George McConnel's Motorcycle Racing Blog

Dates:	February 22-24, 2013
Track:	Talladega Gran Prix Raceway
Bikes:	2001 Suzuki SV650
Weather:	Freezing at night, cold during the day. Cloudy too.
Sponsor:	LearnToRide.Org
Conducted By:	WERA
Track Diagram	The Talladega Gran Prix Raceway is designed to be run either clockwise or counterclockwise. This weekend's events were conducted in a counterclockwise direction. The redesigned track has been run in clockwise direction once since the repaving, owing to safety concerns.

This was Pete's 2nd trip to the track

My obligatory double-90's pose.

and was the weekend he'd get rid of his orange shirt.

This would make 7 straight years for me making it to the season opener at Talladega. Pete had completed a race weekend at Road Atlanta during the fall and I strongly encouraged him to come with me to Talladega as it was a great track on which to learn and become a better racer.

We arrived late Friday night after it was dark and had a difficult time setting things up, but managed to get everything arranged. As it turned out we didn't have to use the generator because we managed to get power, which was a good thing. Pete had brought his friend Jim and they had picked up a two man tent along with a couple of cots with which to set up camp. As for me I just slept in the trailer with my usual bedding and was quite comfortable.

I ran the LW solo on Saturday and LWT SuperStock on Sunday. I finished in 3rd place in each race but in fairness there were only 3 competitors running LWTSS Expert class, so I got a free podium position. Well, Chris Lane was actually signed up for the race but for some reason he didn't make the grid. My best time of the weekend was a 1:08.5.