Sandia this weekend

[Roger@ASMA]

Who's all going?

[punisher]

Oh pick me!!!! Pick me!!!!

Where is Sandia?

[Ask Jeeves [Bot]]

Whitechurch.

[Francis [Bot]]

I'll be there. When are you heading up there?

[Roger@ASMA]

Kevin and I won't be heading out on Saturday afternoon, so we're only going to be there on Sunday this time. I've got a big sports car trackday and I really need to be here for at least half of the day.

[Roger@ASMA]

Well, a short, secondhand report from Sandia.

1. The sports car day I had on Saturday turned out to be quite a bit bigger turnout than I had expected, so I ended up needing to be here all day, along with Sunday as I had someone ask for a rental. As most of you know, this place takes priority for me so I was not able to make the trip. Kevin stopped by to pick up his bike and since I couldn't go he started counting points and decided he would also skip this round and let the SMRI guys even out the points and make for a true championship race at the last round. The amateur titles are up for grabs now.

2. Micky Rupe won his first ever race, the F40 Amateur race. Ivan said he even lapped a few bikes during the race. Congrats Thunderdog!

3. Ivan had the same results as last month, a few seconds and a 4th in ULGP.

4. The ULGP State Championship now comes down to the last round at ASR in November with Ray Thorton leading Ivan Garza by 5pts. With the AMA National points system, Garza will need to finish at least two spots in front of Thorton at the final round if to win the championship and the $1000 bonus that goes with it.

Mike Browne was also there, I heard he finished 3rd, but not sure which class yet.

I'm also not sure who won the lightweight class.

[ratdoctor]

Here's my Sandia race report; Overall, the weekend was pretty freakin cool. This was my first race weekend at Sandia (had done track days in 2002), and it seemed like a low turnout. Most grids were in the half dozen or so range. The organizers were friendly to ASMA folks and despite Shreve's and Garza's polite comments (and shrewd logic) suggesting that the NM Championship races be bumped up in the order due to weather concerns, the organizers were ok. My first impression is that Sandia caters first to supermotard-types, second to "vintage"-types, and modern roadracing comes in third. It's not necessarily bad, it just mirrors their membership. Saturday practice time was limited to say the least. Other random comments; race fuel was hard to find, spectator turnout was good, track is abrasive and "quirky".

OK, so how did I do.... I entered the Novice GPO and the Open Novice. Regretably, Supertwins was forbidden for Novices. Understandably, I was gridded poorly in both races (8/9 in the GPO, 13/15 in Open). In GPO I hit the start and wound up second through turn one. I sat there for way to long and wound up getting relegated to third with one lap to go. In the early stages of the race I lost time every lap after the double apex and going into turn one, but got held up entering the hairpin and the entrance to the double apex. Every lap was between 56.5 and 57.2, and I don't think my times would have been much better with clear track... Novice open was different. My start was rough and I was deep, deep in the pack into the first turn. Wound up behind the same guys as the first race by lap three and could not do much to get by them. Think I finished up in 7th. Average lap times in that race were in the 57's.

I got back just in time to watch the Expert money race and Garza and Shreve put on a great race. Ivan's bike blew a bunch of smoke early in the race exiting the hairpin, but held together to finish. Shreve worked past Ivan with one to go and took third. They were awesome to watch.

Micky held the ASMA banner high. His F40 race saw him in second going into turn one, but he was consistent and smooth lap after lap. After he passed for the lead, he put at least a second gap on that lap alone. Second started pushing and lost it in the double apex allowing Micky to bring it home in style. Well done!

Looking forward to ASMA next month...

[FAST Enterprise [Crawler]]

2. Micky Rupe won his first ever race, the F40 Amateur race. Ivan said he even lapped a few bikes during the race. Congrats Thunderdog!

Way to go Mickey

[Ask Jeeves [Bot]]

Wow. Way to go, gents!

[Michelle@Arroyo]

Great job Micky. Looks like I'll be chasing you from now on.
I'll see everyone in Sep for the races.

[Francis [Bot]]

Thanks everyone. This was a great morale booster after last months performance. I am really looking forward to being back on our home track though. Nothing like ASMA for having a good time racing. Now that I got a confidence boost, I'm going to give ole yeller a little esp tlc for September. Look out Thomas and Dave, here I come. And Mike, I better see my Team Sprinter there too. Looking forward to racing at HOME the rest of the year. WooHoo!!!