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 all. Not even little ones. The ability to carry corner speed is huge here. Not my strong suit on this bike yet, so at the very least, it was a good learning experience. The front straight is fast - for all my California friends, think faster than the front straight at Thunderhill fast.
The weekend was hot, with Sunday looking to be the warmest of the days, but it was at least looking sunny and dry, so I was hoping that would hold true after a small storm rolling through during the endurance races on Saturday.
I was signed up for 3 races, the same 3 as before. The first two races I dropped some time from my Friday practice, the last race I was about a second slower, just getting hot and tired. The track proved to be pretty hard on tires, which had me buying a front I hadn't planned on needing to spring for.
Since I managed to finish all 3 races, and didn't crash, I exceeded my expectations. You have no idea how difficult it was to refuse to set any expectations for myself - but it paid off. While I don't know that I would go with having had "fun," I at least didn't hate the weekend. My times were pathetic, but I got some very interesting data when my theoretical best lap and my actual best lap had a massive disparity. It really enlightened me on how some small things can end up making huge differences, and I think it was really valuable to walk away with that information.
Additionally, it was a good environment for me to work on corner speed on this bike, and getting more comfortable with it again.
There's really nothing to "brag" about persay from this weekend, but it was a decent weekend, and I felt like I was headed in the right direction to start enjoying this again, too.
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 all. Not even little ones. The ability to carry corner speed is huge here. Not my strong suit on this bike yet, so at the very least, it was a good learning experience. The front straight is fast - for all my California friends, think faster than the front straight at Thunderhill fast.
The weekend was hot, with Sunday looking to be the warmest of the days, but it was at least looking sunny and dry, so I was hoping that would hold true after a small storm rolling through during the endurance races on Saturday.
I was signed up for 3 races, the same 3 as before. The first two races I dropped some time from my Friday practice, the last race I was about a second slower, just getting hot and tired. The track proved to be pretty hard on tires, which had me buying a front I hadn't planned on needing to spring for.
Since I managed to finish all 3 races, and didn't crash, I exceeded my expectations. You have no idea how difficult it was to refuse to set any expectations for myself - but it paid off. While I don't know that I would go with having had "fun," I at least didn't hate the weekend. My times were pathetic, but I got some very interesting data when my theoretical best lap and my actual best lap had a massive disparity. It really enlightened me on how some small things can end up making huge differences, and I think it was really valuable to walk away with that information.
 |
| Photo by Rick Hentz |
Additionally, it was a good environment for me to work on corner speed on this bike, and getting more comfortable with it again.
There's really nothing to "brag" about persay from this weekend, but it was a decent weekend, and I felt like I was headed in the right direction to start enjoying this again, too.
 |
| Photo by Rick Hentz |
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