Hello!

Road Atlanta Pre-Race Report #2.

Interesting day at Road Atlanta... I arrived to the track at about 2PM just in time for the major rain to hit. Track activities were halted for a while when the heaviest of the stuff came crashing down. There are so many rumors going on in the paddock right now it is hard to keep track of them all. But I will start with some other interesting stuff.

First up, info about one rider who gets ignored way to often. Jordan Suzuki's Jason Pridmore has a broken leg!! The result of his 3 laps to go crash in Superstock at VIR a couple weeks ago. Jason, who was supposed to play in some important golf tournament last week was not able to play because he is on crutches! You heard it hear first folks. JP is expected to try and race Superbike only this weekend. Team owner MJ will be here on Sunday. His moms birthday is Saturday and like a good son he will be with her. As for Jason, he went to the famed Dr. Ting's in Northern Cali and for the first time did not have to have surgery. The break is not severe, but will render JP not 100%. More on his progress later in the weekend.

As some of you may already have read, Danny Eslick or Slick as some call him, is going to get his shot on a full factory prepared Yoshimura 600 this weekend (body work and everything). If my camera was charged I would have a picture already!! URGH!! Danny will fill in for the injured and Superbike Championship chasing Ben Spies. Here is the interesting part, Spies and Eslick will be sharing the SAME crew. Tom Houseworth and the boys will look after all four bikes (2 Superbikes and 2 600's), as usual, but the Supersport and Superbike practices are back to back and from what I was told, Tom Houseworth's #1 priority is Ben Spies. So Danny might be without a crew chief for the last 10 minutes of his practice session because House has to prepare for Spies Superbike effort. Again, I will keep an eye on this situation and update you as things develop.

Jake Zemke and Jamie Hacking went around Road Atlanta this evening with AMA Race Director Ron Barrick and someone else (I forgot to ask who, most likely Keith Kiser) as kind of a safety inspection thing. They, JZ and Hacker, were there to point out what improvements Road Atlanta needs to make to the track in order to keep racing there. I am hearing that the track is very keen to make changes in order to keep the Superbikes racing at Road Atlanta. But there are other rumors that the local government is trying to shut the track down and built condos using eminent domain laws. I will ask about that tomorrow, but will most likely get a canned response.

Let us hope for good weather this weekend. It was made clear today that we will not race in the rain at Road Atlanta. Another track with no racing in the rain! That is why Road A wants to make some changes, so if it rains, we race!

Trip Nobles is going to race a Kawasaki 600 this weekend. Trip is a myspacer... so if you are on my profile look for Trip and send him good wishes.

That is all 4 tonight folks. Perhaps more tomorrow.

L8R - G