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Weidman: Prescott, AZ Report

May 9, 2010

After viewing the schedule earlier this year, I knew it was going to be a really tough time being able to afford to hit these west coast races. However, a huge thanks to Ron Wood, as he let me come out and ride his beautiful BMW. My dad and I flew out Friday night, and drove up from Phoenix to Prescott. After hanging out and getting some rest, I headed off to the track ready to ride. Since it was a new track, the AMA let us have an extra free practice session. I went out for the first time ever on the bike and felt awesome! I finished the first round in 5th. It was a great start to the day, and we all were pretty excited.

The second session I was around 5th again, and we then decided to try a gear change for the next one. However, it didn't really work and we were 13th that round. We changed it back for the last round to get a good time, but we broke a coolant line, and didn't get to finish the practice. Ron got the bike back going again for the heat race and we were confident that I could do well. I had a stacked heat, but found the right lines to work my way up to the lead for a little, but I ended up blowing the groove and heading all the way back to 5th before I worked my way back up to 3rd. A video that shows me moving through the pack pretty good can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ7YRHaaGNQ.

I missed the dash and the front row which was a really big bummer, but I felt really fast and comfortable for the main. We had everything ready to go and got an awesome start the first time, right around 4th or 5th, when a red flag came out because we couldn't see. It was pretty scary going into the turn completely blind, and we were all very lucky they immediately threw the red flag. They went back out and put a little more water on it, and we were ready to go.

I took off the line, went about 20 feet and the bike broke: that meant the end of my day. It was a major bummer for me, Ron, and the whole team. We had a very capable bike, and I felt very good on it. We definitely had the ability to pull off a top 5, or even better. Just one of those things that happen in racing though, and you just have to move on to the next week. It was exciting to put the BMW in a Grand National Main for the first time since 1954, especially since I had never sat on the seat before Saturday morning!