Thunderhill 4-30-12

After picking up the new-to-me trackbike, I sent the fairings off to my friend to start working on, and got myself going on the fuel tank and arranging for Sean aka Elskipador on BARF to do my fork seals. Things made it down to a last minute rush on Sunday morning, but by 3:00pm I had the bike back together and ready to load up and head off to Willows, CA and Thunderhill Raceway.

A couple of other girls were truck-pooling up with me, including another Curve Unit member. We were crashing the night in her friend’s RV, so after making the drive (with only 3 death wobble incidents – that’s a whole ‘nuther story) we went to dinner at Casa Ramos then over to the track to spend the night. Met a few other BARFers hanging out that evening, then off to bed to (hopefully) get some sleep before the next day.

Monday dawned sunny and bright, with an expected high in the mid-upper 80’s. After unloading our stuff and getting through registration and tech, I headed over to JP Suspension to get the suspension adjusted for me. That actually went pretty quick (despite having to run to the rider’s meeting in between there). Got my stuff on and made it down in time for the first C group session.

I had decided to run in C group for at least a couple sessions until I was used to the bike – due to shifting and clutching differences, I didn’t want to jump right into B group on a bike I hadn’t put into anything other than 1^st gear. Did the lead-follow and just focused on making sure all the mechanicals were good and getting a basic feel for the bike. Next session out I stayed with C group, and spent a little more time getting to know her. By the end of the session I got “meatballed” and made the move up to B (not sure what the flag was for, no one was there to talk to me, but thinking I may have made a C-group illegal pass somewhere).

I spent the rest of the day in B group. My biggest issue really did prove to be shifting – when, where, what gears, and the best way to do it on this particular bike where I didn’t go and majorly upset the bike in the process. Most of the day this was an issue – maybe the last couple sessions I went out I started to get it figured out, but moving from the bigger bike to the smaller one did make a huge difference in this department. Obviously I have to be more precise with my entry speeds and gear choices because there’s not that obnoxious power there to make up for it coming out of the corners – if the bike’s not in the right place, you lose a ton of ground really quickly.

With the B group they were doing the “sniping” program with instructors. Basically, if you wanted instruction, you put a yellow X sticker on the back of the helmet, and they would focus on those people. Problem was, they were also focusing on the lower and upper ends of the group, and those of us in the middle of the pack were a lower priority. All day long I only got sniped one – and it was immensely helpful, but I definitely felt like I could have used a little more. Then again, I was still getting used to the bike, but with a bit more help the learning curve would have been a lot steeper. Let’s just say that if this is the method being used in the future, unless I’m at the upper end of the group, I’ll be cornering someone and requesting some help…if racing is going to be something sooner rather than later, I can’t rely on the sniping alone – takes a lot longer to figure it out by yourself than with a little instruction.

By the end of the day I was getting physically worn out. My left leg especially was just beat, and was affecting my performance. In the second to last session I only did half of it, and then I skipped the last session – I was just too tired and knew that it wouldn’t be productive for me to bother going out. Chances are I would have been making way too many stupid mistakes due to simple fatigue. I lasted longer than at the last trackday, but still need to keep up the working out if I’m going to make this happen!

At the end of the day I cornered David Ben-Jamin just to touch bases. He suggested that if my goal is racing, that I consider shooting for their next new racer school in November. That leaves me a LOT of work between now and then, and I need to go to these trackdays prepared with my homework done….but it gives me a specific goal to work towards. As long as I keep the basics in mind, don’t get in over my head, and keep refining things, it’s do-able, I just gotta stay focused, take things in steps, and I’ll get there.

The new bike is awesome, got a few little things I need to do to it (definitely need tank grips – WAY too much extra work to hold myself in without them!), and I’d really like shorty adjustable levers, but the levers will have to wait until I sell some more horse stuff. Which means taking the time to get the stuff advertised.

Either way, another successful trackday with Z2 Trackdays under my belt. I’m a little bit faster each time, hopefully I’ll be visiting the A group by the end of the summer!