When the lights went green I got away not too badly. I lost a couple of places by the time I reached turn one, but got the elbows out and gained them back. Again, my strong point to pass was at the end of the back straight where I picked up another two places. I was eighth at the end of the first lap. At the end of lap two I again passed two more at the end of the back straight and another one into the final corner. By now I was fifth and a few seconds behind fourth place - which was none other than Jamie Hacking, who had won both the AMA Supersport and AMA Superstock championship at the previous race in Road Atlanta.
I didn’t think I’d have much of a chance of catching him but kept my head down and persevered for a few laps. He started getting bigger in my sight and then within another couple of laps I was on him. On lap eight he went slightly wide into the penultimate 180-degree right hander and I edged up the inside of him and then went around the outside of him in the final left hand kink. Apparently he was looking across at me on the start/finish as if to say "Who the hell are you?!"
When I was behind Hacking it looked like he was struggling with his front tyre. He was being very cautious when pushing into the right corners. I also got a good gauge of the difference between his factory Yam and my well prepared - but by no means factory - Yam. The main difference was acceleration, he could drive away from me in the first four gears but on top-end my bike was pretty good. If it was a tight, stop and go track then we would probably struggle to be anywhere near him but as the track was quite flowing I could use that to my advantage.
