The opening laps were fairly steady. I was in a group which included 3 other riders, one of them being that gawd damn Ducati 850cc rocket ship! As it is a twin cylinder in the FX class it is allowed to be taken out to 850cc which gives it a huge amount of power. The problem is that it doesn’t handle too badly either so if you’re behind it, it’s a big pain in the ass to get by! After following the group for a few laps I sussed out where would be the best places to make a move. I passed one of the Kawasaki guys which was pretty easy and moved me up to 4th but the Ducati was another story.
Down the back straight he would pull over 10 bike lengths on me and the best place to pass was at the end of the back straight! He was making himself exceptionally wide everywhere else which meant that was my only option, it was a good job I was strong on the brakes. I made the move which got a bit tight towards the apex but it came off OK. I knew I could break him pretty easily so I put my head down and pursued Attard in second.
When I was behind the Ducati, Attard had put a four second gap into us so it was definitely a tall order with about 5 laps to go. The good thing that sometimes works to your advantage, and sometimes doesn’t, is that backmarkers play quite an important part in most AMA races. There were plenty of them in front of me and every move I made seemed to work and before I knew it, it was the last lap and I was right on the back of Attard. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite pass him so I crossed the line in third.
All in all it was a good result, to be up the front on a Supersport bike, rattling the boys riding full on FX bikes with traction control etc is something that nobody else has done this year so it was a decent achievement, it would have been nice to get second though! And, to cap it all off. The young kid who rides 125's for our team, PJ Jacobsen, made a bet with me earlier in the weekend that I wouldn’t get on the podium, stupid boy!
