm not. I stated where I finished and how many started the race.

2 - I'm just as proud of that 10th outta 12 as I am of that 10th outta 20 and I fought equally hard for both of em. 10 outta 12 might close to last but all my buddies that watched it agreed that it was also one of the best races of the weekend from the spectator point of view. The guys that finished 8th and 9th were on my ass for pretty much the whole race. They're friends of mine and they've both been experts for a couple of years now.

3 - Considering it was my first weekend in the Expert ranks at what is arguably the most competitive club racing series in the country, those are still very good finishes and they're only gonna get better as I improve.

4 - This was only my 5th race weekend on this bike and one of those was in the wet... the feel & handling of the bike was also completely different from last year with the new tires and suspension set-up.


Anyway... just wanted to clear that up

[JoJoYZF]

Fuck what other people have to say. Chances are youre faster than most of the people who would be talking shit, especially when youre running top ten in expert on a bike you havent been on long. Congrats though man.

Originally Posted by OreoGaborio

Thanks guys Hopin to turn those 21's into 20's this coming weekend... and teens by the Loudon Classic.



Someone on another forum took a little dig on me cuz I said I got three top 10's, but the grids were small.... And he's right, but I wanna point out a few things....


1 - I didn't hide anything about my finishes in an attempt to build myself up into something I'm not. I stated where I finished and how many started the race.

2 - I'm just as proud of that 10th outta 12 as I am of that 10th outta 20 and I fought equally hard for both of em. 10 outta 12 might close to last but all my buddies that watched it agreed that it was also one of the best races of the weekend from the spectator point of view. The guys that finished 8th and 9th were on my ass for pretty much the whole race. They're friends of mine and they've both been experts for a couple of years now.

3 - Considering it was my first weekend in the Expert ranks at what is arguably the most competitive club racing series in the country, those are still very good finishes and they're only gonna get better as I improve.

4 - This was only my 5th race weekend on this bike and one of those was in the wet... the feel & handling of the bike was also completely different from last year with the new tires and suspension set-up.


Anyway... just wanted to clear that up

[ceo012384]

If you take what anyone says seriously over on that other board, you're a dummy. LOL

You're kickin' ass, bro.

[OreoGaborio]

hehe, i knew the guy was blowin shit, I just thought I'd set the record straight in case anyone else was thinking the same thing

But in a way, he's right... at first glance, 10th outta 12 definitely doesn't sound like somethin to write home about when you just look at those two numbers.



EDIT: Oh yeah... new Avatar time, too.

And this guy makes me laugh. :nana2:

[ceo012384]

Let's see if you can get those teens you wanted (and thought you had) this weekend, eh?