Velocity Racing's 'Honey Badger' Blog

Going into this weekend my life had been fairly rushed, but, for the most part, things were clicking in to place and I felt ready to head out for what was looking like a rather warm weekend up at Thunderhill. This was going to be my first time riding the bike without some medical thing causing concerns – no fresh surgeries, no PICC line, no crazy med schedule. My leg wasn’t giving me any major issues, so that excuse was finally no longer valid. On Friday, Pacific Track Time had a trackday, which a number of racers were making use of. All morning I handled the C group as I usually do, with plans to head out to some faster groups in the afternoon. I went out for the B group after lunch, and traffic was fairly light in that group, so decided to just stick with that. I was feeling out the respring on the bike’s suspension, and was very happy with the improvements, but now my brain needed to catch up. Since I had gotten the bike I hadn’t been very confident on the brakes, and...

Going into this round, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew my leg was feeling better overall, but it was still weak and stiff, and I was also dealing with this PICC line and the antibiotics schedule that was throwing a major wrench into my day to day life. Despite all of that, I was looking forward to getting out to my favorite track and putting down some laps. I arrived Thursday evening to set up and claim some space, and prep for the trackday on Friday. I only had a few sessions on this bike on this track, so I knew I needed some serious seat time. Friday dawned cool and nice, and I headed out early on to utilize the time I had.  Throughout the day, things were going okay, but as I was riding it was becoming obvious some changes were needed. I kept thinking “this line worked great on the Daytona, but it does NOT work on this bike!” The biggest issue, however, is I wasn’t sure what I needed to change/fix….while I had previously been given some very general i...

Today marks a tragic day in the history of motorcycle racing, especially for those of us here in the US. Nicky Hayden, the most recent American to race in MotoGP and who was currently in the World Superbike series, has passed away due to injuries sustained in an accident while riding his bicycle in Italy.  While I never met Nicky in person, this is affecting me more than I would have thought. He was one of our own, one of only a handful of Americans competing at the international level. One of the "good old boys," he was never involved in drama, and was well liked by everyone who met him. A genuinely nice guy, who was also an amazing rider. Life is so short. We are never promised tomorrow, and this is one of those instances when it becomes so abundantly clear. Someone who has spent his life competing at the top levels of a sport that is known for it's dangers, and he's lost to us due to an everyday activity that almost no one would consider a "dangerous"...

As many know, my saga with this broken leg over the winter has been an ongoing thing. Recovery was longer than I had originally hoped (although still quick for what it was apparently), and things seemed to be going well until two weeks before I was scheduled to be at Sonoma Raceway. Some excess inflammation and pain over the tibia plate turned out to be an infection getting started, and surgery was scheduled for the next day once I managed to see my ortho. This was Thursday, a week and 2 days before I was supposed to be racing. Doc was able to leave the hardware in for the time being, however, so my plan was to keep moving forward toward showing up to the races – if nothing else, be there, turn some laps and get to know my bike in that kind of environment. I was on crutches and cane for the better part of a week post op, but was managing to get back on the street bike the last couple weekdays before the races, so figured I could muddle through racing, even if I was slow. ...