Velocity Racing's 'Honey Badger' Blog

Let's face it, no matter how much you leave yourself to do over the winter months, no matter how much your budget may appreciate the opportunity to rebound, after a couple months of that "the Itch" returns despite your best efforts. You may find yourself practicing your starts at every red light, or getting on the freeway just a bit quicker than you ought to, or perhaps racing that car through the corner before the two lanes merge. When I catch myself doing this regularly - and being disappointed when it ends so quickly - I know the "hankering" is getting rather powerful. In the meantime, however, I'm trying to keep my sanity by preparing for the 2015 season. Getting the bike prepared, purchasing those items I need, getting them installed, saving up some money, studying tracks, tips, and other training, and finding sponsors. All of that is at least keeping me pretty busy! The bike is going through it's usual round of yearly work, including new chain ...

The world pauses. Nothing exists other than you, your bike, and the riders around you. The sound of your engine as it hums beneath you, awaiting that moment when the revs are brought up. A “1” board is flashed, and 7,000 RPMs of pure power roar to life. The board goes sideways, and a green flag comes out. Instantly the world jumps to life as 20 or so motorcycles and their riders jump off the line in a bid for the front. The rush of a good launch, finding a spot in the pack and making a clean run into and through the first corner…then it’s game on! There’s nothing quite like racing. When I first got on a motorcycle, I knew there was nothing like riding. Then I moved to California and realized that there was nothing like carving up a beautiful twisty road. Eventually I tried track days…it didn’t take long before riding on the street just wasn’t as appealing as it once was. Then, after 8 years of riding motorcycles, I finally made it to the race grid and completed my first race...

This round was one that I wasn't sure I'd be able to make...with rounds 5 and 6 being so close together, combined with a trackday in between there, finances were not looking good - however, I was also in the process of getting a new job, which would mean a big vacation payout from my current job. Everything was getting down to the wire, but in the week preceding Round 6, everything came together and I was able to make things work for the race round, even if there was some stretching going on. Since this round was at the relatively close track of Sonoma Raceway, I headed out Saturday morning with bike and pit in tow. Made it there plenty early, got set up, went through registration and tech, and prepared for the rider's meeting and the starts of practice. Thankfully I was in practice group 1 - while that may sound weird, I was glad to be in the slow group. I've only had one day at Sonoma on this bike, and it was months ago - and I hadn't felt that great on the bike...

August 23/24th I had the opportunity to head out to some trackdays. There were some very specific things I wanted to work on, primarily gaining consistency on my lines in 11-15, and continuing to edge on my brakes and throttle. With clear goals after the last race round, I was looking forward to working on these things this weekend. I figured I could easily shed another 2 seconds off my race time, so that was the weekend goal, along with another silly goal, but one I wanted just for my own ego. Friday night I picked up a fellow BARFer's bike, and headed up to Thunderhill. Saturday dawned with the promise of some perfect weather, got pits set up and prepped for the day. That morning I ended up riding the entire time with the exception of sitting out one session - I was helping friends in both B and C group, then going out in A group to work on my own things. By lunch I was already getting tired!  Ate, and then decided to pace myself a little more in the afternoon, heading out fo...

What an awesome fucking day. There is no other good way to describe it.  In the week leading up to the weekend, I wasn't even 100% sure I was going to make it. Money was tight, I had a lot going on, and it seemed like everyone wanted to plan something for this particular weekend. Finally at some point I sat and had a little chat with myself and reminded myself that THIS was what I was working my tail off for. THIS was why so many people had helped me out. So race it was. In an effort to cut costs to a minimum, and due to the heat making it less than ideal to take the dog, I chose to head up Saturday morning, with the pet sitter scheduled to come that evening and Sunday morning. Up at the ass crack of dawn - okay, BEFORE the ass crack of dawn - to make my way to Thunderhill Raceway. I had packed the day before, so got up, grabbed my last minute items, and out the door I went. I arrived at an okay time, finally found some parking near power (damn near in Oregon, but not too far...

After the AFM Round 2 crash and subsequent repairs, I managed a few trackdays in there to get some seat time on the new bike. While there was steady improvement, it was slow. With a decent crash on my second day on the bike, I had spooked myself. What I had hoped would be an instant connection with the new bike got off to an extremely rough start, and that got into my head (you know, being a girl and all). Add in general life stress and things certainly weren't where I would have hoped! However, with the help of some amazing friends and sponsors, I was able to get back out on the bike and make it the the AFM round 4 with excitement pending to actually, finally, make it into a race. It was about time I could actually call myself a 'racer' without guilt of never having actually finished a race :-/  There was a Z2 trackday on Friday, so I headed up to participate in the trackday to get some additional seat time on the bike. After my first session out, I could tell my suspe...

Updates have been few and far between here. I showed up to the Sonoma Superbike Shootout/AFM round 2 but had a get off early on in practice where I messed up my braking sequence. While overall damages were fairly minimal, it was enough to keep me from riding the rest of the weekend. I stuck around to watch the races and had a great time with friends, hanging out and watching the really fast folks do their thing! Upon heading home, I set out on a mission to repair the bike and myself. Hunting around for deals on parts, making use of some of my sponsorships and with the help of some friends found everything I needed. I was back on my street bike a little over a week after the crash, albeit a bit painfully. I built back up slowly, and worked on building the bike back up as well. Approximately 6 weeks later, everything was back in running condition and I headed out for a double header weekend at Thunderhill Raceway to check out the full new track and get back out on the bike...