(April 21, 2016)- Heading south with a whole lot of gear I aimed to hit the Grand National Flat track Round 3 in Austin, ride the road race track at Harris Hill speedway in nearby San Marcos TX, then move onto Conroe, TX to hang with Colin Edwards and the crew for a few days at the Texas Tornado Bootcamp.
In Austin, the prep crew had the track in much better shape than it was for the X-Games, and with the changes we’d made to the bike I was excited to get things started.
I was having a bit of a tough time in practice with bike set up, but I knew that once the sun went down the track would come around for me.
I had a solid heat race coming from mid pack to fourth, earning a direct transfer into the 25 lap main event. The track developed some huge holes getting into turn three and I knew that if I could get through smoothy each lap, I’d be able to have some solid lap times. I got a good jump and throughout the race moved a few spots closer to the front, finishing a solid seventh place.
Sunday morning we headed to the MOTOGP race to take in the sights and sounds (bummer Rossi fell off, think it would have been a good race!) It was great to have some down time and mingle with some good friends and meet some motorcycle race fans.
On Monday I headed to the asphalt.
A friend of mine is the manager at Harris Hill Raceway and has always wanted to me come out to ride. I was pretty nervous at first but once I had some laps in I felt pretty comfy and I was able to take a bunch of seconds off my lap times. I plan to do a few more track days as well as a few Canadian Superbike rounds this year so getting a bit of seat time on the asphalt was great before things warm up here.
My next stop was TTBC! A couple times a year I’m fortunate enough to get down to Colin Edwards Texas Tornado Bootcamp to help instruct. I rode for four days straight only taking breaks to shoot some guns or play ping-pong and it was an awesome way to cap of my Texas trip.
It was great to get in some solid riding down south and come away with yet another top 10! I’m going to get some motocross riding in and some mountain biking to get ready for the opening couple rounds of the Flat Track Canada series and look forward to the rest of the 2016 season!
UPCOMING EVENTS
APRIL 30 – Flat Track Canada Racing School
MAY 14 – Woodstock Flat Track Canada Opening Round
MAY 21 – Paris Flat Track Canada
MAY 29 – Springfield Mile AMA Grand National
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