“That’s what racing is all about” pretty much sums up my
feelings on the AFM Round 4 at Thunderhill Raceway, our last round before a 2
month summer break. The weekend looked to be warm to hot, with very little cool
to be had. I decided to head up Thursday night to take some time at Precision’s
new “home” with Pacific Track Time at
the pre-race track day. Heading into this weekend I was in a much better place
mentally than I had been for the previous round, and I had a plan in place.
Friday was going to be the day to be sure I was happy with the bike set up, bed
in my new Galfer Race brake pads, and blow the dust off in general. Due to the
expected heat over the weekend I didn’t intend on doing much pushing on Friday,
but planned to save it up for the weekend.
Friday went well, and I did exactly as I had planned. The
new brake pads were VERY noticeably different than what I was used to though, in
a good way, but this was going to adjust how I was riding, that was for sure.
These pads had great bite, but unlike my previous pads, were not “snatchy.”
These had solid, but very predictable and controllable bite, radically
different than my old pads. I was ready to go test this out a little more on
Saturday in practice. My Saturday goals were to do a couple/few practice
sessions, get my new rear tire on, scrub that in, and save energy for the
AFemme Nv race. I intended to go out there and give a bit of a fight for first
place. Saturday practices went fine, nothing spectacular but I sorted out tire
pressures and was content with how the bike was feeling. I felt a bit like I
could have stood a new front tire as well, but my wallet denied that LOL.
When AFemme finally rolled around (last race of the day) it
was HOT. The air temperature had headed up into the triple digits, with a very,
very dry heat. I had done my best to conserve energy, but still felt like the
heat was zapping it from my out-of-shape-ass faster than I could preserve it.
We gridded up, got ready and finally had a green flag! My start was not that
great, and I fell back a bit on the get go. I was going to try to keep two of
the riders in front of me in my crosshairs, but they eventually managed to
start to walk away from me. Sometime during the 3rd lap my contacts
started to dry out – BAD, and I was doing my best to try to keep enough
moisture in my eyes to see! Some of the faster guys from the wave behind me
started to come through, and I decided to make use of it a bit. I knew I wasn’t
going to catch 1st place, and I wasn’t in danger of losing 2nd,
so decided to let myself get a tow into a couple corners by a couple of these
faster riders, knowing that even if it freaked me out a bit I wasn’t going
to lose a place, so make use of it! I
let myself get drug into a few corners, although going into Turn 1 trying to
follow one of those guys did freak me out a bit – but I did it, and everything
was fine. This was going to lead to good things the next day. I finished the
race in 2nd place, hot and tired, but at least a finish and gained
some other good information during the race.
Sunday was promising to be a bit more tolerable in the
temperature range, with a nice cloud cover that rolled in overnight keeping the
sun from baking us too early. My goals for Sunday were to be “not last” in my
classes, and to set a new personal best. I was really hoping to get down to the
2:06’s if I could before the day was out.
My first Sunday race was Formula 1 Nv, which for me is
mostly a “warm up” race – it’s not one I have a championship to worry about,
nor is it one that I am fast enough to even consider that, but it’s a great
grid to work on several other things with, especially starts and getting used
to dealing with 40 other bikes all piling into the first few corners. I was
gridded near the back. My start was so-so – not bad, but not a good one either.
Going into Turn 1 was being rather timid, letting everything sort itself out in
front of me rather than aggressively claiming my spot. This cost me several
positions and a fair bit of time right from the get go. After a few laps
another rider got around me and I was determined to get him back. Chasing him
in the first half of the track we came into turn 6 where I thought I just might
be able to get a drive on him. Getting on the gas just a tad earlier gave me a
good slide on both tires. Thankfully they hooked back up, but that gave me
cause to chill just a bit – not worth a crash for a place in this race. I
finished the race in 14th place, feeling fine and finding more
confidence in my brakes than I’ve had in a very long time.
Since my boyfriend was awesome enough to come up and
“umbrella boy” for me for the day, I got to relax as soon as I returned to the
pits. It was SO nice not having to worry about things, just prepare myself for
my race, go race, then come back and relax! Awesome!
