After some things coming together for me in other areas of
my life, I finally made the decision to accept my job’s offer to move me with
them to Texas when my current lease is up. That meant I would be changing race series,
but without many championships on the line, it didn’t seem wise to ride out the
season with the other risks that would be involved. I would be jumping straight
into the CMRA June round, and missing no races, but that still made Round 2 my
final AFM round and I was looking forward to going out with a bang. Riding had
been going well, I was getting comfy on the bike, and my pace kept improving. I
had high hopes.
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| Photos by Oxymoron Photography |
Unfortunately, I took “high” and “bang” a little too
literally.
On our Friday practice day, I was cruising around, and in
the afternoon started to see some decent laps, putting down 1:58s despite a
fair bit of traffic. I was looking forward to Saturday and my regular practice
group, and seeing if I could make a Formula Pacific showing before I moved. I
went out for what was going to be my final Friday session, hoping traffic would
be lighter and I could maybe get down to the 57s or maybe even 56s. I was
rolling through, had just passed one of my friends going into Cotton Corners,
leaving me with clear track in front of me. I put my head down and decided to
push a bit. That was apparently the wrong choice with the
tire/temp/wind/dust/throttle combo, and as I came into the fast, left kink
before the bus stop, the rear suddenly spun up on me, and I was launched into a
low orbit.
After my air time, I hit, HARD, but thanks to my D-Air when
I came to a stop I assessed my damage and it seemed relatively minor and I was
able to get up and wait for the crash truck.
Bike obviously had some damage, but was still rolling in
mostly one piece, and I was mostly in one piece, but that night I was fairly
certain I was done for the weekend. When Jesus and the guys with DareDevil
arrived, however, they were pretty sure they could get the bike rideable – I
wasn’t sure about my own riding condition, but figured if nothing else it would
be good to get back on the horse and at least do a few laps that didn’t involve
a major crash.
By the end of Saturday the bike was back together and we
made it through tech and I was ready to go for Sunday. Jesus thought the bike
handled fine and rode straight in the pits, so my practice session would be my
shakedown to be sure it was okay at a little more speed and to also see how I
was feeling.
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| Photos by Oxymoron Photography |
Sunday morning I headed out for practice, taking my time.
The bike felt okay, wasn’t doing anything weird, but my body was having a few
things to say about the situation. I was hoping it would get better with a
little more time, so still planned to head out for my first race, Open
Superbike.
We gridded up, but this race tends to be a bit of a shit
show, and this day did not disappoint. I was in a fair bit of pain trying to
move around on the bike, and every bump was torture, so I just wanted to finish
my (very slow) laps and come in, and hopefully not get collected in anyone
else’s bullshit. Managed to do that, and came in, not feeling good at all, but
thinking maybe some modifications to my back protector would help.
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| Photos by Oxymoron Photography |
There’s not much time between Open SB and Open GP, so I
pulled the tail off my back protector to give my rump more room in my suit,
hoping that would allow me a bit more comfort. We headed out, and this race was
a bit calmer. I was still going slow, it even felt slow, but my body had no
intention of putting up with any additional pace. I finished up my laps and
came in, basically just cruising around the track – and almost in tears. Riding
was pure torture, so I was done. If I had at least been able to go quickly with
that pain it maybe would have been worth it, but going that slow, in that much
pain, was not worth it. I had turned some laps, bike felt fine, but I couldn’t
focus on riding at all, so decided that was enough self-torture and scratched
my afternoon.
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| Photos by Oxymoron Photography |
Slowly packed up that afternoon and once everyone in our
group had finished their day relatively unscathed, I headed home to recuperate
and get ready for my next races in June – in Texas.
I will miss my AFM family, but have no doubt I will be back
to see everyone again!
Big shout outs to all of my sponsors, race team, friends, corner
workers, and all of the AFM family – it’s been very memorable, and you probably
haven’t seen the last of me 😊 Most of my sponsors are sticking with me
through the move/season, so looking forward to expanding our “reach” to another
area!
Now I’m going to go put some ice on my butt…..
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| Photos by Oxymoron Photography |
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