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Honey Badger’s 2019 Race Season Wrap Up


As we near the end of 2019, I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on some of the things I experienced, learned, and dealt with over the past year.

2019 was a year of major changes for me. At the end of the previous season I had finally started to sort out the issues with my bike, and I was finally getting used to riding with/around my leg, and I was excited for the coming 2019 season. After a great first round in March at Buttonwillow Raceway, I was stoked to head to round two, which was also going to be my last planned races in California with the AFM for the time being due to work relocating to Texas.


Round two, rather than going well, actually ended up with a rather epic highside during practice that pretty much ended the weekend for me – while I was able to get back on the bike, my pain levels kept me from really seeing any pace so I called it a weekend. Went out with a bang, but not the way I intended (be sure to word your wishes carefully).



I then headed off to Texas with my job. I didn’t see Texas as being a permanent move, but it was going to be a great opportunity to get on tracks I had never seen, which presented a few opportunities I could not have experienced in California.

First off, I wanted to see if my theories about the transition from middle weight to heavy weight were correct. While bike set up (and working properly) was a factor, I also was under the firm impression that part of my issue was mental “timing.” My brain was used to having ‘x’ amount of time between points A and B, and especially on the longer sections, I was positive this was holding me back. That theory proved to be at least partially true.

Secondly, I wanted to see how quickly I could learn a track and get up to “race pace,” an important bit of information for my future goals/plans. I learned that, with some minimal guidance, I could learn a track over a weekend, but I did best when I had two days to learn it – day three always saw massive improvements from days 1 and 2. 

Due to the move, outside of racing, I saw very little track time. Track days in Texas are not like they were in California, and in order to get a reasonable amount of track time at various tracks, you either need to be independently wealthy (which I am not) or have a large circle of friends who’ve bought memberships (which, being a transplant, I don’t really have those, either). Money after the move (and crash repairs) was also tight, so that was a factor as well.

I did align with 3:16 Trackdays, a great teaching/schooling organization towards the end of the summer and look forward to the continued relationship into 2020.

Thirdly, I finally started to really get the bike working for me. I’ve had some great people by my side and supporting me, and this year I got to see that some of the notions I had when I got this bike were entirely false. We finally started to get along, I started to overcome my fears of the bike (despite our little incident in April), and near the end of the year I felt like I was finally in a position to start pushing myself again. I knew I could get my bike to do what I wanted, and I was happy to finally have the six inches between my ears coming back to where I left off in 2016.

There are a few minor changes for next year with the bike, primarily related to ergonomics. Investing in a custom seat is going to be one of the big ones for me, as that was a major hang up this past summer once I started to use that twisty thing on the right.

I’m excited to head into 2020 – while I’ve tried to drum up excitement the past 3 years, a lot of it was just sticking to my guns and not giving up. The passion is there, and I just needed the rest of me to catch back up. I feel like it’s almost there, and I’m putting the tools into place to ensure that 2020 takes me on the next step in this fantastic journey. 



For all my sponsors who’ve stuck with me through the past few years, a huge thank you! This sport is tough in this country, and your support has been priceless. 

Family and friends who’ve helped out, supported me, offered advice, and generally just “been there” – thank you for all of that. Passing it forward as I can.

To my racing compatriots, thank you for sharing the grid and showing up, and giving me a reason to keep eating lots of Top Ramen (just kidding, I actually can’t stand that stuff….).

Here’s to the upcoming adventures in 2020!

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