My next race was Legacy Middleweight Nv, my Sunday race that
I care the most about. I was determined to do better in this race than I had at
the last round, and went out with that determination well embedded. I had an
okay start at this race, but was still a little too passive about allowing
things to sort out in front of me during those first few corners, again losing
several spots and being stuck with ground to make up. The race was fun with
several little battles throughout the race, and I finished knowing I had done
slightly better than before, feeling pretty good with my ride. My braking
confidence was gaining ground quickly with the new pads, and some very big
mental demons started getting kicked during this race. I finally went into and
through Turn 1 with more speed than I have since my big crash there in 2012,
and also carried more speed through Turn 8 than I have since about that time as
well. To do that was HUGE for me, and I was feeling pretty stoked after the
race. Results showed that extra confidence was doing good things as I not only
finished 11th but also finally set a new personal best at this track
with a 2:07.442, over a second off my previous PB.
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| Photo by Max Klein with 4theMorons aka Oxymoron Photography |
The final race of the day was 600 Production Nv, which I
also race with my teammate. After my Legacy class, I was excited to get out
there again, but I was absolutely determined to quite being so nice on the
starts. F-THAT. I gridded up with lazars in my eyes at the bikes in front of me.
No more misses nice gal!! I had a terrific start on that one (a “hero start” as
my BF put it) and I was NOT going to let other riders take that away from me in
the first corners! I held my position, and fended people off as best I could.
The rider in front of me had to check up really hard to avoid a swooping rider
in front of him which cost me a couple positions as people on a wider line were
able to avoid the cluster there. Oh well, I still had bikes around me. My
teammate managed a pass on me and my first reaction was *sadface* then I
(literally yelling in my helmet) screamed “Fuck that! Pass him back Bitch!!”
(Yes, there was profanity going on lol). Determined to get that spot back, I
held onto him and eventually realized that my new found confidence in my brakes
was working – I could actually beat people on the brakes, even a late braker
like my teammate on certain corners. I managed a pass back on him by Turn 2,
but I knew he’d fight for that place back – so I kept after it, determined to
do my best to keep him back there. We also had two other riders in front of us
who we were on top of, but I held off passing them since I would have had to
have done so under braking, and my new confidence was, well, new and I wasn’t
positive I could execute a safe pass. This allowed my teammate the chance to
pass me right at the very last second where his superior power let him sneak by
with a half bike lead at the finish line, leaving me in 18th place
at the tail end. Either way, what an awesome race with some fun battles! Those
are what make racing so much fun!
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| Photo by Max Klein with 4theMorons aka Oxymoron Photography |
Overall, I was really happy with the weekend. While I didn’t
see my times get to what I was hoping to see, I did set a new PB and beat some
rather long standing mental demons. I also walked away with some very specific
things to work on, my primary one being how to utilize my braking style against
my competition. While I was ultimately beating these riders on the brakes, I
find I’m more prone to braking lighter, longer, but in the end, I’m still going
from “WOT” to corner entry faster than they are, with a slightly higher entry
speed with more trail braking. Learning to ride with that against other riders
and understand how to aggressively but safely make those passes is going to be
my focus in the coming months before our next race round at Sonoma. In the
meantime, if I can manage as much learning as possible in addition to maybe,
just maybe, getting a little more power out of the bike, it’ll be a good
summer.
No more races to report on until September, but I’m sure
there will be updates on my summer plans and progress, so stay posted for more!
Huge shout out to my amazing sponsors this season! Thanks to
Dunlop Race Tires for their super sticky, keeping the rubber side down tires;
Chicken Hawk Racing for making sure those tires are warm and ready to go;
Skratch Labs for keeping my hydrated in the super heat of Willows; Catalyst
Reaction Suspension for helping me start getting my confidence back; and to all
the others who have each helped bring us to the midyear point safely and
successfully! Please check out my sponsor links on the right side bar of the
blog, as they all have terrific products that I am happy to answer any
questions about!
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| Photo by Max Klein with 4theMorons aka Oxymoron Photography |
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| Photo by Max Klein with 4theMorons aka Oxymoron Photography |
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