Kimberly Prichard – Diomede Racing

Even though I did go to a race in March with ASMA, I don’t really count that as the first race of the season. It’s more of a kick to the head to get me ready for the first race of the season. SMRI is really my home club so it is the series that counts for me and how I gauge my progress.

So I guess I’ll start with Deming, given the weather there isn’t a lot to talk about. I drove down Friday night so I could be set up and ready to go early Saturday, not that I needed to do so. Deming is always hit or miss with the weather and this time like in February it was a huge miss. It started with promise and quickly went south, it got colder, it started to rain, and then it started to snow about 10 am. So much for getting in some practice on the bike, which had an all new map on it, the hope was it would take care of the surging issue when the throttle was cracked open.

Fast forward to Sunday, still cold but at least it was sunny, the new map, didn’t take care of the issue, it was actually worse. So needless to say, the day was a waste for me. I let someone else use the bike for a race that day, he didn’t seem to have the issues with the surging that I did, but then he most likely went right past it since he’s more aggressive and faster than I am. I wish I’d had the camera on for all of the races then I would have been able to see that I’m back to coasting more again. It’s a bad habit of mine, just like rushing the corner entrances I seem to go back to them when I’m not comfortable with the bike. Really, not the way to go, I should be more diligent about make sure I ride correctly when I’m not comfortable. Oh well, we all have things we need to work on doing better. It was still a really fun day; the ASMA group is really great to be around, going there always reminds me that I need to go faster.

After that weekend, I went back out to Sandia with Aaron so that we could really fix this surging issue. He spent the better part of 2 hours with it on and off the track getting the map adjusted. I rode it around and played around on the new config for a few laps. I didn’t find the surge, anymore, but it still seems to have a bit of a flat spot coming out of the north and south hairpins. Now, I’m willing to bet money on the flat spot being more the way I’m riding the bike then it being the bike. Especially after seeing the video of my first SMRI race this month. After spending all this time and effort getting the bike to a state where I was comfortable on it, I was really looking forward to the first SMRI weekend. We had the track day set up for Saturday and the races scheduled for Sunday.

The weather on the other hand, wasn’t going to let us enjoy the weekend. Saturday started off great, it wasn’t too bad when I unloaded the bike and set up everything so I could head off to run registration. However, by the time we closed registration that day, the winds had picked up and the temps had dropped. As the morning went on it got colder and the winds got stronger and stronger. It was bad enough I didn’t want to ride, I pulled my tire warmers off the bike and I swear that a pound of sand come out of them. I figured I’d go out for the Intermediate session and see what it was like, before I had to tow beginners around the track for the next session. At one point coming out on to the front straight, I couldn’t see the first turn. Now the front straight isn’t that long. Scary. After the school session was over, I parked the bike and put everything away for the day. I didn’t feel it was safe out there to ride, 1 session later the head Corner Marshall called the day since he couldn’t see his corner workers from his tower. This is the second time; I’ve gotten to say I told ya so. When are those boys going to listen? If I don’t want to ride, there is something really wrong and they should consider calling it off, instead of telling me I’m just being a wimp and doing one more session (giving people more time to fall down) before they then decide it’s unsafe to ride.

The last thing I wanted to do was mess up my STUNNING new paint job. Gone are the flowers from the past three years… well almost… there is one flower on the front fender. As you can see I’ve now got white plates on the bike, it was time to grow up. I think that the white has made me slower. Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself, a huge Thank You to Brian at Speedin’ Motorsports for making this paint job happen and to Kevin Gibson for creating this beautiful paint job.

Sunday the weather was finally starting to cooperate, but the wind from Saturday had left drifts of sand in the pits and on the track that were 4 inches deep. It took hours to shovel my pit area, good thing I had help from the guys next door. We all worked on creating a path in the pit so that you didn’t have to ride through the drifts on your way to and from the track, needless to say this didn’t not leave me feeling good about the stickiness of the tires to the cold pavement As usual I only did one practice session; I’m just too busy with everything else to make it out there for all three sessions, just once I’d like to be able to do that. I was pleased with the bike, it was running great, it felt like it should.

The first race of the day for me was a shocker, I just wasn’t into it. My launch was so bad that I was afraid that I was going to get run into from behind. Found out later, I came really close to having exactly that happen, I hit turn one in 3rd place, but had a guy get around me in the first lap and then another one get around me in the second lap. I knew that I had someone else back there I just didn’t know who it was. As I finally started to pick up the pace, I was bumping the stop in the staircase on this new config yes, it’s like riding up 3 steps, super bumpy. I had issues with it last year too; I should have remembered that I need to add more fork oil to stop that bottoming out. Oh well, that just meant I wasn’t going to be able to do much about fixing my lap times on that part of the track. (I did manage to have the GoPro and the GPX lap timer on for this race so I got some really great data from it.) I just tried to run defensive lines so that if the person behind me got close it would be really hard for them to pass me. I know how to be wide. He didn’t even get a chance to show me a wheel until we came up on lap traffic. I knew that’s when he’d try to make a pass and figured I’d go under when the guys drifted out in turn 6. It worked perfectly. He thought he was going to out power me and I just walked away from them both. I managed to hang on to 5th place in our biggest class of the day!

The Am U race didn’t work out so well for me. I didn’t launch well again, and I was bottoming out on every lap in the turn 1A-1B section. I wasn’t comfortable there so I ended up slowing down there and just trying to fix my rusty riding on all the other sections. I didn’t finish as well, but I did drop some more time over all.

