Velocity Racing's 'Honey Badger' Blog

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...