Joe and I parted ways and did our own thing after washing the bikes and our clothes on Wednesday after the Melbourne race. I spent time working by visiting some customers that live in the Orlando area and Joe was a tourist with his family. My body was not up to much of anything after the big effort in the GNCC race but I did manager to get in a 2 hour bike ride with some friends. The ride helped me recover and feel better. I was hungry for 1.5 days after the race but eventually that went away and I ate normally again.
My friend Rich Doan at Yoshimura Suzuki got me a pit pass for the AMA Superstock and Supersport races at Daytona International Speedway. I spent the afternoon talking tech (and bicycles with Rich) while the Superbike riders qualified. Then I followed the 1000cc Superstock and 600cc Supersport races on pit wall by watching the timing monitors, live TV race coverage and the actual race itself. Most of the crews for Mladden, Spies and Hayden watched the race from the pit boxes too.
Daytona wasn’t as big as I expected but it was cool being there. I parked on the infield and had to drive thru the tunnel to get there. Seeing the pro’s bikes is always cool and Rich gave me a tour of the Yosh team’s new hauler. Below is Roger Decoster and Ben Spies exchaning viewpoints.
I sponsor an up and coming Superstock and Supersport rider named Blake Young. He was 2nd in the Superstock race and 5th in the Supersport race at Daytona. Nice work, Blake!
The next day Joe and I met up again and started our drive north to GA. The van had been acting up that morning so we stopped at a Ford dealer to find some answers. We spent about 1.5 hours having a check done on the fuel system and learned that the lines are plugged or the pump is about to die, or both. $100 poorer and armed with that advice we decided to continue north and hope for the best. We could only do 70mph but we made it to GA just fine. We only need to get to Charlotte on Monday from here and we can put the van in for repairs over the 3 weeks between GNCC rounds.
