Velocity Racing's 'Honey Badger' Blog

Buttonwillow Raceway. Off the beaten path and out of the way, the track was one I had never been to before. Not yet racing at Round 1 of 2014, I was excited and apprehensive to begin my planned full year of races with the AFM. Having never been the track before I hoped to get some seat time to be able to slowly learn the track without feeling rushed. With some extra financial help from my boyfriend, I was able to get down to the track on the Thursday preceding the races for a nice, easy track day to take my time learning where I was going. Friday afternoon test day helped me establish a couple lines I wasn’t quite getting right, and then during Saturday practice some additional help from the BF who was corner working on a particularly difficult for me corner helped make that a little easier. All of this allowed me to go into my Saturday races relatively confident of the track and where I was going at my pace. A few suspension tweaks by Catalyst Reaction, some shiny new Dunlop Tire...

It seemed like it took forever, but the track season has finally recommenced for Honey Badger Racing. Returning to Sonoma Raceway, a track that I have not had much time on the past couple years, it was great to get the chance to blow the dust off and enjoy a beautiful day doing what I love. To make life easier I arrived Friday evening and set up most of my pit space then settled in for a slightly chilly sleep. The dawn broke bright and clear with promises of a beautiful day in store for all of us. Sunshine and a very light breeze lived up to the promises of the morning. Since I had not ridden the Triumph since the last race round in October, I knew the first part of the day would be spent just getting everything set up where I wanted it. I had made a number of changes to the bike over the winter, so priority number one was getting everything adjusted to where I wanted it. I spent three sessions doing just this, getting at most 2 laps in before pulling in to adjust some...

Track season is upon us! Several providers have already had their opening days, although I seem to suffer from getting rained out this year - despite the drought, every time I've scheduled a track day this winter it's been rained on! I'm beginning to think I'm solely responsible for the drought, perhaps if I scheduled more track days we would have been rained on frequently LOL! Either way, I'm as ready for the race season as I will be. Bike is together and has all the necessary parts (rules changed for this bike, so had to add some not-cheap parts :( ). It starts and runs fine. Leathers have been repaired and are ready to be picked up. Suspension has its baseline set up. Looks like everything is ready to roll! Biggest issue at this point is the simple lack of trackdays between now and the first race. With a street bike that is radically different than my track bike, I need time to adjust back to the track bike. I've got one trackday scheduled between now and...

Let's face it, no matter how much you leave yourself to do over the winter months, no matter how much your budget may appreciate the opportunity to rebound, after a couple months of that "the Itch" returns despite your best efforts. You may find yourself practicing your starts at every red light, or getting on the freeway just a bit quicker than you ought to, or perhaps racing that car through the corner before the two lanes merge. When I catch myself doing this regularly - and being disappointed when it ends so quickly - I know the "hankering" is getting rather powerful. In the meantime, however, I'm trying to keep my sanity by preparing for the 2015 season. Getting the bike prepared, purchasing those items I need, getting them installed, saving up some money, studying tracks, tips, and other training, and finding sponsors. All of that is at least keeping me pretty busy! The bike is going through it's usual round of yearly work, including new chain ...

The world pauses. Nothing exists other than you, your bike, and the riders around you. The sound of your engine as it hums beneath you, awaiting that moment when the revs are brought up. A “1” board is flashed, and 7,000 RPMs of pure power roar to life. The board goes sideways, and a green flag comes out. Instantly the world jumps to life as 20 or so motorcycles and their riders jump off the line in a bid for the front. The rush of a good launch, finding a spot in the pack and making a clean run into and through the first corner…then it’s game on! There’s nothing quite like racing. When I first got on a motorcycle, I knew there was nothing like riding. Then I moved to California and realized that there was nothing like carving up a beautiful twisty road. Eventually I tried track days…it didn’t take long before riding on the street just wasn’t as appealing as it once was. Then, after 8 years of riding motorcycles, I finally made it to the race grid and completed my first race...