Before round 5 i dove into the fueling system for the 675. Starting at the tank and moving component by component to the engine. The injectors and throttle bodies were ultimately identified as being the issue and were replaced. A trip back to Proformance Dyno Tuning verified that the bike was healthy, and they put a slightly adjusted tune in to compensate for the new injectors and throttle bodies. The bike was now a rocket ship, i was out of excuses!
Saturday practice had me scared of the bike. With the fuel issue resolved the bike was now rocketing out of corners. It wanted shifts quicker, reached higher top speeds at the entry of corners and generally was an animal. I focused on getting my head around this new speed and making adjustments accordingly.
Race one i lost to Mike, but identified some areas to work on while chasing him. He was WAY better on entry, i was braking too early. There was a lot of time to be made up there. But i was crushing him on exits! the new fuel map was amazing and the bike just wanted to to go fast in a straight line.
Race two i put it all together for the first time in two rounds. Based on some input from Nadieh (my temporary Dutch roommate racing AMA) as well as earlier discussions with Jerry Hicks, I got a CRUSHING start and went into T1 in 3rd. I watched some guys that are much faster than I am come by me in the next few laps, always surprised it wasn’t Mike Hawkins. Purcell and Owens both went by me. Then Hawkins. I chased him to the line and beat him by a fraction of a second.
With that result i was 3 points ahead of him in Heavyweight. If I beat him round 6 i win, if he beats me or we tie, he wins.
My bike works, i found a bit of time and my confidence is back after that killer start. I am so excited for round 6!