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* Dallas 2004 Race Report * |
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The Texas race this year was one I wasn't sure if I could make or not, but at Gainesville, Allen Nusbaum offered me a ride. How could I pass this up!! I met up with Allen Wednesday evening, we loaded up and off we went. It's a long drive to Dallas. We arrived Thursday evening and were eager to get into the track and set-up for the Friday test and tune session. We both went to start our bikes at the same time. Mine started, but there was an electrical problem, a broke wire that was repaired in short order. Allen had a more serious problem, his bike would not start at all. With help from several racers including Dean Shields, all the wiring problems were identified and repaired and Allen was running. I got 3 passes in, Allen got just 1. The wind was absolutely howling all weekend, blowing mostly from the starting line to the finish and occasionally slightly across the track. That made for lots and lots of red light starts. In 6 passes on Friday and Saturday, I had 4 red eye starts. Yes, I was a little nervous about that going into Sunday eliminations. In the end, there were 12 bikes qualified within .010 seconds in a 17 bike field. It was going to be tight racing on Sunday. I qualified #5 with a 10.33. Normally that would have been a #1 or #2 spot. After seeing the ladder Sunday morning, I realized that if Allen and I both won our first two rounds that we would be facing each other in the quarter finals. I'll be damned if that's not the way it worked out. In my first round, I faced Mike Harrison. The MOV was .0018 seconds!! That's a scant 2.25 inches!! Next I faced GW Bass. Uncharacteristically, GW red lit and I got a full throttle pass for the win. Now it was the show down against Allen. It was a really close race with both of us even to the 1000 foot mark, both playing the throttles a little. Just before the finish line, Allen chopped his and I took the line less than a bike length ahead. That netted Allen a 10.33 and me a 10.28, just .050 seconds between us. Allen went on to the finals and won the event. He deserved to win, he's a heck of a great competitor. It really made me feel good to be on the line with him for the semi and final rounds. I also got to spend time on Sunday with my sister, her husband, and my 3 beautiful nieces. I wish I could have spent more time visiting, I really miss them tremendously. They are extremely supportive of my racing efforts and genuinely interested in all the infinite details. Everyone of them got their picture taken on the race bike! Commerce is up next and I'll be bringing all I learned at Dallas to the line. I feel a win coming, could it be at the Southern Nationals? Guess you'll have to be there and see it for yourself! Stay tuned for more! And THANKS for visiting the MAVRIK Racing pages!
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