Velocity Racing's 'Honey Badger' Blog

Another day at Sonoma Raceway. The morning started out rather chilly, with a balmy below 50 when I got up. BRRR! My friend who I was catching a ride with arrived, we loaded up my stuff and headed to the track. The morning chill made that first session out slow. I head out, taking my time, basically puttering around the track – it’s cold, my tires are cold-ish, and the suspension was probably molasses. Things seemed okay at first, I wasn’t sliding too much at my very conservative pace. Third lap in, I’m in the middle of turn 7 and hear a “ticking” noise, and it doesn’t sound good, but I’m just about ready to get out of the corner so figure I’ll investigate once I’m not leaned over…put some pressure on the bars to stand the bike up and WHAM, down we go. Since speeds were hecka slow we didn’t slide far, and in fact were still in the middle of the track. I was fine so popped up and ran out of the way before someone decided I was a good reference point and ran me over. Couple instruct...

There are some advantages to owning a Yamaha ...and the Yamaha Owner Appreciation Days at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca was a HUGE one!!! Not only did Yamaha team up with my favorite trackday provider, Zoom Zoom , but they also gave us Yamaha owners a screaming deal on the day ($100/day for Laguna Seca!); they managed a 105 decibel sound limit (almost unheard of at Laguna) and they paid for camping abilities overnight on Saturday night. Add in a great raffle and all the other perks of an absolutely amazing weekend, and it was epic. Saturday was my first trackday back out since my THill round, and it was my first time at this legendary track. I also had not done my homework, so basically went in rather blind. After my second session out I had come to the momentary decision that I hated the track. It was fast and technical, yet I may as well have been dragging a freaking anchor for how slow I was going. I was struggling with lines big time, and was making sure everything was working okay...

At the end of August I headed up to Thunderhill for a double header of trackdays. I had a few things I wanted to focus on, primarily getting my lines nailed and then ensuring that my reference points were solid. Add in applying some of the skills I had been working on (braking/trail braking, reading corners, body positioning) and a need to learn how to pass more aggressively and less like a girl. Saturday started off slow but well. With THill being the track I've spent the most time on, I was up to speed and working on things fairly quickly. It was a sold out day though, and the track was busy...my frustration with passing became very obviously especially with bigger bikes with slower riders. Towards the end of the day I had a few good pieces of advice that rewrote my riding. One of the pieces of advice was a body positioning tip from Kathy Reilly which worked great. She suggested that I hook my heel of my outside leg onto the footpeg rather than the ball of my foot. This pr...

It's officially unofficial - I'll be completing the NRS (New Racer School) in November of this year. Granted, it's the busiest retail shopping weekend of the entire year, but my boss is willing to try to work with me to get me there at least the day of - as long as I'm willing to take all the other "unwanted" shifts the rest of the holiday season. Happy to do so as long as I get my crack, I mean track, time during the summer (or mostly summer). In between now and then I've got to work out some of my kinks, and keep applying the more regular feedback I've been getting. I'll be heading to Thunderhill in August again, most likely for a double header. Sear's in October, and hopefully one other day in there sometime if I can manage it financially and work-wise. Additional things I'm going to be working on is my physical condition - finding a couple of workout partners is proving to be very useful, hopefully that keeps up. Even once a week is...

Reno-Fernley Raceway. Let’s see: porta-potties, wild horses (dodge the horse apples on the track), bunnies and tumbleweeds. Oh, ya, and a racetrack with a ton of corners, elevation changes, rough pavement that feels like your bike made love to a jackhammer and the first track where a fair number of my reference points ended up being tar snakes. I trailer pooled up with another one of my Curve Unit sisters, and we met up with our Prez in Sacramento and drove the rest of the way in a mini caravan. Around 7pm Friday night we rolled into RFR and I got my first glimpse of this rustic track. Dropped the trailers, and then got a pre-trackday Suburban tour of the track courtesy of Shawn and Kathy Reilly. My biggest impression? There’s a lot of freaking track to try to remember. After our little ride we headed into town for some (surprisingly rather good) all-you-can-eat sushi at Sushi Moto before heading to our hotel to crash for the night. Saturday dawned bright and early, if not ...

