Nov U this past weekend was filled with crashes and restarts. One bike (at least) ended up completely destroyed, a couple of riders got banged up, but from what I was told, everyone ended up being fairly ok.
Here are the 3 clips I pulled from the race. The first attempt at the race was red flagged due to a crash in turn 4. The rider in front of me ran a bit wide, I snuck underneath, and from what I was told, he then moved back into the race line and caused another rider to low side into him. That's from the first video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rY84DSrZPg
Upon restart, someone crashed on the warm up lap. So we sat on the track gridded for over 7 minutes before they gave us another warm up lap. By this time, everyone's tires had probably cooled, and sure enough, when we got the restart, there were another couple of crashes. The first was at the bottom of the chicane. We raced on until another crash at the top of 11 brought out a red flag followed by the medic flag. That rider was down hard and the bike was destroyed. This was in video 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb3raHYKi9k
At this point the race direction was pissed off and postponed the race ~5 hours and we raced a 4-lap race in the afternoon after all the other races were run except for SuperStreet. This went better, though I think there was still a crash or someone went off, I'm not sure. Anyway, here's the actual race. I ended up 4th and put down a couple of 1:23's to reel in the rider in 3rd but 4 laps doesn't give you a lot of time. I was very happy with a 4th overall, only about 1.1 seconds off my first podium.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5tUai0P2l0
You'll note how overcast it was in the first two clips vs. the final one. It was chilly in the morning and the track was just eating guys up left and right. By the time the afternoon rolled around, the track was warm and grip wasn't as much of an issue.
The final round at PPIR on September 15 & 16 should be quite interesting. Using unofficial results, I project there will only be 30 separating 3rd place through 10th in the standings and we are scoring double points in this final round! If you don't race, come on out and watch the season finale - it's sure to be entertaining!
Jamie