The weather was PERFECT in West Virginia for Round 6 of the CCS Atlantic Series championship at Summit Point, and though Rich has struggled with Summit previously, hopes were high for a strong showing in this weekend's racing!
First up for Rich on Saturday was the 25 minute GTU. There are several racers who are strong at Summit, and they showed it! Despite a good start and leading the field, the front-runners caught up, pushing Rich back into a still respectable 10th (of 34) at the finish. HUGE shout-out to fellow racer Paul Robson, who after a Team Pro-Motion track day the weekend before, dropped several seconds off his times and came past him to take a well-earned 8th! Rich did set a new personal best in that race however, which bodes well for the rest of the weekend!
Next up was Formula 40 middleweight, combined amateur/expert. The time between the first wave (experts) and us in the 2nd wave was shorter than usual, and Rich got caught off guard at the green flag, lofting the front wheel of the GrrR6, allowing Jack Guyette and Carlos Vasquez to rocket past him towards turn 1. Rich knew Paul would be coming for him again, but was able to set up 3 experts coming out of 1, and with the confidence of a fresh Pirelli slick on the back, he gave the GrrR6 the beans while cranked over and chicane’d around the 3 of them through T2 and into T3. That move bought him the cushion he needed... and it turns out he needed it! Rich caught up to another expert who was a litter faster in the back section, and though he would reel him in from T9 to T4-T5, just couldn’t get around him, and ended up running about a second off pace for the last 4 laps of the race, but it was enough to get on the box in 3rd!
A great cookout was had Saturday evening with the contributions of our "pit posse", fueling everyone for Sunday's events! After a quick suspension adjustment by the wizard Michael Failace of Metric Devil Moto (only the second adjustment ALL YEAR, and only because Rich's pace has improved, I should add), we were ready for the day!
Race 1 was Middleweight Superbike, and another big grid of 33! Rich and the GrrR6 got a VERY good launch and led the race for ~2 laps before Stanislav & Dennis Pryor came past, followed closely by Jeremiah Walker on his MV Agusta 800. Rich did his best to keep up, but he had other issues to worry about, namely Korey Hopkins and Jon Follmer! A few good battles were had, and he was able to hold them off to take home 4th, and another personal best.
The last of the day for us was the combined GTO/GTU/GTL Rookie’s cup. Nothing like coming up on a Ninja 250 at a 50 MPH closing speed heading into T1! There were several riders who went off in this race, and Rich had made a mental mistake about rules for passing under a standing vs. waving yellow, and lost a spot because of it. Another time a rider broke the rules and passed 3 of us going into T1 under a waving yellow, but the marshal missed it, so that was another spot. Oh well, that's racing! Even with the rookie mistake (See what I did there?), Rich managed to take home a 5th.
All in all, a great weekend. Once on the box, and all top-10 finishes. We're really looking forward to the final round at NJMP in just 2 weeks' time! Thanks as always to our 'pit posse' (especially helping get Rich out to the grid for Race 3!), Metric Devil Moto, Trackside Parts Club, Scorpion USA, PitPosse Motorsports, Yoshimura, Woodcraft CFM, Vortex, Team Pro-Motion, ATech Customs, Braking, Pirelli, Penske Racing Shocks, all the MARRC volunteers and CCS crew, and of course- the one, the only, operations manager/cheerleader/pit crew/chef/umbrella hottie Nicole!
First up for Rich on Saturday was the 25 minute GTU. There are several racers who are strong at Summit, and they showed it! Despite a good start and leading the field, the front-runners caught up, pushing Rich back into a still respectable 10th (of 34) at the finish. HUGE shout-out to fellow racer Paul Robson, who after a Team Pro-Motion track day the weekend before, dropped several seconds off his times and came past him to take a well-earned 8th! Rich did set a new personal best in that race however, which bodes well for the rest of the weekend!
Next up was Formula 40 middleweight, combined amateur/expert. The time between the first wave (experts) and us in the 2nd wave was shorter than usual, and Rich got caught off guard at the green flag, lofting the front wheel of the GrrR6, allowing Jack Guyette and Carlos Vasquez to rocket past him towards turn 1. Rich knew Paul would be coming for him again, but was able to set up 3 experts coming out of 1, and with the confidence of a fresh Pirelli slick on the back, he gave the GrrR6 the beans while cranked over and chicane’d around the 3 of them through T2 and into T3. That move bought him the cushion he needed... and it turns out he needed it! Rich caught up to another expert who was a litter faster in the back section, and though he would reel him in from T9 to T4-T5, just couldn’t get around him, and ended up running about a second off pace for the last 4 laps of the race, but it was enough to get on the box in 3rd!
A great cookout was had Saturday evening with the contributions of our "pit posse", fueling everyone for Sunday's events! After a quick suspension adjustment by the wizard Michael Failace of Metric Devil Moto (only the second adjustment ALL YEAR, and only because Rich's pace has improved, I should add), we were ready for the day!
Race 1 was Middleweight Superbike, and another big grid of 33! Rich and the GrrR6 got a VERY good launch and led the race for ~2 laps before Stanislav & Dennis Pryor came past, followed closely by Jeremiah Walker on his MV Agusta 800. Rich did his best to keep up, but he had other issues to worry about, namely Korey Hopkins and Jon Follmer! A few good battles were had, and he was able to hold them off to take home 4th, and another personal best.
The last of the day for us was the combined GTO/GTU/GTL Rookie’s cup. Nothing like coming up on a Ninja 250 at a 50 MPH closing speed heading into T1! There were several riders who went off in this race, and Rich had made a mental mistake about rules for passing under a standing vs. waving yellow, and lost a spot because of it. Another time a rider broke the rules and passed 3 of us going into T1 under a waving yellow, but the marshal missed it, so that was another spot. Oh well, that's racing! Even with the rookie mistake (See what I did there?), Rich managed to take home a 5th.
All in all, a great weekend. Once on the box, and all top-10 finishes. We're really looking forward to the final round at NJMP in just 2 weeks' time! Thanks as always to our 'pit posse' (especially helping get Rich out to the grid for Race 3!), Metric Devil Moto, Trackside Parts Club, Scorpion USA, PitPosse Motorsports, Yoshimura, Woodcraft CFM, Vortex, Team Pro-Motion, ATech Customs, Braking, Pirelli, Penske Racing Shocks, all the MARRC volunteers and CCS crew, and of course- the one, the only, operations manager/cheerleader/pit crew/chef/umbrella hottie Nicole!
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