Velocity Racing's 'Honey Badger' Blog

    Knowing that I had a lot of work in front of me in order to learn to ride the bigger bike, I had made plans to attend some of the Ken Hill Dirt Days. They are training classes designed for road racers, using the same terminology and principles in a (supposedly) lower risk environment. Despite never having ridden a dirt bike, I was looking forward to the weekend and knew I would leave having learned a ton.      I arrived Saturday morning excited to get educated from the best. The first couple sessions were really a struggle for me in terms of trying to get used to being on a dirt bike. The adjustment was not coming easily and I was feeling slow. Advice on how to ride the machine was incoming, and then finally I made a connection that worked for me - it was like riding a barrel horse. All of a sudden I was starting to "get it" and riding the bike wasn't so difficult and my speed was increasing because of that.     As fate would have it,...

     After my decision to move on to a new bike, the fun part of actually getting said bike was the next thing to do! I looked into a couple dealerships in hopes of finding one I could partner with as a sponsor. I had a personal reference to Roseville Yamaha Kawasaki, and I met with the sales manager, Ali, who seemed open to a sponsorship arrangement. After careful consideration, I felt like Ali and the team there were more behind supporting the sport, and I appreciated the straight forward and honest dealings, so I decided to partner with Roseville and ordered my bike through them.      I decided to go ahead and go with the bike I really wanted - while I technically could have saved a little bit with a barely used or on the floor bike, if I was going to take the plunge, I wanted to get the bike I really wanted. While the bike will go straight to track, that doesn't mean it would never see the street again, and either way, I wanted the white tank and...

In true "no rest for the weary" fashion, the 2016 AFM season had barely wrapped up and I was already having to move forward with 2017 plans. A few decisions were made by the end of the year, the big ones being that I was going to be moving up to Expert, and also finding a new bike, most likely the 2016/2017 Kawasaki ZX10R. It was time to start pursuing sponsorships and lining up who I'd be working with going forward. As my racing has continued, and as my goals have begun to grow, I've continued to focus in my sponsorships. Of course, there were some products and companies that have been great already, and who's stuff I would use regardless of sponsorship. There was also the desire/need for some additional help in areas that, before, weren't really a problem, primarily the bike and getting the bike set up. This was also going to increase my expenses, so anything along that line would be huge as well.  All that being said, I'm one of those people who rea...

The season finale of the 2016 AFM race season was taking place at Buttonwillow Raceway. I came into this weekend knowing I had made a lot of progress over the year, and that the front runners (in a year with some crazy fast novices) were just outside of my reach – maybe not 1 st or 2 nd , but a podium finish was within my grasp in something other than my Legacy class. I wanted to have that finish badly, since it would be my last shot at it before moving up to Expert where I’ll be unlikely to see much of anything for quite some time… I headed down Thursday afternoon so I could arrive and get settled in before traffic and so I’d be relaxed going into the weekend. I wanted to do part of the test day on Friday just to work on lines and technique, which is exactly what I did. There wasn’t a transmitter out, so I had no idea on my laptimes, but that was okay since I wanted to stay focused on proper technique. I chose not to put my own transmitter for that reason. The day went well with...

Typically this time of year we’re not really having to worry too much about the weather, but it’s getting close enough to winter that I tend to start keeping an eye on it, especially if there’s something important coming – you know, like a race weekend! So, early in the week, I started keeping an eye on the weather – since I had just been down at Buttonwillow (where it had been hella hot), I was wondering if I’d need to stock up on my Skratch Labs for the race weekend. Much to my dismay, instead of hot, the forecast for the weekend instead was showing a high chance of rain and very cool. WTH?!? I kept on following the forecast daily, sometimes hourly – it seemed to be trending to lighter chances of rain, but it wasn’t pulled off, either. Close enough that it was still going to be worth heading up – I already had the pet sitter arranged, and was committed to helping out at a track day on the following Monday, so I packed up with a little extra prep in case we did get wet. I arrived...

The time between Rounds 4 and 5 felt like an eternity. While I had spent a fair bit of time at the track in June and early July, most of July and August were pretty quiet. There had been a lot of progress made after the last round, but the better part of two months mostly off from the track also meant my chances at working on application was minimal once that break hit. Additionally, during this down time, my bike had ended up cropping up with a few problems that weren’t so easy to solve, the main one being that my CPS (crank position sensor) and stator had apparently died. Thankfully I was able to discover all of this in time to get the parts I needed and have the bike reassembled in time for the next round without completely freaking out. A few days before I had been able to test ride up and down the street, and all looked good in that department. I arrived on Friday night to get my garage and set everything up. I like having a chill Saturday morning, so that prep the night befo...

Lately I haven’t been doing too many blog updates in regards to trackdays – mostly because if I’m at the track, a fair bit of time is often spent instructing or I’m simply working on implementing feedback. This last day at the track, however, warrants a bit of a write up. After the last AFM round, Ken Hill ( khcoaching.com ) had watched my videos. I had been feeling pretty good about seeing sub-2 minute laptimes at Thunderhill, and was pretty stoked with the progress. Right up until Ken called and told me “we need to fix your braking. There’s 2 seconds to be had on your brakes.” Aw damn, I knew my braking needed work (that’s usually where I was getting passed), but I was a little doubtful about there being a full 2 seconds to find – but, I wasn’t going to argue with someone who does this with far better riders than myself, so we set up a plan to discuss some drills for my next day at the track. In addition, Catalyst Reaction Suspension had resprung my rear shock, so I was also...

I was coming into this weekend on the tail end of a whirlwind month. I had managed some valuable track time and instruction over the course of the month, and I was hoping to see some measurable results from all of it. While I had hoped for slightly cooler temperatures in order to see my best possible results, that was not to be the case, and we were looking at temps that would soar into the 100’s on Sunday. Well, lots more practice on sliding the bike, something I had only recently begun to get comfortable with doing on purpose (as opposed to just dealing with it if it happened). Earlier in the month at some of the track days I had gotten some very valuable feedback from Ken Hill, and some one-on-one coaching from our current #2 plate holder, Cory Call. A few trackdays followed all of that where I had chances to practice some of what I had been working on. I was looking forward to actually putting it all to use. There was a week off of bikes when I was in Tennessee f...