Velocity Racing's 'Honey Badger' Blog

It’s interesting where life takes us sometimes, and how those places and things make other things start to come together. After wrapping up the previous CMRA race round, I knew my fitness, which I had already started (but barely) to work on improving was a major hang up. With a few weeks between rounds, it was going to give me a chance to kick my own butt and see if I could make a noticeable difference in that department. With close-together rounds, however, I knew the differences would be minimal, but doesn’t mean they can’t be noticeable. It’s a bit interesting being one of only a few women out there who is racing a “big” bike. I only know of less than a half dozen who have tried it in the time I’ve been racing. Some were relatively successful, some are still fighting through it and working to improve, some moved back to a bike they got along better with. In the CMRA grid, I am the only female on a big bike – mind you, not the fastest girl out here (yet, lol), but the only one ...

Rolling into the 5 th round for the CMRA I had a bit more time to prepare than I had for Round 4. I had a trackday going the same direction a week before, which gave me time to work on getting lines established on this rather technical track.  MSR Cresson presents some new challenges to this California rider. It is bumpy, and there are bad seams in various places on the track. This means that the “lines” are not necessarily the “best” line, but the ones that are the fastest race line around all of the extra challenges in the surface of the track. Granted, everyone is on the same track, and apparently these bumps and seams have been there, well, forever, but when I was used to maybe one or two corners where you had to take those kinds of things into account, it was now pretty much every single corner that had some extraneous considerations. I decided to save a few bucks and only do ½ day on Friday to refresh my memory. Some dumb-dumb, who shall remain nameless, dec...

Sometimes in life you just need to proverbially throw yourself to the wolves. Let’s face it, change isn’t easy, and life seems easier when we stay in our comfort zones, but seldom do great things ever happen when that’s the course you choose to take. Pushing oneself isn’t easy. Doing things outside your comfort zone isn’t easy. A lot can be learned, however, when you try new things and put yourself in situations where you will either shine or fall flat on your face. Or maybe do a bit of both..... My move to Texas gave me the opportunity to do just that. Since my very first track day, only once had I raced on a track I hadn’t ridden, but I had 2 full days of practice before, and I was still a shiny new yellow plate racer (aka, slow to begin with). That was in March of 2015. Now, in 2019, I had the opportunity to once again throw myself into a situation where I would, no matter what, learn a lot about where I was as a rider, and worst case, make a complete fool of myself. D...

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. 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 mak...