June 1st 2012 - my second Z2 Women's VIP day, and my second time up at Thunderhill this summer, and my second time out on the R6. 100 degree temperatures, a slight breeze and plenty of sun awaited me and the bike Friday morning. Heading out I had a couple things in mind I wanted to work on: for starters, basic steering and being careful not to sit there fighting myself on inputs; secondly, making sure my body position was consistent. First few sessions went well, finally got some feedback from a couple of the instructors on a few things to work on, including making sure my positioning-throttle roll off-braking-turn in sequence was correct and consistency between laps needing some work. Fixing my pre-corner order proved to be huge later that afternoon. Of course, it allowed the bike to be a lot more stable going into corners - which meant I could stay on the throttle longer, start braking later and go in just that touch bit faster. By the last few sessions I was seeing a huge ...

After picking up the new-to-me trackbike, I sent the fairings off to my friend to start working on, and got myself going on the fuel tank and arranging for Sean aka Elskipador on BARF to do my fork seals. Things made it down to a last minute rush on Sunday morning, but by 3:00pm I had the bike back together and ready to load up and head off to Willows, CA and Thunderhill Raceway. A couple of other girls were truck-pooling up with me, including another Curve Unit member. We were crashing the night in her friend’s RV, so after making the drive (with only 3 death wobble incidents – that’s a whole ‘nuther story) we went to dinner at Casa Ramos then over to the track to spend the night. Met a few other BARFers hanging out that evening, then off to bed to (hopefully) get some sleep before the next day. Monday dawned sunny and bright, with an expected high in the mid-upper 80’s. After unloading our stuff and getting through registration and tech, I headed over to JP Suspension...

Sunday morning - I wake up bright and early, thankfully it looks like the sun intends to peek out. I've got a long day ahead of me, but one that I'm rather excited for - for starters, it's our monthly Curve Unit ride, so I get to see my sisters. Secondly, I'll be picking up my new-to-me but it-has-plenty-of-experience track bike, the final plunge for me on this path vs horses. This didn't just happen on a whim. Along with selling off my horse trailer and other horse stuff, I had been reluctant to let my saddle go - I love my saddle, and it fit me great. Thing is, I was busy hanging onto something that I was only using on other people's horses (when I could just be using their tack) and even at that was hardly ever using myself. With no new horse in my foreseeable future, it was a little silly. Add in the fact that a simple low-side at the track on my street bike could cost me an awful lot of money, besides putting a big problem on getting to work the next day...

In the spirit of getting my fat, out of shape ass whipped into shape, I laid out a workout plan that is proving to be tough, but sustainable...but also accomplish some quick results since I only have a month between these trackdays, and I don't want a physical repeat of March's ride. So, here's the plan: 3 days a week I am doing a home-made version of Cross Fit . Granted, not as great as having an actual trainer or class (since I don't have the equipment), but intense none the less. I've got a list of about 25 different exercises I can do, and I rotate through them in sets of 4, being sure to hit several body areas each day. Warm up, followed by 20 minutes of butt-kicking rotations, then cool down and stretch. Another 3 days a week I'm doing basic cardio - taking the dog for a run, doing the 30 minute express workout at my gym, Planet Fitness , or something else along that line. One day a week I take off from actually working out - may still go ride a horse ...

March 26th 2012.  My first trackday of the summer, on a track I've only done one parade lap on - Sear's Point Raceway , aka Infineon. But I had shiny new slicks on my ZX10R, and was hyped up and ready to go. Since I didn't know the track at all I signed up for Z2's Novice Class C group. Missed 1/2 my first session because I had to get my tires back on the bike, and between the orientation class and waiting for them to get mounted, I ran out of time. But got out there for a bit anyways. Second session, 2nd lap in I'm getting black flagged...okay, well I knew I hadn't done anything that bad, and since I had just had my bike apart, was thinking maybe I missed something and had some random bit flapping in the breeze so I pull off the track at a safe spot. And sit out the entire session....only to find that they had been flagging my friend who was behind me with her vest flapping wide open. GRRRRR. Two sessions down, and I've not even warmed up my tire...

Okay, less of a party and more like a huge expenditure, some hard decisions, and a lot of sweat with a little bit of blood. So here's the back story: I've been riding sportbikes since I bought my first bike - a '99 ZX6R, used, but it got me going. Unfortunately, it also played to a lot of my "stupid," but we both survived and are both still here to tell the tale, although the bike's life is getting short having rolled over 78,000 miles on the odometer lately. Since then I've had other bikes, up to and including my current street bike, a '05 ZX10R. Nasty little piece of motorcycling heaven, and I love it. I've been riding for about 7 years. Although I always wanted to try track days, I never got around to it due to financial reasons. Last year, I won a hosted spot at Zoom Zoom Trackday's  Women's VIP event in June. I learned a ton, had a blast, and went from slow to less slow (although probably shouldn't have been playing in C group by...