Lima, OH

After we got back from Bulls Gap, I went to Brandon Robinson's house on monday night and rode for about 3 hours. I felt awesome and was ready to push the rest of the week getting ready for Lima. On Tuesday, I caught a virus and I had a 101 fever all night tuesday into wednesday and thursday. The fever went away on thursday, but I had a really bad sore throat, I was really tired and weak and getting dizzy spells. I went to the doctor on friday and he told me I caught a bug and should stay away from driving to far or riding my motorcycle. Welp, I didn't listen to well to either as we made the 8 hour trip to Lima, Ohio so I could race my motorcycle. I have only raced Lima once before, which was last year and I struggled a little bit adjusting to the fast, aggressive cushion track on the big XR 750. I really like cushion tracks, but don't have alot of time on the XR 750 on them yet.
 
I was feeling descent in the morning as I took my meds, but then around 10 o'clock I started feeling crappy right into when practice started. I rested up right before I had to change into my leathers and tried my best to get into the main event and shake off our season long bad luck to rack up some points. Rich Hanson has been huge for me the past two weekends getting the bike dialed in. I have alot of confidence with him in our pits and his decisions to make things work. First practice was descent. The track was deep and smooth. I qualified like 21st which was descent, but the last two sessions the heat really took a toll on me and I faded back in times a little bit.
 
I was starting outside 2nd row in my heat race. I got a pretty crappy start and I just wasn't feeling too hot. I was feeling really weak holding onto the bike and the sun was really in my eyes going into turn 3 and I couldn't see anything. I ended up like 10th or 11th in my heat. There was a long break from the heat to the semi as we waited for the sun to set. I had some time to rest and the heat went away and I was feeling a little better for my semi but I had some work to do being on the back row again for the start. I nailed the start and was running in 4th coming off two. Guys started to picking me off one by one. Down the straight-aways and off the corners. I was back in like 14th looking like a squid. At first I thought it was running on one cylinder and then I thought it was just running sour and it was going to blow up. I came off two one lap and bumped my shifter down and sure enough, I was running the first 5 laps in 3rd gear when we were geared for 4th. I shifted into 4th and started picking guys off. I passed 4 guys in 2 laps and was reeling in everyone in front of me. A couple more laps and I think I could of passed 4-5 more guys. It was a mental error on me as I finally cut a good first corner and was up front and I forget to bang 4th on the back straight-away. A long day and I was glad to head home and rest up for Frederick, MD this coming weekend. A track close to home I liked last year. I am looking to gain some spots in the hot shoe points here and get some more seat time on the twin at a cushion 1/2 mile. I feel like I am riding descent, just haven't had a weekend where everything came together yet. It's sunday night as I write this and I am feeling 100% better which is awesome because I kind of forgot what it felt like to not be sick. Ha ha! No one likes excuses and I haven't had a good GNC season at all. I ran pretty descent at the hot shoe events, and some other shows so I know my speed is there, but just been having some hard luck at the big races. I'm not too worried about it. My dad is back home healing up, so that is a weight lifted off my shoulders and hopefully we can string out some good finishes here the next couple weeks getting ready for my hometown GNC race in Hagerstown, MD on July 25th.