Huge field and tight course as usual at Middletown. Fortunately, there was time to ride the course before my race started. Unfortunately, all 200 riders from my start time and others were on the course at the same time trying to warm up and learn the course. As I was riding along slowly behind a group I saw a rider out of the corner of my eye come from behind, lock bars with me and crash us both! I ended up with a bloody knee, torn bar tape, and a bent valve on my front wheel. I thought my bad luck was over for the weekend, but little did I know what was still left to come.
Once the race started, I had a decent start and was riding pretty steady on the first lap until I made the turn just after the pits and my rear tire washed out. I thought I just went a little too fast until I had it happen several corners later, when I realized I had a flat that was going down fast. Unfortunately, I had just passed the pits so I had to do a combination of riding slow and running to get back to the pits to get a spare wheel. Of course this put me so far behind, that I was within the 80% of the leaders time on the next lap and was pulled. At least I made it 3 of 6 laps.
