Another busy few weeks.

On the literary front: no news on Hell's Own Ride. I checked to be sure the publisher was still posting on the web - yes - so I'll let the clock tick for two more weeks before pinging again. On the positive side, this means still no rejection. On the negative, I worry my submission wasn't ever received.

I started another novel, another fantasy. This one's got ghosts, and some cool stuff... the fire to write it hasn't really caught yet, but it's percolating. I imagine I'll really get hot on it during the summer racing break.

Today I took my youngest riding in the dirt again. Since I'd last posted, I'd de-restricted my (pit/dirt) bike's intake and exhaust, and rejetted, giving it a whopping 12 or so HP - but they're really useful ponies... Rachel's still too small for a bigger dirtbike (a KLX-110's the lowest seat height, so we looked at one and it's too tall for her still) with bigger wheels, which is too bad - she turfed about 20 MPH today (tough kid) when the 10" front wheel on her JR50 got caught in a rut.

Dad (me) had a blast, though, using the unleashed horses. I had the bike a few feet in the air, and was sliding around everywhere - I even found some mud to roost in a few times. Good stuff.

I hadn't been blogging much about it: losing weight during the race season is something I've been working on (and succeeding pretty well, thanks, over 35 lbs so far). Along the way, I decided I'd start riding my old bicycle again anywhere I needed to go that was less than six miles away (Wal-Mart, Albertson's, the gym, Walgreen's, etc.). To that end, since the riding position was so extreme (road bike, nearly a racer), I stopped by a bike (bicycle) shop and they hooked me up with a decent stem and some advice on raising the bar for a more relaxed riding position. Props to Paragon Cycling of Mesa, AZ, readers in the area, please consider them if you need repair or parts.

Back on the roadracing side of things - I had planned to go to Miller Motorsports Park (Tooele, UT) next week, but events conspired against me. Scuba Dave and I decided it wasn't worth the cost to us to go with just the two of us, and so the June 6/7/8/9 WERA West weekend we're scratching. We'll probably pick Fontana (Aug 3rd) up to replace it.

Thus, the next race weekend for me is June 14/15, at ASMA.

Talk to you all later,


dave

Wow, it's been a busy two weeks. Just catching up, now.

ASMA races weekend before last, I did well, but not as well as three other racers who've stepped it up. I ended up with two third-place finishes, a fourth, and a fifth.

I raced at Buttonwillow in California last weekend. Wow, what stiff competition - first and foremost, I had to overcome myself.

When I last raced there in 2006, I was really slow, about 2:09.50 laps for my best. I thought for sure I'd be under 2:00...

I quickly got down to 2:03 in practice. And stayed there. I honestly don't know where I was losing time, only that I did, in fact, have slower laptimes than other people.

It's frustrating. I watch video of other, faster racers, and I believe I'm faster in most corners than they are, which leaves braking and top speed in the Riverside and "Sweeper" corners as the likely suspects. I think I need to get to WFO in the Riverside corner sooner, and enter the Sweeper faster.

But it's not a track I'll see again until next year. And, frankly, I didn't get faster every time on the track, and that bothers me, a lot.

Okay, the next races are in Miller Motorsports Park, Tooele, Utah. That's another fast, big, high-horsepower-needed track.

No news on the literary front, between work and racing I have no time to write. I'll fix that soon :). No report from the publisher on my submission "Hell's Own". I'll ping the publisher again in three more weeks.

dave