TEAM SWUNK

From A Much Different Angle

"So, knowing the past reporting history of that 'other' reporter and his apparent bias, I decided to tag along with Team Swunk as they went to Pat's Acres to kick some American butt.  On the ride down, I was so quiet neither of them noticed I was in the truck, it's almost like I'm a figment of their imagination.  Pulling into the track on Thursday afternoon, Team Swunk was in for a bit of a shock, not only were there already plenty of teams at the track, they were a bit more serious than last year.  Apparently some of these teams had a bit of money to throw around by the look of their rigs and the number of bikes under their tents.

Friday all day practice started with The Hornet being taken out by a novice woman rider.  He should have known the stay away this bike after following her for 1/2 a lap and noticing that she couldn't keep her line through a corner.  Easy enough, pass her in a straight.  Wrong.  The Hornet pulls up beside her, and she punts him from the track by moving right over on him.  Does this chick not have eyes?  There is no way she couldn't have seen him or so The Hornet thought.  Needless to say, The Hornet takes a nasty spill and ends up smacking his head pretty good on the track resulting in a splitting headache and a minor case of whiplash.  For The Hornet, the rest of practice on Friday was spent trying unsuccessfully to ride through the pain and get back up to the speed he had at this track last year.  The Razor faired much better in practice and The Hornet quickly realized that this year he would not be the faster rider.

Saturday didn't fair much better for The Hornet as he woke up in the morning with his neck even more stiff than the day before.  Although he got a couple of good starts in the qualifiers, this reporter quickly realized that there weren't going to any podiums for The Hornet, he looked terrible out there.  The Razor on the other hand was flying, putting in a few really good qualifiers, and evening leading the pack for a few laps.  If anyone was going to get wood for Team Swunk, The Razor would be the one charged with that task this year.  Unfortunately, although the Razor finished quite well considering the competition, there was no wood to be had for Team Swunk on Saturday.  The Hornet struggled to keep in front of 'the really slow guys'.  At least he didn't finish dead last in any race.

Sunday morning Team Swunk woke up early to start the endurance race.  I caught up with The Hornet for a quick interview as he registered the team for the endurance race.  "I'm feeling a lot better this morning, looks like the 7 beer medicine I took last night has loosened up my neck a bit", and with that, The Hornet took off back to the pits to jump on the Razor's bike to get some practice laps in.  The Razor looked pretty good, although he was complaining of being a bit sore, seems the front seat of the truck doesn't make a good sleeping spot, little hint boys, next time bring a bigger tent.