Buttonwillow Raceway. Off the beaten path and out of the
way, the track was one I had never been to before. Not yet racing at Round 1 of
2014, I was excited and apprehensive to begin my planned full year of races
with the AFM. Having never been the track before I hoped to get some seat time
to be able to slowly learn the track without feeling rushed. With some extra financial
help from my boyfriend, I was able to get down to the track on the Thursday
preceding the races for a nice, easy track day to take my time learning where I
was going. Friday afternoon test day helped me establish a couple lines I wasn’t
quite getting right, and then during Saturday practice some additional help
from the BF who was corner working on a particularly difficult for me corner
helped make that a little easier. All of this allowed me to go into my Saturday
races relatively confident of the track and where I was going at my pace. A few
suspension tweaks by Catalyst Reaction, some shiny new Dunlop Tires, new
Chicken Hawk Tire Warmers and we were ready to roll!
My first race of the season was the AFemme Nv class, the
last race of Saturday. I was feeling well enough, the bike was doing fine, and
I was ready to get this game started. A friend had showed up to the track and
helped me out in the pits which was greatly appreciated! I rolled out for my
first race of 2015, barely containing the excitement! After a quick warm up lap
I found my place on the grid…AFemme was gridded towards the front, so I was
hoping for a great start with little traffic. My start, while not horrible, was
far from good, and I lost some space right off the bat. Getting back into the
game I started going out to put down some solid laps. After a couple of laps I found
myself with another rider, Valentine Welch, (an expert on a 450) to get to
battle with a bit. We spent several laps going back and forth, keeping a very
similar pace. At one point she ended up in front and we were starting to get
passed by the F40 experts (who had been in the wave behind us). Traffic weaving
in and out with their own battles allowed Valentine to put a little more space
between us, and then a red flag at the last corner of our last lap left us
finishing the race a bit early and I lost my chance to possibly catch up again.
It was a fun battle none the less and made the race far more enjoyable to have
someone to play with! I managed a 2nd place in the race, not a bad
way to start the year.
Sunday dawned bright and clear, and I went out for my one
practice session. My first race was race #2, so I had just enough time to relax
a bit before heading out for my first race of the day, 750 Prod Nv. I was in the
back half of the grid (having completed only one 750 class in 2014). New for
2015, Novices and Experts were all getting launched in one wave. Having that
many bikes taking off at once was something else. We all jammed into Turn 1,
and I could feel one bike pushing my back end over, but with no place in front
of me and bikes on either side I had nowhere else to go other than fight them
off! So that’s what I did, keeping the bike on the track and getting back into
the thick of things. A small pile up in Turn 3 slowed us a bit, but we were off
after that! The start of the race had thrown me off a little bit, but I worked
that out and put my head down. While my finish wasn’t spectacular, I ended up
with 17th out of 24 starters in the Novice class.
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| Photo by Erich Stiegler of Stiegler Insurance Agency - Farmer's Insurance |
My last race for the weekend was the new AFM class of Legacy
Middleweight. We were gridded up with the 600 Prod class, and again, novices
and experts all launched together. By my second lap I had a slower expert in
front of me that I was working to get around. I finally made a pass and then
had the track mostly to myself – or so I thought. Other than some of the very
fast 600 guys passing me, I made the rookie mistake of believing that I was all
by myself and so I started riding that way, slightly more conservatively that I
otherwise would have. A yellow flag on the very last corner of the last lap and
I chilled going down the front straight….only to suddenly have a bike fly by me
crossing the finish line .072 seconds ahead of me!! ARGH!! Come to find out, he
had been battling to get in front of me for most of the race – and here I had
been relaxing thinking I was all alone! Rookie mistake learned on that one! If
you don’t have someone gapping for you on the wall, ride like there’s someone
on your tail because there just might be! Oh well, I still had a good race,
although at this time we are still awaiting Timing and Scoring to sort through
issues as it seems that there were a number of riders gridded in the wrong race
but counted in ours. Unsure at this time of my finish – anywhere from 3rd
to 5th depending on how that all pans out.
Overall it was a great start to the season. Sorting out a
few more issues on the bike will give me a touch more confidence, but the rear
shock change over the winter did a lot for slowly beginning to improve my
confidence on the brakes, although it has now left me needing some new fork
springs. At least they are a relatively easy fix all things considered.
Huge shout outs to all of my sponsors for 2015, I couldn’t
be doing this without you! I love my sponsors and their products, I use and
believe in their products and services both on and off the track! Dunlop
Race Tires; Catalyst Reaction Suspension Tuning; MotoSport; Woodcraft; Shoei
Helmets; Moto Shop; Speed Mob; Cycle Gear; AXO; Driven Racing; City Bike;
Chicken Hawk Racing.
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