Velocity Racing's 'Honey Badger' Blog

  Let's be honest, 2020 took my plans, threw them on the ground, stomped them through dog doo-doo, and then swirled that mixture in my hair. Okay, not in reality (no poo in my hair), but it sure felt that way. I know I was not alone in my misery, but my struggle is my own and this year was just one major struggle after another. Not that it was all bad - despite a rather pathetic showing from me, my sponsors stuck by me through the year (and many into this coming year along with some new ones!). I moved to an area where I'm pretty darn happy. I've made some new and awesome friends and acquaintances. I got much better set up for the track in general (primary purchase being a trailer that I can haul and camp in rather than dealing with hotels or tents).  So as a final THANK-YOU to my sponsors who stuck by me last year - love you all!   RiderzLaw Roseville Yamaha-Kawasaki Dunlop Race Tires BARF Racing MC Tech Hustle Hard Racing Motul USA Motion Pro Fast Frank Racing CHR I ha

After my less than enjoyable weekend at Barber, and spending some time going through some self reflection, I decided I needed to change my approach a bit for the time being - many of the reasons behind this had nothing to do with riding or racing, but other "life shitake" was affecting me to the point of it heavily impacting my riding. So I approached the next race weekend (at a new to me track) with a very different attitude. I went in with zero expectations - other than "try not to crash" and "improve" there were NO expectations. I had a Friday trackday to try to learn the track at least a little bit and make sure my pace was "don't get lapped" fast enough (not saying much with a 6 lap race), and then racing on Sunday with a day off in between. Friday went okay. Roebling is very different than any track I've ridden - outside of the front straight, you are in a corner the rest of the track with no straights between the corners - at a

I questioned even writing this post as I have a very mixed bag of feelings on how my weekend went. So, let's just start with the facts. I had attended two track weekends at the beautiful Barber Motorsports Park prior to showing up for a race there. The first weekend I was experiencing bike problems most of the weekend, and my times were downright pathetic (~12-14 seconds off my goals). Because of the bike issues and just never really getting comfortable with a few things, I decided to stretch the finances and make the weekend the end of June, just before the WERA races over the July 4th weekend. That second weekend I dropped some time, but nothing like I was hoping for - only a few seconds off what I had been doing the prior weekend. I was getting more comfortable on the bike, and getting it dialed in, but I was still - off. I hoped that a race, getting a green flag and launching would help me get over the mental rut I seemed to be stuck in after not being on a track for nearly

In classic racer form, this winter and spring was a rapid set of life altering decisions in my world, initially fueled by my employment situation, but followed closely by my discontent with life in Texas overall. All of that ended up leading to me packing up my house and life, and once again making a big move - this time, basically finishing my "move" across this nation, landing here in northern Georgia in the greater Atlanta metro.  Access to mountains, twisty roads, great tracks, track days, good racing, and a cost of living I could deal with marked my ideal location.  Of course, 2020 hasn't gone as anyone predicted, and covid-19 greatly affected (still is) much of my life. Despite that, however, the move was completed, and I've been loving life here in Georgia. Not only have I been making good use of our beautiful mountains (hiking, riding), I've also started making some track days now that those are opening up, and am signed up for my first WERA race rou