With only a few short weeks in between the third and fourth
rounds of the AFM season, I was feeling the pressure. To make things worse, I
ended up crashing a week before the fourth round while feeling a little too
good and not accounting for weather factors (that I knew were present). Thanks
to RiderzLaw I was able to afford to rush fix the bike, and DareDevil
Motorsports more than earned their keep doing all the heavy lifting on getting the
bike back together, fixed, and where it needed to go in the 5 days available.
Since the bike was rideable, I headed to the track on Friday
evening to set up my pit and hang out with my friends. My bike wouldn’t arrive
until the next morning, so it was an evening of hanging out and chatting with
everyone until bedtime.
Saturday dawned warm and pleasant, and while it was supposed
to warm up as the day went on, for Thunderhill Raceway, it wasn’t looking too
bad at all. There was a threat of some wind, however, which ended up living up
to its prediction. Saturday practices went okay. We were, yet again, chasing
some set up, as we had gotten the bike pretty dialed in at Laguna, but those
settings were NOT working for me at Thill. The first couple sessions were spent
just getting things in the ball park, and while I couldn’t really put my finger
on it, it never quite felt right, either. Catalyst Reaction does a great job of
helping keep things heading in the right direction, and Jim does pretty well
with interpreting my less than technical explanations!
Practices wrapped up and we started the afternoon races.
Unfortunately, the wind started to pick up about this time, and continued to
intensify as the races got going. By the time the AFemme race was headed out,
the gusts were bad, taking down canopies and sending items across the paddock.
Since I had just learned a hard, expensive, lesson about accounting for wind, I
at least went out to my race with a strategy to deal with it.
This weekend it was just Valentine and me on the grid for
experts, so it was going to be a fight for who got first. Valentine flubbed her
start, giving me a great shot at the start. We hit wave traffic pretty early
on, but I was in the lead and hoping to work on using my horsepower to motor
past my other weaknesses. As I was coming in to turn 6, however, I went to go
for my brake only to find the lever – well, not there. A brief moment of panic,
as I started fishing for a “missing” lever, and I found it a good inch lower
than where it should be. I managed to slow for the corner, but this situation
gave Valentine the perfect opportunity to pass me. Unsure of what the issue
was, I took the next several corners to be sure I could actually slow down, and
that the lever was find-able. It was, and I could, so after that I started to
chase Valentine back down. While I was reeling her in, the checkered came out
one lap too soon for me to be in a position to pass her back, so she got to
take home the win. It was still a fun race, and I’ve enjoyed getting to battle
with her this year.
The evening was spent saying hi to various people and
hanging out with some of my friends, and then off to bed at a decent time.
Somehow, despite the wind, I still managed to sleep pretty well.
Sunday dawned calmer but a bit cooler. Warm up practice was
fine (albeit slow) and races got started on time. First up was Open Superbike,
probably my least favorite class of the weekend, but a good one to get my game
face on and get into race mode. There were a couple of other riders in the Open
classes this weekend who had a relatively similar pace to me, so as the race
got going, I knew there were some people to chase down and keep behind me.
After a few fun battles, the race wrapped up and I can say I wasn’t last.
Next up was Open GP. I’ve liked this race a little better
than SB, and knew there were a few of us fighting for our back of the pack
positions, and I looked forward to getting to duke it out with them. My start
was meh, and I was in the group for a bit, trying my best to hang but not being
too successful. Pretty soon it was down to me and my battle buddies, and we
started to fight it out. One of the riders passed me on a flying lap he put in,
and I tried to reel him back in but couldn’t quite pull it off. Still didn’t
finish last though 😊 Throughout the race, I was VERY consistent,
with every single lap falling into less than a second difference. Good
information to have, because that means as I figure more things out on the
bike, the time won’t be hard to repeat as I change things up.
Throughout the weekend I had been experimenting with some
different seating positions on the bike. I was struggling to relax on the bike
as much as I felt like I could, and I was really struggling under harder
braking. I finally found that I much
preferred to be up closer to the tank instead of pushed back. I like my heels
under my hips, and since I have such a short torso I can still easily get into
a full tuck. I also found this helped a lot with my confidence on the brakes as
my legs could take up more of the load, allowing my upper body to free up.
Being a girl, upper body strength is definitely an issue most guys aren’t
dealing with as much, and I found this seating position was a significant
improvement for me.
Then, it was a fair bit of down time until race 13, Open
Superstock, which is my favorite of my Sunday races. I knew the three of us
would be out there again, and I wanted to play to my strengths, part of which
is my endurance. I also wanted to keep my seating position established as it
made me much happier on the bike. We gridded up and I had another good start. I
knew the guys behind me wouldn’t make this easy though, and sure enough, one of
them managed a pass a couple laps in. I was right on his tail however, and there
were definitely a few places where I was stronger, so I knew if I could hang
close enough in my weak zones, I could get the pass done in my strong areas.
Suddenly, however, he started to have a really odd slowdown in a place I wasn’t
expecting it – I saw the open door, went for it, and then his bike kicked in
and the door slammed. Dang! Okay, waited, and got another shot to pass, but
seemed like he was really having some issues as it was way too easy (turns out
he was running out of gas). He and the other guy were still back there though,
so I had to keep fighting on! Managed to hold them off for the race, crossing
the line successfully in front of them.
While fighting for “not last” can seem anti-climatic for on
lookers, having some other bikes to be out there fighting it out with made the
weekend a blast. It’s also the first weekend since I started on this bike where
I didn’t finish last in any of my Sunday races. Small accomplishment, but I’ll
take it!
Coming off a pretty decent crash less than a week earlier,
and having a blast all weekend made it a win in my book. Put in a couple more
pieces of the puzzle on the bike, and am looking forward to the next one!
And a special shout out to Oxymoron Photography for the great photos each race weekend!
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