This weekend was one where I came
into it with high expectations. You see, I was close – so close – to getting
down to my “old” times at Sonoma, I was convinced I could accomplish it at
Thunderhill. Thanks to Jim at Catalyst Reaction Suspension, I was finally
getting the bike dialed in and my confidence was going up incrementally. I knew
that would continue through this weekend, but was putting a lot of pressure on
myself to perform up to *my* standards.
I failed in that regard.
Success was still gained.
Friday there was a trackday that I
bought a pass to knowing I could really use the time to work on setting the
bike up. On Jim’s suggestion, I had dropped the forks a bit, and I knew we’d be
playing around with getting everything dialed in for this fast track. I arrived
on Thursday evening, unloaded, then headed off for some sleep before the
weekend kicked off.
I arrived bright and early to get
the weekend started, determined to meet my own expectations. Fate seems to
enjoy throwing things in my face here lately, however, and as I jumped on my
scooter to head to registration for the day with my teammate on the back, I
discovered in the distance of about 20 feet that the scooter front end had been
dorked, badly, on the way down, and we ended up crashing. Honestly, there
wasn’t much damage to either of us – other than the 1” wide strip of road rash
that started above my knee and went all the way over it, to about 2 inches
below the knee. Great. THAT was going to be a lot of fun in a hot, sweaty, suit
all weekend.
All morning I was in my own head. I
was going slow, I couldn’t get out of my funk, and I wasn’t going fast enough
to reasonably believe that I might meet my (beat into my own head) standards.
We were getting the bike dialed in, but my head just wasn’t cooperating.
That’s when I decided to take some
time and just refocus. After a few minutes of clearing my mind and removing the
badgering thoughts, I realized that I have never taken a day to just enjoy
riding my bike. Every single time I’ve been on it I’ve beaten into myself how
poorly I’m doing, everything I’m doing wrong, should be working on, not
adjusting to, etc. I’ve never just gotten on it and enjoyed riding the damn
thing.
My entire plan for the weekend
changed.
I wrote down my new plan, which was
basically “screw this shit. I’ve got an amazing bike, go out and ENJOY riding
it. Fuck lap times, personal bests, placings, or trying to work on all these
techniques. Fuck all of that, and just go out and enjoy your motorcycle, being
at track, and finally being on your dream bike.”
I accomplished that new, revised,
goal.
Friday afternoon was far more
relaxed and we tweaked the settings a bit until I was pretty happy with it.
Saturday practices the bike was feeling pretty good, but I was interested to
see what it would feel like once in a race.
AFemme is my one “championship”
race where I’ve got a solid shot at a podium. It’s a small grid, which helps,
but there are days I’ve been competitive against some talented ladies. This was
not one of those days. Jennifer and Valentine both brought their A game, and I
just couldn’t turn on “go” mode. It was a clean, easy race, with no big
mistakes, but a few things I knew were causing me issues that I’d need to
revise my strategy on, particularly turn 9. I still finished on the podium with
a 3rd place, although it was a fairly lonely race for the most part.
Paige was making her debut return to the grid, so it was awesome to see her
back out there and determined as ever to keep at this sport!
There was definitely a suspension
issue that needed some tweaking though, so we got that adjusted and I was ready
to roll out for Sunday’s races in the Open classes I’ve been running.
DareDevil’s Jesus swung by the pit and helped me get the brakes bled that last
little bit and made sure we were good to go.
First up was Open GP. Jesus offered
to gap for me, which I appreciated in this race since Jen is out there and
we’ve been duking it out most of the year. I got a decent start, and got to
dice it up with a few bikes. I was pretty sure I heard and saw Jen in the area
a few times, and Jesus was telling someone was right there, but at some point in the race she seemed to disappear,
and my gapper told me I had some room. I had a couple novices I was dicing it
up with, but had no idea what my finish in the race was. I FELT like I was
going a lot faster than I had been, despite still starting my braking too early
in some places, something I was determined to work on in the next race. I ended
up beating a couple other experts, and managed a little “revenge” on Jennifer
for her win on Saturday.
My second and last race of the
weekend was Open Superstock. This race has me a bit further up the grid, but
mostly because the grids have been small and people have skipped it. I got a
decent start, but as usual, it didn’t take too long for the lead pack to
disappear. The cool thing about this race, however, was that I was finally
feeling comfortable and confident in the bike, enough so that I was finally
willing to start pushing some of *my* limits on it. This didn’t do much to help
lap times as things weren’t smooth or predictable yet, but I pushed my braking,
my corner speed, and even the throttle a little more than I had been. Sure, I
spooked myself a few times, but I felt confident even being willing to do that
now that the bike was finally getting dialed in and I knew how it would
respond.
My teammate said that was the most
comfortable and relaxed he’s seen me on this bike, and I felt that way too.
Despite my original goals for the
weekend still hanging out there in the breeze, I am happy with the end result. Being willing to make myself
uncomfortable on this bike is a HUGE step. This places me in a position to
actually implement all these techniques and work on getting out of my comfort
zone. This year I’ve beaten myself up, pretty much daily, about my lack of
progress, but looking back at this point I see where a lot of that lack of
progress stemmed from.
I may not have reached my
pre-determined goals, but I smashed my revised goals, and have learned a lot
this year about racing, riding, and everything that goes into making that
happen. The year may not have been as successful in terms of race finishes and
lap times as I had hoped for, but there have been a lot of lessons learned that
will not be easily forgotten.
At this point my status for round 7
is a bit unknown – my hardware removal surgery went well, but I still must
recover enough to be riding fit, but if at all possible, I’m hoping to be there
– with some simple goals. That don’t involve a lap time.
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