Sonoma Raceway, located in the beautiful hills south of
Sonoma is, in my opinion, the most technical track that the AFM races at. With
very few places to relax, corners are strung together and a small mistake in
one corner will cause you issues for several corners to come. This was, by far,
my worst track, especially on the 675. After a relatively bad incident there
the year before, I had some major mental demons with this track and this bike
that I had been working through. Since it’s also a track I’ve had very little
time at since that incident, I knew I needed to conquer these things once and
for all.
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| Turn 2 AFemme. Photo by 4theriders.com |
I chose a pit spot with the Precision Trackdays crew. It was
great to have some friendly faces around me! My teammate, Paul #331, was also
at this round, so the weekend got started! After a quick basic set up Friday
night I finally got some sleep before the weekend was to start. Saturday dawned
chilly and overcast, and I wasn’t feeling thrilled with the idea of going out
for the first practice session on a cold track – so skipped that one. I got
ready for the next one and just started working on getting my lines
re-established in my head. Another of the Precision riders, Daniela, went out
with me a couple sessions for a bit to just get a good, solid track review for
both of us.
My practices went fine – I wasn’t pushing at all, in fact, I
was going pretty slow, but no crashes and stayed comfortable. I was ready for
my afternoon race! As I was starting to get ready for my race, yet another red
flag halted the preceding race. Due to the already late schedule, my race got
postponed until the following morning as “Race Zero.” Ugh, that meant I was
looking at 4 races in one day! I wasn’t sure how well I could physically deal
with that, even at my pace. Granted, I’ve been working out far more regularly,
but that was still a lot to cram in, especially since this was only my 3rd
weekend running Sunday races!
Sunday dawned chilly and cool yet again, with a heavy
overcast. Thankfully no heavy dew, but still enough to keep everything cool and
slightly slick. I went out for my abbreviated practice session, rather slowly,
but just to get a feel for the track. Then it was back to the pits, rider’s
meeting, and race on! I headed out for what was supposed to be my Saturday race
knowing the track wasn’t ideal, but determined to continue to improve at this
particular track and work through those mental demons. We rolled out for a warm
up lap and gridded up for our race. Upon the green flag, off we went! I didn’t
have a terrible start and the race was on. I had started to adjust a few things
over the weekend on a few corners in an effort to begin to shrink that time gap
between a reasonably good pace for this track and my current pace. The race was
feeling long, but I wasn’t feeling fatigued so that was good! One of the newer
ladies managed a pass on me part way through, and I just couldn’t seem to close
the gap. That pushed me back into 3rd where I finished the AFemme Nv
class.
Now I had a short time to relax before my next race just
before lunch, which was Formula 1 Nv. Looking at times for that class I was
questioning my ability to really run in it…while I was improving, I was still a
long ways off the fast riders’ pace, which meant by the end of the race I’d be
getting lapped by a few of the front runners. I had decided to go ahead and
drop it – but upon talking to registration found out I’d still be charged some
since they had already gridded. Dang, now what to do! Back at the pits several
people were just like “do it, who cares, the fast guys will get around you!”
Okay, fine, decided to run it – I’d already paid, may as well go run the race
and see what happens. While I ended up being a relatively solid back marker, I
still managed another personal best on this bike at this track. Okay, not a
total waste even if I won’t brag about it!
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| Turn 9. Photo by 4theriders.com |
I still had two races that afternoon, and wanted to swap my
rear tire so I’d be sure to have complete confidence in my tire for the next
two races. Lunch ended up short so I barely had time to get that done before it
was time to start getting ready for my race. I went out to my 3rd
race of the day (Legacy Middleweight) rather tired. I hadn’t had much of a
break since the morning, and I could feel it. Add in that the online grids didn’t
update, so when I rolled up to grid I was ALL by myself way in the back!
**sadface** Well, I didn’t figure anyone would care too much about me being 4
rows back from the next bike, so rather than upsetting someone, just stuck with
what I had – too bad, because I actually had a great start and closed the gap
to the bikes in front of me. Too bad they were still in front although not by
as much.
Throughout the race I could tell I was getting tired. While
I came close to putting some other riders behind me, some stupid mistakes (such
as missing downshifts on a couple corners), I lost what I was gaining. Oh well,
at least I had a nice break before my next race! I still put down another
best-on-this-bike time despite all of that, adding in another shift that I
previously had not been doing for a better drive.
I was sure to relax and hydrate before my last race and make
use of the down time to recuperate. By the time 600 Prod Nv was called, I was
feeling very ready to get back out there! I was nearly at the very last spot on
the grid, but had a decent start yet again. It was a bit of a cluster going
through Turns 1 and 2, so in an effort to not crash was a bit passive – but kept
it up without an incidents and became determined to make it a good race. I had
bikes near me, and that always makes racing far more fun!
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| Turn 9. Photo by 4theriders.com |
As riders began to settle into their pace, my slightly slower pace was starting to spread the group out, but I at least still had a few bikes around me! The same newer gal from the AFemme race and I had a battle on our hands! She eventually managed a pass on one of my weak corners, but I was determined to get her back – I came really, really close but the area where I was in a position to get a pass was not a great place to do it, and I couldn’t get back around before the finish line. Great thing is that it was an awesome battle and we had a blast! That’s what racing is all about – winning and trophies are great (they really are) but getting to duke it out with your “rivals” is what keeps all of us going back out there!
Having a rider with a similar pace to me will make the rest
of the season a blast and I’m extremely excited about the upcoming rounds!
I ended the weekend with another high note – since 2013,
when I was still on my old R6, I had yet to come close to the times I had on
that bike, especially after last May’s incident on the Triumph. I continued to
drop time all weekend and in each race, and in the final race of the weekend, I
not only beat my previous time on this bike, I finally shattered through the
times I had on the R6! The best part of that is that I was VERY comfortable the
whole time and didn’t feel like I was on the edge of my abilities. Feeling in
control and finally kicking that mental demon’s ass has left me on a high. My
times at Sonoma still have a lot of room for improvement, but I have some very
specific areas where I know I could make up time, plus keeping up with the changes
I made over the weekend. Finally setting a new career best at Sonoma was a HUGE
accomplishment for me, and I can’t thank my sponsors who helped make this
happen enough! Big shout outs to Dunlop Race Tires; Catalyst Reaction
Suspension; MotoShop; Chicken Hawk Racing; Skratch Labs hydrations products;
Erich Steigler Insurance; Shoei Helmets; MotoSport; Cycle Gear; Woodcraft; AXO;
Driven Racing; and Precision Trackdays!
Looking forward to seeing you all the next time around! Hopefully we'll have some pics up soon!
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