This past weekend brough fantasic weather to the Summit Point Motorsports Park in West Virginia. The holiday weekend race was 4 days long with 2 days of track practice and 2 days of racing. Unfortunently for team EmpireGP we showed up a bit too late for the absolutly jammed packed weekend and ended up getting a less than ideal pit spot in the paddock. On the plus side though, our area was much more relaxed.

Testing on Saturday went well but resulted in some so-so lap times maxing out in the upper 1:21's. However the bike was performing well and I wasn't feeling the need to destroy the machine before the weekend really kicked off. With a sold out event I was entered into 5 races: the GTU ,GTO, Unlimted GP (trophy dash), Middeweight GP and middleweight Superbike.

My Unlimited GP results were certainly not desired. On the first lap I had an extremly close call in T4 (the shute). At about the apex point in the downhill sweeper I got pushed off the track while doing triple digits into the dirt shoulder. The wall at this point is extremly close to the track. While I was able to maintain the bike upright and find my self back on the track, I instantly lost at least 10 positons on top of already being in 5th or 6th place. Despite my close call I was able to bang out some laps in the lower 1:20's and get back to 12th place. I was very pleased with the rest of my results and I was finally able to break into the 1:19s this weekend; still an extremly long ways away from the track record of in the 1:12's but fast enough to keep my in the top 5 of my races for fastest lap times. Next weekend I will shoot for 1:18's.

To end on a sad note; this weekend we witnessed the passing of Alex Lyskawa from NH. Alex was racing his Honda RS125 in the 125cc Grand Prix class. Alex was 13 years old and a rising star. I did not have the honor of knowing him, but his passing non-the less has a profound impact on me and my racing brethren. God speed to Alex and my prayers o his family.