I'm with Taco, this was a remarkable event. Even though it was a bit lonely being the only Destroyer there, we had some fun. Taco, Mike & Sandy are great supporters. My appreciation for what great folks they are cannot be adequately expressed. This goes for all the others that couldn't make it - Noel and Griz.
As Noel observed, I went 4 rounds Saturday. Rookie mistakes did me in. 4th round, asleep at the tree. 0.333 RT. If I would have had half of that, would have beat him. Sunday was worse. We started the day bogging (4000 revs), not sure if the bike was getting tired or track prep was over the top. Robbie went up on TP, next run was ok. 2nd round bogged again, about 2000 revs. Decided to raise launch revs 500. Call it fatigue, inattention, whatever, it was a boneheaded mistake - instead of dialing in 8200, I reversed the dials and dialed 2800. You can be sure that will NEVER happen again. On the other hand, I have a video a friend shot of my 3rd pass on Saturday where the margin of victory was 0.0044 of a second. That was a RACE! I'll get the video posted later today.
The shame in all of this is it spoiled a great event for Robbie. He had me dialed in. We dialed 9.62, ran 9.62. Dialed 9.69 on another run, ran 9.70. As PatM correctly recognized, Robbie is a bracket racing machine. What a great help.
As Taco said, time to relax a bit. The bike goes to Elkhart Saturday for a refresh. Dennis goes on a weight reduction program. And gets psyched for the Nitro School in April. Yep, pulled the trigger. I'll probably be running both at some events next year.
Also looking for a toy hauler trailer with living quarters if anyone knows of one, please let me know. I'm watching ebay and RVTrader. I wanna be like Griz and stay at the track!
For everyone that helped out this year, I don't know how to repay you. I don't want this to get all mushy, but it was a meaningful year for me after fighting life-threatening cancer last year. All the support and the thrill of winning a round here and there really made the year for me.
Once again, thanks to all and for the new friendships. Can't wait to see all of you next spring!