Kind of a struggling weekend for me, but I'll try to be a good sport and write a report anyway. Saturday Saturday practice was a full day but I squandered that by crashing near the beginning of the third session, making it a half-day practice and a half-day wrenching session for me. I was entering turn 4 on the second lap, just starting to speed up a little when the back end came around and never hooked up again. I'm not terribly sure of myself in this suspicion, but it seems like the 120 tires just aren't lasting as long as I expected at the pace I'm riding. I guess I'll change the rear every weekend hence if I continue using the 120. I tried to replace the 120 tire I had just crashed on, but Terry hadn't brought many with him and had sold out. So I fitted a rim on which I had a 130/90 tire from earlier in the year when the spare (A/W) bike still had a 130 setup. That tire had only an AFM school from March on it, so I figured it should be pretty new. Changing to the 130 setup meant changing suspension links to get my ride height approximately correct again. I was concerned about the handling difference I would feel because of all these changes, and I would have only Sunday's morning practice and possibly the 250 superbike race to get used to the new feel of the bike. I didn't know whether it would be enough. Joe Pardo (#728), Paul Somerville (#311), Guy Hutchison (#852), Brian Pratt (#480), and probably others I've forgotten deserve big thanks for loaning me parts and brawn during my crash recovery work. Thanks, you guys! In the few sessions of practice I got before crashing on Saturday, I managed a few 2:04s but nothing really great. Saturday night I realized I could reduce the difference between the new setup and the old one by changing gearing to compensate for the change in rear tire size. Sunday After all the Sunday-morning rituals of registration, tech, etc., I got out my tape measure and took some tire measurements. The circumference of the 130/90-16 K591 tire is 78 inches, and the circumference of the 120/80-16 K591 is 74.5 inches. 45 * 78 / 74.5 is about 47.11, so I asked around to borrow a 47-tooth rear sprocket. Joe graciously loaned me one, and except for some excess chain tension I was in business. Lacking the time and desire to go hunting for a 108-link chain, I decided the tightness would be OK for one practice and a couple of races. I went out in practice to shake down any problems remaining with the bike. Things went OK; I didn't manage any great times. The bike seemed fine, but I had trouble focusing. The fact that the bike had a couple of minor problems didn't help; the exhaust would pop on deceleration and maybe the bike wasn't pulling as hard as usual, and by the end of the practice session the left handlebar riser was very loose. Past history suggested that the exhaust popping and possible lack of power was likely because of the carbs coming unplugged from the airbox. Sure enough, they were hanging loose when I looked after practice. I should check for this problem after every crash. I had plenty of time to fix the carb issue and the handlebar riser before 250 superbike, which was the first race of the day. I decided to do the superbike race because I wanted to get another session on the bike before 250 production. The superbike race was pretty uneventful; lots of practice passing people. Nick Tenbrink (#809) finished ahead of me but not by much. My times were decent, but not great. Still was having trouble with focus, and wasn't riding consistently or well. My times were erratic, my upper body was tense. I was basically distracted and sucking. Team Iguana Elders Scott Elledge and Erik Astrup were in attendance, and they stopped by my pit with Holly Ober to say hello and to tell me I'd better not let them down in the race. We also took some pleasure poking fun at some people's dogs. It was great to see those guys finally making it out to watch some AFM racing after so long! Afternoon came, and it was time for the 250 production race. I needed to win this race, but even more, I needed not to crash. I continued to suck. I had moments of non-suckage just to remind me of what it's like, but I mostly sucked. The flag flew and I got off the line very well. I was in the lead at the end of first gear, but I blew the shift up into second. When I let the clutch out I was still in first gear, and at that point I had made my choice between first gear and first place. I chose the gear. :-( I immediately dropped to something like tenth place and started passing people. Everyone I passed hooked a big bungee cord onto the back of my bike, it seemed, because it wasn't long before they were all passing me back and hassling me all over the place. I made this happen by riding significantly slower than last month's pace. The race fast turned into a comedy of errors, obstacles, and yellow flags. I eventually worked my way up to second place, with Alex Torres (#105) riding very well in third and Kevin Scott (#680) and Nick behind me in some order. As we came into turn 10 I saw Jeff Bertany (#188) on the access road on the inside of the turn, duck-walking his bike toward the live track surface! When I went by where he was sitting, I think his front wheel was about two feet from the track. Not seeing any sign that he was going to stop moving before he got onto the track, I took a wide, slow, highly evasive line which put me way out near the dirt and took away a huge amount of speed. Sure enough, just as I get to turn 11 Alex drove alongside to my left. We went through the corner shoulder-to-shoulder, and at some point, still rattled from thinking I was going to t-bone Jeff's stopped bike at 100 mph, I got worried about how close together Alex and I were and backed off. Alex didn't back off. By this time we were well into the lapped traffic, and I kept hoping the traffic would slow Alex down so I could get back by him. That didn't happen, at least not the way I wanted it to. Eventually the traffic slowed him *way* down, but that happened later. On top of the traffic, there were yellow flags all over the place. I kept having to stop and park to avoid passing backmarkers, and all the time I knew people were piling up behind me, just waiting to move in for the kill. And move in they did. After I parked in turn 2 to avoid passing a bunch of backmarkers at the beginning of the next-to-last lap, Kevin and Nick both went flying by me. They hadn't been slowed by the flag at all, it seemed. I instantly went from third place to fifth place; I couldn't believe it! Every attempt to catch back up to Nick and Kevin was futile. I was riding so badly by this time that I was just trying to survive the rest of the race and hold the position I was in and get through the traffic without killing anyone. Somewhere on that lap, Nick got by Alex for second place, leaving Kevin in fourth and me in fifth. Alex crashed in turn 11 just before the white flag trying a very strange path around a backmarker that took him out into the marbles when the backmarker wobbled to the outside. This put Kevin in third and me in fourth, and that's how the race ended. I was very disappointed because I turned in such a poor riding performance. Kevin set the fastest lap of the race with a 2:02.014 on his last lap, and I got the consolation prize of setting the second fastest lap with a 2:03.46, a second and a half off Kevin's pace. Frank won with a fastest lap of 2:03.50, and Nick's fastest was 2:03.6. Before he crashed, Alex turned in a 2:04.2. My 2:03.46 doesn't seem so bad (although it isn't good lately either) until you consider that most of my other laps were slower than 2:04. One was a 2:08, probably the one where I parked in turn 2 and got passed after the yellow flag. Quite a backslide from last month's performance, and pretty detrimental to my points situation. I'm in third place now, I think, with Frank 16 points ahead of me and Nick 4 points ahead of him. Even if I get my act together and by some incredible luck manage to win both the remaining two races this year, I could still get third place for the year. [Editor's note added later: I don't know what I was thinking. If I managed to win both remaining races I would have gotten first or second in the class for the year, not third.] I hope the Iguana Elders aren't too upset with me, and that I haven't destroyed their interest in spectating. Oh well. All the national- and world-level riders say they're happier when championship pressures are off and they can just focus on winning races. Maybe that philosophy will work for me, too. Another consolation prize: I got some excellent photos from Gary Rather and Mo Kaluta from the July races. Hopefully I'll find time to get them scanned and posted soon.