Nothing like Florida in August!

Well obviously from the first pic you will notice that things got pretty weird down here at Jennings GP for the Daytona Sportbikes Trackday. Let's just say the chaplain donít take kindly to anyone getting too close...plus I was hot, ya know, it's such a dry heat down in Fla that it kinda sneaks up on you, makes ya a little edgy. But soon after this first incident, everyone knew there was a new control rider in town, and things were gonna be different!

We had a full roster of 50 riders, couple racers, but most were newbs, carrying their passion for riding to the next level. There was soo much excitement as everyone began to arrive and set up their pits on Saturday evening, and then we all headed out for a track walk, pointing out the braking markers, entry points and the proper line through each apex. As dawn broke the following morning, the paddock came to life and the sense of adventure only grew.

We wanted to do things right for the riders, so we ran the day like it was a track school as opposed to just doing sessions with different experience groups. After several sessions we brought all the new guys into the classroom and worked on body position, fielded questions and shared basically everything we could remember that had been taught to all of us. Here's a pic that one of our local comedians took and added commentary. We were all getting pretty worn out running back to back 20 minute sessions for the entire morning, in the almost triple digit heat, so we could work with as many guys as we could.

But the day went well with no broken bones, three lowsides and 1 runoff. A faithful bro, Ben, slid his Aprillia into T8 and bruised a rib, but 2 or 3 sessions later he was back out on track and beginning to pull some good times even while in pain. Which I guess brings me to the point of the weekend, donít give up. It was hot, our quads were killing us, bikes needed to be repaired, one bro even went through chemo the day before, but no one gave up. Not that the idea wasnít lurking in our minds, but we kept each other encouraged, were willing to share and to learn.

During our chapel service it was standing room only as we prayed for some of the guys back home that were struggling or injured, and one AMA racer who was with us for the trackday, stood up and shared his testimony! He told the guys, "like racing, take faith one step at a time, dont shift your braking markers dramatically, but edge them closer a couple feet with each lap." His analogy was beautiful. Oh, and btw, the dude at gunpoint in the first pic, wadded his R6 real bad on the street several months ago. He has, for the last several months, been coming to the weekly wrench night at my home. And on Sunday afternoon, he came to our pit and gave me a hug. I worked with him for most of the morning, and he was very excited to increase his skill and get a knee down, in fact he became a full fledged kneedragger! He then shared that through the patience, relevance and caring he has experienced, he started studying the Bible. He is taking one step at a time from his Muslim background to the knowledge of Christ! And he is attending a nightly Bible study with Egyptian Christians! A true and brave warrior indeed, not willing to give up on the bike, and not willing to give up on pursuing truth.