April 16-17 at New Jersey Motorsports Park was my first weekend as a CCS expert, and as I donned my Scorpion EXO-R2000 helmet, I felt exactly the same as I did just over a year ago before my first race as an Amateur! Last year, those nerves went away during the warm-up lap, and it did again this year, until we were gridded up. I looked around me, saw all these bikes and racers that I watched last year, trying to glean tips on "how it's done", and now here they are, on the same grid, including one Mr. Mark Heckles, just 2 rows ahead! Fortunately, once the "2" board went up, I was ready to go and forgot about all of that, and focused on the task at hand.
GTU was my first race, and ended with an epic last-lap drag race to the line between Carlos Vasquez and I, (with him taking the spot) and me finishing 12th. It was so close it must have come down to whose transponder was further forward!
Middleweight GP was just up next... wow. The lead pack just seemed to disappear, but those are also all seasoned veterans, and I'll get there! I made a mistake while racing Raymond Bitting and a pack of 3 or 4 bikes all capitalized on it like nothing from last year.. Eye opening! However, I kept pushing, and was able to take 10th in that one.
Middleweight Formula 40, I was very much looking forward to. Still trying to figure out exactly how it happened (I think valve core went bad), but I had checked tire pressures about 2 hours before the race, and everything was good, so I left them on the warmers. However, when I pulled out on track for the warm-up lap, it felt like I had left my rear warmer on the tire! (I actually had to turn and look, it was that bad.) The rear of the bike was all over the place. I limped around the track and pulled back into the pits, finding I had only 5psi of air in the tire! By the time we got it aired up and back out, it was too late and I missed the race. HUGE disappointment, and THAT won't happen again. Thanks again Betsy Rios for jumping right in to try and get me back out there!
Middleweight Superbike was my last race of the weekend. The tire issue was still in my head for the first half of a lap and I paid for it. Put my head down some and put in some decent laps, had another awesome battle with Carlos, and brought home another 10th place finish.
The bike with the Maher Motorsports engine is strong as heck, and Metric Devil Moto's new setup on my suspension is ready to take me to the next level! I need to get myself there, and that WILL happen.
Thanks to everyone for their support this year!
Nicole (my wife) - Lead Sponsor and head tiger stripe-rrr
Michael Faillace - MDM/Pirelli
Chris Maher - Maher Motorsports
Justin Levy - Trackside Parts Club
Arnold Hastings - VP Fuels
Bart DeFrancesco - DC Paintworx
Chris Kruzel - DrippinWet
EvolveGT
KeystoneRiders.com
Vortex
Woodcraft
Scorpion
Sidi
Yoshimura
PitPosse
And of course, ALL of the CCS Staff and corner workers, without whom none of this awesome madness would be possible!
GTU was my first race, and ended with an epic last-lap drag race to the line between Carlos Vasquez and I, (with him taking the spot) and me finishing 12th. It was so close it must have come down to whose transponder was further forward!
Middleweight GP was just up next... wow. The lead pack just seemed to disappear, but those are also all seasoned veterans, and I'll get there! I made a mistake while racing Raymond Bitting and a pack of 3 or 4 bikes all capitalized on it like nothing from last year.. Eye opening! However, I kept pushing, and was able to take 10th in that one.
Middleweight Formula 40, I was very much looking forward to. Still trying to figure out exactly how it happened (I think valve core went bad), but I had checked tire pressures about 2 hours before the race, and everything was good, so I left them on the warmers. However, when I pulled out on track for the warm-up lap, it felt like I had left my rear warmer on the tire! (I actually had to turn and look, it was that bad.) The rear of the bike was all over the place. I limped around the track and pulled back into the pits, finding I had only 5psi of air in the tire! By the time we got it aired up and back out, it was too late and I missed the race. HUGE disappointment, and THAT won't happen again. Thanks again Betsy Rios for jumping right in to try and get me back out there!
Middleweight Superbike was my last race of the weekend. The tire issue was still in my head for the first half of a lap and I paid for it. Put my head down some and put in some decent laps, had another awesome battle with Carlos, and brought home another 10th place finish.
The bike with the Maher Motorsports engine is strong as heck, and Metric Devil Moto's new setup on my suspension is ready to take me to the next level! I need to get myself there, and that WILL happen.
Thanks to everyone for their support this year!
Nicole (my wife) - Lead Sponsor and head tiger stripe-rrr
Michael Faillace - MDM/Pirelli
Chris Maher - Maher Motorsports
Justin Levy - Trackside Parts Club
Arnold Hastings - VP Fuels
Bart DeFrancesco - DC Paintworx
Chris Kruzel - DrippinWet
EvolveGT
KeystoneRiders.com
Vortex
Woodcraft
Scorpion
Sidi
Yoshimura
PitPosse
And of course, ALL of the CCS Staff and corner workers, without whom none of this awesome madness would be possible!
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