Sometimes in life you just need to proverbially throw
yourself to the wolves. Let’s face it, change isn’t easy, and life seems easier
when we stay in our comfort zones, but seldom do great things ever happen when
that’s the course you choose to take.
Pushing oneself isn’t easy. Doing things outside your
comfort zone isn’t easy. A lot can be learned, however, when you try new things
and put yourself in situations where you will either shine or fall flat on your
face. Or maybe do a bit of both.....
My move to Texas gave me the opportunity to do just that.
Since my very first track day, only once had I raced on a track I hadn’t
ridden, but I had 2 full days of practice before, and I was still a shiny new
yellow plate racer (aka, slow to begin with). That was in March of 2015. Now,
in 2019, I had the opportunity to once again throw myself into a situation
where I would, no matter what, learn a lot about where I was as a rider, and
worst case, make a complete fool of myself.
Deciding to show up to a track I had never seen, with little
to no time to do “homework” prior to arriving, to race with an organization I
had never so much as attended an event for, surrounded by people I didn’t know
was a bit of a leap, but a decision I found surprisingly easy to make. With my
goals as a racer where they are, this was a great chance to find out where I am
as a rider and racer and, realistically, how close I am to being able to take
the next step.
I arrived at MSR Houston on Thursday night with a friend,
Jack, who was helping walk me through the ropes with the CMRA. Jack has raced
with them for a while but wasn’t back to riding himself yet after an injury, so
took his weekend to help this transplant get acquainted with the CMRA. I was
also pitting with the single other person I knew there, Shandra, who was going
to be racing her Triumph 675.
We got set up and a few introductions were made, and I tried
to make sure I was ready for the next day. I hadn’t ridden this bike since
getting him back from Gerry (GP Wheel and Frame) after our rather epic
high-side at Buttonwillow, so I had more than a few things rolling through my
mind. I was able to get the bike through tech that night, so hopefully there
would be less to do Friday morning. After dinner it was time for some sleep,
but Thursday night didn’t prove to be restful, and I arrived to the track with less than 45
minutes of sleep that night and rather cranky, on top of everything else I had
going through my mind.
Oh well, we deal with it or we don’t, and I just put my head
down and got through registration and ready to get out on track, deciding
avoiding people was my best bet until I had a chance to wake up and/or a good
night’s sleep.
Finally it was time to head out on track – I followed
Shandra out, but she was ready to roll and took off. Since I didn’t even really
know if I was going left or right yet, I just did my best to figure things out
for myself. The practice groups with CMRA are set up different than AFM, and
all experts on middle and heavyweight bikes all go out together regardless of
laptimes, so it wasn’t particularly easy to find someone to latch onto. I came
in knowing I had been going around at a slow C group pace at best, and my times
reflected that. My best lap was a 2:19 – definite C group pace.
Combined with my mood, that had me questioning the rest of
the weekend – if that time didn’t drop significantly, this was not going to be
good. I decided right then that if I wasn’t below 2 minutes on Friday, I was going
to scratch the rest of the weekend.
The next session out I had an idea where the track went at
least, and Shandra headed out a bit slower and ramped up a bit more slowly. I
also had ridden the bike a session and knew it was working and not doing anything
too crazy weird. I got down to a flat 2 minutes that session. There was one
more morning session, and I decided it was time to start working on picking up
the pace a little bit, and I came in to find I had knocked another 4 seconds
off, getting into the 1:56s. Okay, looked like I’d be willing to grid up – I knew
that was very back of the pack and then some, but it was progress and I knew a
little more time would come. The afternoon decided that I needed rest, and rain
rolled in, so I got my tires changed and ready for Saturday, with hopes that
the weather would start to clear up and I’d get a dry practice and race.
Much more sleep was had that night, and I arrived in the morning,
and after some coffee and breakfast, I was ready to go. My first practice
session I was right around where I had left off on Friday, rolling in the
1:57s. Still a long ways off the pace, but for having about 20 laps under my
belt, I wasn’t complaining too much. The next session I tried latching on to
some people and managed to find a little more time, down to a 1:53.8. After
this, it was time to wait for my first race.
Thankfully the weather cooperated, and when my race was
coming up, things were dry and looking good. We had worked through a few set up
and tire pressure issues, and the bikes seemed as ready as it was going to be,
and I was feeling ready to go. We rolled up to the grid, only to end up with a
restart. Okay, fine, eventually back out we went. CMRA launches off lights,
which I knew about, but was a new experience for me, and my first start I
totally botched, ending up stalling the bike. I took me a moment to even realize
what had just happened (first time for everything!) and then I threw a hand up
only to realize I was at the back of the grid anyways, and they were getting
ready to release the novice wave behind me, so I just punched the starter and
took off with a couple anger-wheelies down the front straight. I caught up to
the back of the group before too long, made a couple passes, got passed, and in
general had some fun, never really feeling like I was “alone” on the track. I
came in to find I had broken into the 1:49’s.
I was determined that Sunday I wouldn’t botch my starts
again, so relaxed and watched some of the later racing and made sure I was all
set for the next day.
Sunday I decided to skip practice as it had been raining all
night and I knew track conditions would change a lot between then and my race.
Like an idiot, however, I didn’t look at the schedule very well, and realized
too late there were actually 2 full practice sessions Sunday morning and I
could have done the second one with more confidence. Oh well, the first race up
was A Superbike, where I knew I wouldn’t really do anything anyways, so just
made sure I was ready to head out for that.
My start was closer to normal this time and I was starting
to figure out the timing on the number boards vs the lights, so was in the mix
this time. Had a few battles with a couple other bikes, managing to hold off a
few riders for a while (much to their frustration I’m sure), and had cleaned up
some lines overnight after reviewing video, so still had a good time chasing a
few people down. I came in to find I had dropped a teensy bit more time, down
to a low 1:49. I was getting to a time where there were some other bikes to
battle with, so was never really alone at all this time.
My last race of the day was the F40 Heavyweight, and I
looked forward to that knowing I might actually be able to fight for a place or
two. My start was decent enough this time, and I managed to find a few riders
to battle with the entire race. Things were slowly coming together now, and I
found a little more time, getting down into the 1:47s.
There’s still lots of time to be had – another 10 seconds to
be thinking about top 5, and about 12 to be looking at potential podiums.
Overall, however, I was not disappointed with my weekend. As always, it wasn’t
quite enough for me to be “ecstatic” over my performance, but I wasn’t disappointed
by what I was doing, either. I saw plenty of places where I could easily make
up some additional time, much of which was just a matter of my lack of comfort
with the track, and then just some riding skills I need to clean up/work on.
The best parts of the entire weekend were the things I was
able to learn about myself as a rider and racer, and the chance to really test
where I’m at, where my weaknesses lie, and what things really are just “preconceived”
ideas vs actual lacking skills. What I did learn was that my ideas of what I
thought was partly hold me back was probably true, and this weekend also highlighted
very specific things I can work on to improve my times. The learning experience
was invaluable, and I am excited to take what I learned, work to improve those areas,
and make some big steps towards the next goals!
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