The season ended much as it began. The Wear GNF at Road Atlanta was held the weekend of October 11th. The week before the race there was a ticking sound in the rebuilt engine and it was decided to swap back to the used engine purchased earlier in the year. Trouble started in the first round of practice as the bike was down on power. A quick check between practice session showed no obvious problems. During the second session the bike continued to lose power as the heat increased. It was finally traced to a bad coil. Hasty repairs were made causing us to pull out of the day’s first race. DSS. Once the repair was completed the bike seemed good to go. When heading to the grid for DSB the bike died. It was found that the fuel line was pinched during the earlier repair and it was rectified but not in time to run the race. The final race of the weekend was V6. With limited track time I was not very competitive and finished 7th but had a great time racing some of the V4 guys. Look at the GMF recap in Road Racing World Magazine and you will see me in the esses in a pack of bikes. The Year-end awards ceremony was held that nigh and a good time was had by all.

There was no time to do anything more than a quick check of the bike before heading to Daytona for the CCS Race of Champions.

Having never been to Daytona we were a little nervous. Thursday was a practice only day. Having never been there I arrived early at the speedway and got set up quickly to get trough tech inspection. The first practice session was cut short due to morning fog but, WOW, that place is different. The infield section is much more fun than it looks and the banking is a unique experience. The day went well considering the used motor of unknown history was being used. One thing was very obvious. There was no way I could keep up on the banking with the motor I had. I decided to go as hard as I could in the infield and just have fun with the new experience. On one lap Brian Bemisderfer of HD of Fredrick came past and the draft suck me like a vacuum cleaner, raising the speed enough to show and extra 1500 Rpm’s on the tat.

Friday was race day. After two practice sessions in the morning, and the prior night to think things over, I was happy I was getting what I could from the bike. My only concern was valve train noise a little louder than usual. I left the speedway and picked Cathy and Yustin up at the Hotel to get some Lunch. When we drove through the tunnel on the way into the track the reaction of Cathy and Yustin was priceless. This was their first visit to the infield. Cathy saw the banking and said, " I don't like this", and Austin said, "you can't ride on that, it's a wall".

The race before my first event had several red flags and was moved to the end of the day. I scrambled to get ready and headed out. This was the F40 lightweight race for people over 40 on smaller bikes. Smaller is relative as I was on the smallest displacement bike in the field. When I got to the starting grid I was struck with horror. I did not know where to go. In practice we follow the pit road out to the turn 2/3 area. For the race we would exit straight into turn 1 from the pit road grid. I started very slow and followed everyone into turn one. I closed up some of the gap in the infield but was outclassed on the banking on the bigger bikes. As the race continued I felt the bike losing more and more power, Coming to the next to the last lap I considered pulling in as I thinking of the valve noise and afraid the motor would go and throw me on the banking. I decided this is Daytona, I'm going for it. As I climbed the banking in turn one the bike was noticeably slower. I looked to the infield and saw the leaders in the kink. I put my head down and said I am going to give it all I have and finish this thing on the lead lap. Two tense laps later I crossed the line for my first race at Daytona, On the lead lap and not even last. The bike did not have enough power to run the banking on the cool down lap so I stayed on the apron. When I came into the pits Cathy was laughing about my poor finish and I told her the bike was dead. Yustin reassured me by telling me, "I told mom Dad's slow but not that bad, something must be wrong." We loaded up and headed to Orlando for a fun weekend.

See you next year.