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Pat's Race Report from Las Vegas Classic
4/30/05 - 5/1/05 Las Vegas, NV
After the Arroyo round, there was a lot of work to do. At the last
round, both my bikes were crashed. I high sided the 749r battling Aaron
Grigsby for second place in the Southwest Thunder race and Tom low sided
the 999r in the Team Sprints. I suffered a badly bruised left hand and
torn ligaments in my right ankle. The 749r had broken rear sets and
break levers. The front break master cylinder needed to be replaced. The
body work also needed to be repaired and repainted. The 999r survived
Tom’s crash very well, only needing a good cleaning.
Jason Etter from Section 8 Superbike was to meet us in Las Vegas and
race the 749r. I was supposed to pick up the bodywork from the painter
early in the week, but he was not done with it. I finally went to pick
it up at 6 PM on Thursday. When I got there he was still working on
fixing the bodywork. I told him, I’ll give you 15 minutes to throw some
paint on it. After a quick paint job, I had a 45 minute drive to meet up
with Tom and Rian. Mike and Brian were taking Mike’s motor home and
staying at the track. This time, we decided to stay at the Cannery Hotel
and Casino. The Cannery is a 201 room hotel, built about 2 years ago.
The two previous times, we stayed at the Amerihost Hotel, located close
to the track. I thought that if we stayed at a non casino hotel, it
would keep us out of trouble. It kept us out of trouble, but also out of
a place to eat.
We met Jason and Matt at the hotel on Friday morning and headed to the
track. My ankle was still very swollen. I would only be able to do 5 or
6 laps before I could not put any weight on the foot pegs. I was riding
the 999r all weekend. Ever since new, I had a problem shifting gears on
this bike. I kept hoping the transmission would loosen up. Two weeks
earlier I had a pretty big crash. It was really wreaking havoc with my
mental state. The next weekend we were headed to Barber Motorsports Park
in Alabama. My first few sessions on the track, I was riding very
tentative. Basically riding “Not to crash” definitely not the way to
feel on the race track. I was able to ride at close to my previous best
lap times without trying too hard. Mike, Tom and I did a three day
Freddie Spencer Pro School at this track in February, so we know the
track well. Jason got up to speed pretty quickly on the 749r. I was only
doing 3 races on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. In the money paying
SuperTwins race we had 6 on the grid, so we would be eligible for Ducati
contingency. Jason got the hole shot and I got my usual bad start. I had
a hard time getting my downshifts done. The shift lever would stick I n
the up position and find a false neutral. I almost ran off the track 4
times while breaking and down shifting. In the meantime, I fell to
fourth place and out of the money. Two SV650s got second and third.
There is no way I should lose to a SV650 at this track. The next day,
Rian and I bled the clutch master and changed the slave cylinder. This
helped the problem. The bike was still not shifting well, but I was able
to get third place behind Vince Chug on a 999r and Jason on my 749r. My
results were not very good at this round, but it can always be worse. No
crashes and seeing some friends from back East is always a good time.
I’d like to thank my teammates, Tom, Mike, Brian and Rian. And also
teammates for the weekend, Matt and Jason from Section 8 Superbike.
Thanks also to my sponsors, Section 8 Superbike, Speedymoto, Moto
Wheels, Duc Shop, Vortex, Sidi, Motorex, Desert Truss, Savoca
Construction, Universal forest Products, All Out Graphics, Vesrah
Brakes, Lockhart Phillips, Racer’s Edge, Suomy, All Out Graphics and VaporBlue.
Pat Bushell
#468
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