We’re winding down the season right with a couple more podiums and a new personal best! This was the last regular season weekend, now we only have the Grand National Finals to go. Without further ado, let’s get onto the 2024 Road Atlanta WERA Race Recap 2!
2024 Road Atlanta WERA Race Recap 2 – arrival
Since Road Atlanta is the closest track to home, I decided not to camp on Friday night and just show up early Saturday morning, skip first practice, and set up my pit. Since a few friends had indicated they might show up and hang out, I decided to find a place to pit on the lower paddock, rather than in my usual spot up on the top where I’m by myself.
As I was driving through the lower paddock, Matt Hall waved me over to his pit and suggested that I come hang out with them for the weekend, an invitation I accepted.
As I was setting up, I got a text from my friend and colleague Whitney, who was on her way. I guided her to our paddock, and she hung out for the practice sessions and took a few pics.
2024 Road Atlanta WERA Race Recap 2 – Saturday practice
I was excited for the 2nd round of practice, since there had been a few changes to the bike thanks to Atlanta Motorcycle Works, including a new clutch, new coils, a repacked muffler, fixed the rear brake pivot, and a dyno tune. After my difficulties running a good lap time at Barber, I wanted to see if I felt a difference.
Lightweight practice for WERA is difficult for us small bike guys, since we’re out there with everything from Aprilia RS660s to Suzuki SV650s to Honda NSF250s and everything in between. I didn’t get a full clean lap for the entire practice, but I think I managed to run every corner without traffic at least once. The bike felt good, but I wasn’t able to get a race-pace lap in to really get a sense of where I was.
Another fun thing – my friend Jason showed up to catch some racing! After my race, we hung out and watched a few races until he had to head back home. Good to see you!
2024 Road Atlanta WERA Race Recap 2 – Saturday race
For Saturday’s race I had two goals – beat Kevin Moore, and try to keep up with Kyle Wagner. Kyle has motor on me, though in practice it seemed like less than before. If you’ve been following this season (and last season, for that matter), Kevin and I almost always are battling it out, and I needed to redeem myself after crashing at CMP while chasing him down.
The flag drops and we’re off. I get a decent start, though both Kyle and Kevin get the drop on me. We head into turn 1, and I think I can get by Kevin, but there’s a lot of traffic and I choose to hold off. We power up the hill into the entrance of the chicane. I plan to wait and take Kevin at turn 6, but the opportunity presents itself in the esses, and I take it. I don’t see Kevin for the rest of the race.
I pass a couple guys from the vintage class and seem to be riding by myself for a couple laps. Then I come up over the hill under the bridge, and as I look through turn 12, there’s Kyle not 20 yards down the road, and he doesn’t seem to be moving very fast. I start to chase.
I’m faster than he is through most of the slow stuff, but he’s tearing me up in the esses and on the back straight. I feel like I’m slowly gaining on him until lap 5, when all of a sudden he just checks out. I lose 30 yards in that lap and there’s not enough time for me to try and get them back, so second place it is.
2024 Road Atlanta WERA Race Recap 2 – Sunday race
You might notice there’s no Sunday practice listed here – that’s because in the middle of the night, when I was having trouble getting to sleep, I decided to shut off my alarm. After I finally did get to sleep, I was awakened by the sound of a bike starting up at 7:45AM. Since I was practice 1 for the day, scheduled to go off at 8AM, I wasn’t going to make it.
After breakfast I spent the hours until the race breaking down my paddock and packing up the car so I could head out after my race was over.
As race time neared, I suited up and checked tire pressures, and generally got ready to go.
I had forgotten how cool it is pitting with your friends, and how much help they can be. Matt actually pulled the bike out and stood there with it while I mounted up. His kids had pulled my tire warmers. Other than just having someone to hang out with, it was very helpful and cool.
Race time arrives. Today there’s no Kevin, but Paul Pendergrass is running. He and I have also had some pretty pitched battles, and we’re never far apart in results in this class, so I knew I had an exciting race ahead.
The green flag drops and I get a decent start. I’m right behind Paul until the chicane where we both pass a couple vintage guys. We spend the next three laps dicing it out. I’d take the lead, he’d take it back. We ran into turn 10 side by side a couple times, including one time where I tried to use another bike to block him, which failed. Similar to Kyle and I, he would gap me in the esses and I’d reel him in on the slow corners. Unlike Kyle and I, we were just about evenly matched on the straights.
Near the end of lap 4, we both catch up to our buddy Smitty on his Supermoto, which is more powerful than both of our bikes, making him hard to keep behind us. The three of us battle for position for about a half lap. Paul gets by Smitty before I do, and that’s the end of our race, since I get stuck behind him and it kills my drive onto the front straight. I lose 30 yards to Paul, and while I continue to try and catch him, there’s not enough time.
I’ve said many times that if you give me a race with some action, I’ll take that over a win any day. Those first four laps were so much fun that it made third place worthwhile. What a blast!
After going to congratulate Paul and do a little bench racing, I went back to my pit, snagged a shower, and then started to pack up to go home. Somewhere in there, I checked my lap times. I may not have beaten Paul, but he dragged me into a personal best lap time, a 1:59.289!
That’s the end of this 2024 Road Atlanta WERA Race Recap 2, but we’ll be back in 6 weeks for the Grand National finals and a season recap!
