For qualifying, the Peoria MC club and the AMA dug up the corners a little bit as they had gotten alot of rain recently in the area, which made for a pretty spongy track today. In my first session I felt really good on the bike and came back third fast behind Wiles and Kirkness. Then in my next time out which counted for our qualifying spots, we made a couple of changes to the bike and it really seemed to help as we came back in this time and had the fastest time of the day so far. Then in the final session out, the track had dried out and gotten pretty rough, which slowed our times down, so overall, I had fast time and pole for heat race one. In that last session, I could see before I went out there that the track was getting pretty rough in turn one especially, as quite a few guys had crashed there in the last few groups out, so my plan was to try and change my lines down there and see what I could find. On my second lap in that session, I decided to enter turn one pretty high, then try and square it off and see if I could go across those hole better than going right through them like I had been doing. So I enter turn one, and I went in really high, but just as I am ready to grab a handful and turn my bike, I decide that I better look back to make sure that I donot cut someone off when I turn it from way up high like this. I mean in a race I would just go for it if no one was in my path, but this was still just practice/qualifying, so I thought I would take a peak. Just as I look back, here is Jared Mees, with one hand on the handle bar, and the other hand over his front number plate and his bars were just shaking back and forth doing a nasty head shake. He was for sure gonna crash, and I was right in his path it was looking. I'm thinkin' "This ain't looking good for him or myself right now." So I instantly tried to turn as fast as I could the opposite way to my right and I headed for the haybales. I knew I had a hole to fit through between Mees and his bike and the haybales outside of turn one. Just about then I feel him or his bike slam up against me, but luckily I was able to save it, but Mees went down hard which brought out the red flag for this session. Coolbeth was right behind us when this all happened, and he said afterwards, that, "Joe you were so lucky that you looked over your shoulder, as Mees was zeroed in on you" . That was a very close call for myself, that I was happy to have avoided. So yah, it was pretty cool to get fast time at Peoria, as honestly I cannot remember the last time I did that here, probably at least 7 or 8 years ago.

    In the first heat race, I would have Russell, Coolbeth, Mataya and a bunch of others. At the start, Mataya got off the line quickest, with myself right behind him. Right away I got underneath him coming out of turn two and took the point. From there on I put in some great laps, but at the same time I was moving around the track, searching for anything that might help me later in the day. I ended up coming home with the win and the fastest heat race time of the day too which would put me on pole for the main event.

    For the final, I was ready! I knew I needed a great start and had to get near the front fast, as it seems the pack gets spread out very fast on this track come main event time. At the flash of the light, I was out of there, but Wiles and Schnabel had the jump on me which put me in the third spot coming out of turn two. We entered turn three for the first time with Wiles leading, then Schnabel and myself. I drove it in to turn three hard and snuck under Schnabel exiting turn four. With Wiles out front, I knew the race was on now. I entered turn one this next lap, and I caught a hole with my left foot, that just about tore me off the bike, as it shot me real wide and I slipped from 2nd to 7th in one turn. Dang it! I could not believe that had just happened. Now I had my work cut out for me, as it was Wiles, Schnabel, Kirkness, Russell, Carr, and Mataya in front of me. Right away I got past Mataya, then I set out after Carr. Within a lap I had gotten him too. In this short amount of time, like two laps or so, I could see that Wiles, Schnabel and Kirkness were getting away fast.

    I then caught up to Russell and got by him, but now I had a pretty good gap to Schnabel and Kirkness. I pushed it pretty hard, then I caught that same hole with my left foot in turn one which shot me wide again, but this time it had hurt my left knee. This let Russell get back by me, but right away in the next lap I caught him and got him back again.  I put my head down again and knew I had to push it hard now. After about another five laps, I seen that I was really catching Schnabel and Kirkness now and I knew that in  a couple more laps I would be on them. It's usually easier to pass two riders battling with each other than to just pass one rider by himself, especially if you can sneak up on them and surprise their little battle they might be having with each other. I knew exactly where I was going to get both of them at the same time too, as I could see that my line through turn one and two was way lower than they were, and that was where I was going to make it happen, but first I had to get there.

    Closer and closer I got, then around lap 20 or so, I entered turn and  wouldn't ya know it, I dang near blasted myself right off the bike as I hit that same hole with my left foot, which shot my left leg way up and dang near to my head. I managed to save from crashing, but it shot me very wide again and in major pain now. I've always been very lucky to have good healthy knee's my whole life as I know many bike racers are not so lucky to say that, as they silly bikes seem to like to injure knee quite often. Right away I knew that this time something was wrong with my left knee. I could still ride, but I was in alot of pain with my knee. I ended saving it from crashing into the bales, but as I managed to get it back together and get back down on the racing line, Russell ended up getting back by me once again. I lost a good three seconds or so in that incident, but I could tell my knee was hurting pretty bad now. I tried really hard to charge and catch Russell again, but my knee was just hurting too bad to let me ride like I needed to. With only a few laps to go, I looked back and seen that we had a big lead over the next group of guys, so I pretty much just put it on cruise mode and rode on into the finish in the 5th spot. Wiles won, then Schnabel, Kirkness, Russell and myself.

    Like I had said before, I've always had good knee's, so I feel pretty lucky there, but I knew that I needed to try and get this thing healed up as soon as possible, as we still have alot of racing left this year. After the races that day, DeeDee and the kids and I all drove down to Missouri to visit our friends and long time sponsor at Jones Power Sports www.JPScycles.com , as it had been along time since we had got to hang out with them.

    Next week is the big Indy Mile that is ran in conjuction with the Indy Moto GP race the following day, so until next time, G'Day! Joe