EMRA Rounds 3 and 4 were mostly about extending my championship lead in Expert Superbike and continuing to find a good feeling with the bike.
On Friday practice, I felt good and posted some competitive times that left me sitting P2 before the timing boards were wiped for qualifying. In quali, I put my head down and pulled out a 58.4 lap which, to my surprise, put me on pole. I’ve never really started from pole before, so the nerves were running high going into Saturday.
My first race of the day on Saturday was Dash for Cash, which did not go to plan. My heart was beating out of my chest on the starting line, and when the lights went out I dumped the clutch completely. That led to poor drive and a pretty big wheelie that I had to roll out of the throttle to bring down. I was almost in the grass and sitting P6 into Turn 1.
I put the mistake behind me and got my head down to start regaining positions. I took advantage of my wider line and overtook two riders on the exit of Turn 1 and the drive down into Turn 2.
After that, I was sitting P4 and hunting down the rider in P3. I kept looking for a pass in the same spots but couldn’t quite make it work. Fortunately, the rider in P2 made a mistake and ran wide, allowing both me and the third-place rider through. On the final lap, I found a pass into Turn 2 after getting a good drive from Turn 1, and crossed the line in P2.
My next race was Expert Open Sportbike, where I would start from P8 after a miscommunication in Round 1 that led to me missing the race. I wasn’t expecting too much, but I put my head down from the start and found overtakes wherever I could.
I was sitting P5 after the first lap, then found another move into Turn 1 to move into P4. My next move came into Turn 3, putting me into P3. The two riders ahead had created quite a gap, so I pushed to close it and put in my fastest laps of the race, all in the mid-58s. I found another move into Turn 2 and was now sitting P2. The rider ahead then had a mechanical, handing me an unlikely win.
Unfortunately, the Expert Superbike race was cancelled due to a pretty wild storm that ruined a lot of tents, blew air fence away, and knocked down a tree not far from our pit.
Going into Sunday, I put my nerves and mistakes behind me and set out to win all three races.
In practice, the rear stepped out on me through Turn 4 while I was off-throttle. I managed to hold onto the bike and ran through the wet grass, which caused the bike to squirm and fishtail before eventually coming to a stop. I got stuck and had to push the bike to get going again. I made my way back onto the asphalt and took a careful lap back to the pits.
I explained to my team what had happened, and they quickly got to work on the bike. They identified and fixed a mechanical issue with the rear suspension. I honestly still don’t know exactly why it stepped out the way it did, but I was determined to get my mind straight and not allow the moment to slow me down, which is something I have struggled with in the past. With no more laps available before my next race, I worked hard on visualization and mental reps to build my comfort in Turn 4 again.
I was back to my pace in Dash for Cash. The race consisted of me getting beaten to the first corner and then being unable to find an overtake on the leader. A shortened race due to crashes in other races left me with fewer opportunities to stalk the leader and plot a move, so I settled for P2.
I started from P3 in Expert Open Sportbike this time, as the grid was based on points I had earned from the previous day. I was in P2 after the opening lap and hunted down P1 for the win. I made my pass on lap three and didn’t look back, taking the win and crossing the line one second ahead of the next rider.
For the Expert Superbike race, the pressure was on. Starting from pole, I was determined not to repeat my mistakes from the previous day. I wanted to get a good start and create a gap at the front.
I got beat to Turn 1 off the start but found a cutback move down the back straight. I put my head down and dialed in a few mid-58s back to back to build a gap, which came in handy when I made a mistake on lap three. I nearly ran off between Turns 2 and 3, but had a large enough gap to hold off the rider in P2.
On lap ten, a rider crashed and the bike was left in the middle of the track, bringing out the red flag and ending the race. I crossed the line in first place, 3.5 seconds ahead of the rider in second.
This weekend I learned a lot about dialing in the setup and finding more front-end feel to complete my skillset aboard the Honda. I am getting more comfortable and confident with every race, and I am more driven than ever to do well.
Thank you for your support.
Discussion about this post