My first weekend of racing of the season was a good news bad news story. The weekend went well for the bike. Not so well for me.
Friday practice went very well. Our class got lots of practice. The times are all posted after each practice and I was in the top few in my class. Saturday is morning practice and a heat race in the afternoon to grid everyone for the final on Sunday.
My practice times put me on the front row for the heat race. That was great. Then I was late for my heat race. I showed up and the field had already done their warm up lap. They wouldn't let me grid. I had to start from the pits and wait for everyone to pass me before I could enter the track. From front row to back of the field.
I did alright anyway. I got the Bandit up to 8th place in the 6 lap heat. For the final on Sunday I was on the 3rd row.
In the final, I got a really bad start and had a lot of guys pass me. I passed them all back on the 1st lap. By the second lap I passed a bike for 4th place and was on the hunt for the 3rd place guy I could see and maybe gain on. Then disaster struck. The track is all right handers except for 2 corners. The petcock is on the left side of the tank I didn't put enough gas in the tank to keep gas on the left side of the tank.
I ran out of fuel at the midway point of the race.
The weekend was not a total write off though. I took almost 4 seconds off my lap times and have a list of things the bike needs to make it a little better and a list of things to make me a little smarter.
I have no complaints about the way the bike is running. It's very strong and the bandit is a monster in the corners. I actually wore out a set of knee sliders on the weekend.
G