[Fot] Race report please

[Bill Babcock]

Had great fun with Peyote in the Triumph feature race. I was gridded 12th because of my time in the rain race, and it was a lot tougher getting through the traffic than I expected. I knew Tony Garmey (TR250K) and Sam Halkias would be coming up fast, so I tried to get to the front quickly to pull out some lead. At the end of the first lap I was one or two cars from the lead when the TR8 passed me in the middle of the straight so I tucked in behind him. It gave me a pretty good tow, so I worked hard to stay close. After a few laps the TR8 got far enough away to break the draft, and started fpulling away. I kept pedalling hard but saw light behind me, meaning Tony was coming up fast and there was a car in front of him--Halkias. Sam passed me in the chute to the front straight but I got right on his butt and he gave me a great draft. With the 3.45 rear end I was running 6200 or less at the end of the straight, but glued to Sam I hit 6800 when I lifted for the corner. The whole car was bussing and vibrating. I'll have to figure out how fast that is, but it seemed pretty insane. 

Tony passed me shortly after, don't remember exactly where, though I do recall having to run through his dust cloud when he dropped tires in the gravel pit at the end of the straight. I couldn't see a thing. I was very please not to find a car sideways in the middle of it. 

Did a couple of laps staying pretty close to Sam and Tony, then Tony got held up by a waving Yellow that appeared a microsecond after Sam went by, so we both fell back and never caught him. I tried drafting Tony up the straight, but there's no pull behind that thing. Weird. No turbulence either. 

Tony was also pulling out some lead in a couple of corners, indicating that I still have a few seconds to find here and there on the track. I did a 2:44.445, which is a lot better than I thought Peyote could do. I was hoping to break 2:46, so that was cool. I thought it was just drafing behind Sam, but I actually did two 2:44's and a 2:45, so that was pretty neat. 

The last group two race of the day was fun too, but much lower key. I started 14th--again because of rain times--and again I had a tougher time getting to the front than I anticipated. Pretty crowded straights, and a lot of chaos in the corners. When I finally got to the front there was a Elva Courier way out in the distance, running away. I settled in and took my time running him down, finally got a good clean pass and then kept the same pace to the end of the race. I think I did 2:47, so it wasn't as relaxed as it felt. I think I finally have the track more or less figured out, so of course now I won't race there for another three years. 

Fun weekend. Back in Hood River. I need to go paddle a few hundred miles this week to burn off the brats and beer. 

. 
On Sep 6, 2013, at 8:09 PM, Mike Munson <fasttrs at yahoo.com> wrote:

> We poor fellows who have to work this weekend or simply couldn't make it would
> like to know how practice went today!
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