....and sometimes you do both within half a lap.
But that's not how the weekend started.
Making races this year was looking very hit and miss, but with RIDERZLAW continuing their title sponsorship, a few rounds were not outside the realm of possibility; as finances were working out, I set up to head to Roebling Road, one of only 2 tracks I made it to last year for a race. I was excited to see if a) mentally I was back to a better place and b) to finally race a familiar track.
Friday practice went smoothly, and by the end of the day I was feeling very comfortable at my previous pace, and could tell I had a lot left in me. Issue was, I still wasn't nailing the entire track - parts of it, but there were a couple places that still needed to come together for me, turns 1 and 5 in particular.
Saturday I had a fairly early race with Formula 1 - with not even so much as a trackday since last September, it took me the better part of 2+ laps to "remember" I was racing, not just spinning laps. I picked up my pace, but still nothing spectacular. Turn 1 was feeling a lot better, and I was feeling a lot braver into it. I was excited for my next race and the chance to put my head down and see what I was made of.
Later in the day I got ready for race 10, the A Superstock class. I was stoked and ready to go - had my game face on, head was in a good place, and I was ready to roll. We gridded up and launched, and I was determined to put in a good race.
In the previous four races I have started at this track, the grid is passing me in turns 1 and 2, gapping me by 3, and gone by the time we are through turn 4.
This time, I was hanging. In the mix, with the group - and holding my own. We were coming out of 4 and I was right there in the pack, and now determined to keep it that way. There was one small problem however - hanging with this pack meant I was running 4-5 seconds/lap faster than I ever had. Between a completely new found pace, and coming into one of the corners on the track that I really had NOT figured out, I had a moment....
Judging by where my head was at (don't let these guys get away) and what the guy behind me witnessed, I believe I tried to do the same thing I had been getting away with at my previous pace - accelerating between the kink and the final half of the corner. Issue being, I was carrying a LOT more speed, and a lot more lean angle, and on slightly the wrong line for that pace. When I went to do my "usual," I was immediately and violently highsided right over the bike.
After body slamming into the pavement and a rough tumble into the grass, I came to a stop. Not entirely certain that I was actually "okay" or not, I crawled away from the bike as my hip area on the left was screaming at me, and it took a bit for me to be sure nothing was broken. With some help over the berm I laid back as sitting was not remotely comfortable.
Eventually back at the pits my friend "G" along with another buddy figured out the bike wasn't too bad off, but did need a new throttle cable. As we were unable to source one, my weekend was done, regardless of whether my derrière was fitting into a suit again.
As it turned out the bike and I both were well bruised, but nothing too serious for either of us. While things didn't end the way I would have wanted, the confidence boost from actually doing what I've known I'm capable of (even if I screwed up in the process) was huge, and I can't wait to get back on a bike in a few days at Barber for a trackday (even if it's on my street bike).
Cool thing for me was doing what I did (right until I yeeted myself) - and I was reminded a valuable lesson: if you're going to suddenly drop 4-5 seconds/lap on a track with laptimes that are in the 70-85 second range, maybe take a few extra precautions with that twisty thing on the right LOL.
Huge shout outs to my amazing sponsors who are all great supporters of this sport!
RiderzLaw
MCTech
DareDevil Motorsports
Roseville Motorsports
Bison Leathers
Motul USA
Fast Frank Racing
Chicken Hawk Racing
MotoGraphix
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