Thanks guys...seems that picture has gone everywhere. In a split decision, I made a bad decision to pas a slower rider in a bad spot instead of waiting for a better place to pass. I think a part of me got too confident and cocky. I ran out of real estate and got caught up with the other rider when he "swooped" his bike to the right.
I only remember the revs of the motorcycle and feeling my head bounce off the track...the crack of the shell hitting, then rolling across the pavement.
The Astra suit crashed well and the carbon on the shoulders was ground down pretty good....if the carbon wasnt there, I am pretty sure the leather would have gotten chewed up good. Initially I thought there was very little damage to the bike, but once in the pits I kept finding more problems.
The bike hit so hard it knocked the quickshifter module off the bike. In the pits it would not start or shift properly. After doing all I could to get it to shift I opened the engine, and ended up finding out the shift forks got misaligned from the shift drum. Once I got that fixed, I got the subframe which was twisted up pretty bad aligned so I could put the tail section on. I replaced the rear wheel which was bent pretty bad, a clip on and fixed the broken starter switch.
Taking it around the pits the front didn't feel right, so I brought it back and noticed the front wheel and rotors were bent. Once pulling the front wheel, I noticed it was tough to remove. Pulling the forks, I noticed the left fork didn't seem right and upon further inspection identified the lower leg was bent.
Saturday morning I got a hold of Mike Fitzgerald..aka Thermosman who said he couldn't repair the fork for Saturdays races, but could for Sunday. Well darn, I am only here for Saturdays races....I brought the fork back to the pits and decided to put the bike back together with a spare front and rear rim and take it out for a lap on Practice session 2. The bike felt good and no leaks were present, so I ran a few more laps with hard braking to see if there was any stiction or leaks...with no problems, I decided to race the C-Superstock, C-Superbike, and Senior Superbike Middleweight Expert races.
Though gridded at the back of the pack, I got a few good starts and pushed my way to the front couple rows. Overall I finished 1st in the Senior race, working to the front runners in the Heavyweight class, and finished 6th and 8th in both 600 class races.
Everyones times were a few seconds off, but I was happy with the finishes, following the adversity the day before. I cannot thank fellow racers in the paddock who offered parts, Huey from Marrieta Motorsports for his advice and pep talk following the accident. To the rider who I ran into for his sportsmanship, and racers in my pit crew who helped me along the way.
