The team sorted through some typical Daytona issues early in
the weekend, and the bike really started to come around on Friday afternoon
before qualifying. Our bike had the
fastest trap speed of all the Kawasaki’s during the qualifying session, and
after Q1 we found ourselves in 5th place. We then went out in qualifying session two
and put in some good laps on a race tire and then put on a soft qualifier to
try to better our times, but we pushed a little too hard in a couple places and
could only match our race tire pace.
Starting from the third row we had a great chance to run
with the lead pack. We had a good
restart after the first of 4 red flags during the day brought us back into the
pits before the first lap was completed.
The pace was fast up front and I watched a ton a positions swapping
around in the first few laps. With
Daytona being such a long race, our strategy was just to make sure that we hung
onto the lead draft and stayed within a few seconds of the leaders until the
first round of pit stops. We ran our
fastest lap of the race (1:51.9) on lap nine as we made a push to stay with the
leaders. When the lead pack caught the
first group of lapped riders it was crazy!
That served as a separator and broke the pack up a bit. As the first round of pit stops was
approaching, a red flag halted the action.
The final start went smoothly and we were right up front,
and when I looked up at the leader board I realized that we were a lap down and
in 18th place. Our fight was
to get back as many positions as possible, and with the help of a fantastic
final pit stop we were able to get back up to 12th place in the
final 26 laps.
Nordica and First Trax Sport Shop put together a raffle for
some top shelf ski gear, and we owe both them and all the people who supported
us by buying tickets a big vote of thanks!
We got support from a bunch of great companies to put together our
Kawasaki 636’s. Woodcraft, Penguin
Racing, Kawasaki, Armour Bodies bodywork, Dunlop tires, Maxima Oils, Vanson
leathers, Arai helmets, TCX boots, Held gloves, Penske shocks, GMD Boston,
Arrow exhaust, Street & Competition, Bazzaz, VP fuels, Van Waylon engines,
Robs Dyno, Zero Gravity windscreens, Turn One graphics, Speedcell batteries,
Vesrah brakes and K Tech forks. I also
want to thank Justin from Adrenaline Cycles for fantastic work on a dry break fuel
tank, Jason Farrell for help with some spare parts and for being a perfect
drafting partner and Jeff Maloney from GP tech for lending us a top shelf quick
fill fuel tank. Finally, I want to thank
all the supporters we had cheering us on both at the track and at home. We are very fortunate to be part of a great
family of racers who support each other in this sport we all love.

Motors Built and Maintained by
http://vanwaylonmotorsports.com
Also check out this YouTube Video
https://youtu.be/zGXwE-VU-ok
https://youtu.be/zGXwE-VU-ok

Motors Built and Maintained by
http://vanwaylonmotorsports.com
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