Cory Texter :: AMA Flat Track Racing, Lancaster Harley Davidson

Maryville, Tennesee

Well, our first trip to Tennessee didn't turn out quite as planned. Some days you just have off days, but this wasn't the case for this race. We felt really good and a rookie mistake kept me from making my first grand national.

The day started off kinda crummy. The track was semi-rough and really inconsistent. I ended up 32nd the first session, then down to 25th the second session. I was getting faster and faster and more comfortable on the bike each time out. I lined up for my heat race on the back row. I had a pretty good group of guys in my heat race with Mees, Chris Carr, Kopp, Italia, Myers, Raun Wood, Bergen and some more. I got a pretty good start from the back row and I was running in 6th. I kept closing in on Myers and was right on his rear wheel, but everytime I would try to make a pass on the outside of one and two, I kept blowing off the groove. I got back in line before Raun Wood could get by and I managed a 7th. Not so good of a heat race, but I felt really good on the motorcycle and there wasn't any reason we couldn't win the semi.

I lined up from my semi with Bergen, Marshall, Scherb, Phillips, Bigelow and some others. I just tried to stay calm and focus on the holeshot. I nailed the holeshot and went into turn one in the lead. I came off turn two and I went to downshift my bike into 3rd gear and I hit a false neutral! I got rear ended real hard and I almost crashed off my bike. I gathered it up and came across lap one in 10th place. So I went from 1st to 10th in a matter of half a lap. I wasn't sure what happened. I thought maybe I blew the bike up and then I thought maybe I threw a chain. I was really shaken up at first, but then I put my head down and put in some super fast laps to finish 5th, closing on the leaders. I think with double the 8 laps we had, I might of been able to do it. I was super bummed out, as I finally had a good holeshot and was trying to finally get this first national out of the way and then I pull something off like that. The good thing was I felt awesome on the bike and it worked great. There are still a couple of things I can work on, but this was a huge confidence builder heading into our next national in Bedford, PA this coming friday. It would'nt be any sweeter to make my first national at a track so close to home. But I still feel like we should of been in at least 3-4 finals this year and just couldn't get some good luck on our side. After Bedford we race in Lima the following day then im off to cheer on Shayna at the amateur nationals in Duquoin, Illinois. Then another national in Topeka on July 4th. I feel really bad for all of my team and sponsors that we didn't at least put it in the main this past weekend and get a good finish. I learned alot from this incident and it won't ever happen again, thats for sure. I'm just going to keep plugging away, training hard and focusing on the task at hand and it will all pay off soon. See ya in Bedford!