I did four races, but this time I had to run with the big boys, in Middle Weight Super Bike. Ouch, I really hate being a rolling chicane and holding people up. I had a decent start unlike my first race of the day. I managed to hit the first turn in 5th place, but that only lasted until turn 3, by then I was down to 7th, then by the last turn I was down to 8th. I ended up just doing the same thing I had done for the Am race, slow down in the sections where I wasn’t happy and working on other turns to drop some more time. By the end of the day I was only 3 seconds off from my fastest time for that configuration.

Overall I was happy with that, it wasn’t warm out and the track was still really dirty. My last race was the Formula Femme race, it was combined with the Modern Vintage. I ended up with the hole shot. Finally, a decent start, I’ve got to practice those… Now would be a good time before I put in the new slipper clutch. It was about 2 laps before Josh got around me and I tried to hang on to the back of him, but that first section kept causing me to lose ground. I did manage to hold up Matt until the very last lap, the last turn but he ended up with a better drive then me. I finished first for the women’s class.

Now Sandia has open lapping days on Mondays for bikes.  Great idea for them, not so good for the people who come out there who don’t have any idea about how to be safer on the track.

There were 5 of us who have been riding on tracks for awhile, we all know that you don’t do anything that could get someone else hurt, you signal when you are exiting, where to properly exit, and enter the track.

These two, show up and come down to see me, now I have know idea why they were coming up to me.  Just to keep the two straight, one I’m refering to as uncle and the other is kid.   Uncle comes up to me and says I was told to talk to you.  I’m thinking okay, great.  I tell him we are running the standard config, that we are entering onto the front straight, and exiting in turn 7.   This is when I notice that Uncle doesn’t have any gloves on and they both are in jeans and tennis shoes.  They’ve got nice helmets and jackets on, but jeans on the track.  Okay, not my place, I don’t make the rules here.. but wow.   I’m thinking okay maybe they will put on the rest of their gear before they head onto the track.  Both had backpacks and a tank bag.

So here’s where I start to have a melt down and I’m not the only one.  Both of them head out the wrong way onto the track!!!!!  One of our guys is out there going the other way.  I start after them yelling, so does two of the others… then the track guy who let them in shows up and tells me they are new, and don’t know anything..  How is this something I need to deal with???  So while one of the guys is pulling them off the track, I ask about what the track has for rules for this lapping day,  the answer is none….  This will be the last time I show up there on a Monday.

At this point Uncle starts in with attitude toward the guy pulling them off the track, I walk up our guys walks away and I start trying to explain about the dangers of a track.  He cops attitude with me, tells me,  “bikes are dangerous and if I have a problem with that I shouldn’t be riding.”  I laughed at him…  I continued to explain, that I was well aware of that,  knew I knew about what dangers there are out there and that the track was actually safer then the street if you followed some universal rules about riding on one.  First you exit and enter the track in the same locations as everyone else.  At this point, one of our guys shows up on his bike and offers to show them around the track.  We also tried to give Uncle some gloves to use, but he declined,  “I don’t like the them, they interfered with my tactile feel”
OMG.

So they get a tour of the track and are shown the lines for about 3 laps, then they come off and I ask Uncle and Kid if that helped.  The Kid goes on about how cool that was and how did we learn that stuff.  I give him a trifold for the SMRI trackdays and tell him to come out to one, we can teach him how to go faster but safely, that it is a great place to get help with your skills.  I’m hoping he was impressed enough by what he saw to come out and learn.  Uncle I’m not going to hold my breath for, cause after I finished talking with the kid he came up and told me how he just wants to ride the Ovals and doesn’t see how doing that while we were riding the rest of the track was a problem.

Again, OMG he just didn’t get it at all.  So we came off the track for a bit and let them go out stop on the track take pictures and play on the oval, with the understanding that when we went back out that they would have to ride the whole track if they wanted to stay out there.   So having dealt with him the most I went back out first just to see what they’d do.  They decided to exit, which is fine, but they decided to exit in the wrong spot, again@!#@#$#  If they’d come across the track I’d have T boned them.  Not really since that’s kinda what I expected the fool to do and I was watching for it, but come on.

They did pack it in and leave after riding for a while and they even tried riding on the full track with us, but Uncle wasn’t keen on us going around him, but there wasn’t much choice he was going so slow, and watching behind us behind him, even after I explained how experienced we all were and that he didn’t need to worry we would be very polite and give him lots of room as we went around.  I talked with the Kid some more before he left he’d been riding with Uncle to learn from him.    Scary!    He was really in awe of us.. it was kinda funny, but cool, in a way.  I never would have dreamed that someone would be in awe of my skills.   I told him if he came out and learned that he could do the same things.  I’m really hoping that the Kid comes and does a track day,

TD in Deming and the aftermath:

Yippie I finally got some track time, it’s been 6 months since the last time I got to ride the d675.  Heck, I’ve only gotten to ride my street bike, 4 or 5 times, it’s been a long winter.  The bike got a clean bill of health about two weeks before.  I’m still a lil’ paranoid when it comes to this bike, not quite trusting it to not dump me on my head again.   It did make it through the whole season without one single issue.  Nice improvement over the previous year.

I like Arroyo Seco, it’s a fantastic track with runoff for miles. (Not really, but it’s got lots of room for you to make mistakes and not get hurt).  This time of the year weather is always a crap shoot.  As luck would have it Sat would have been perfect if there was just a little bit more sun and less breeze.  The clouds kept the track temp down, so there was no pushing to see what kinda lap times I could run.  It would have been pointless anyway since I forgot the beacon at home… Opps.  I have a habit of leaving that thing everywhere.  This is why I really want a GPS lap timer.

I dragged Xen along, for awhile until he learned the track, then he just wouldn’t say behind me, dang it.  He was on the 1125R and was having some over heating issues, but after cutting back his faring some, it seemed to get better.

I was having issues getting through the Esses, I just couldn’t seem to keep it where I wanted it and this section of track is linked so you blow one piece it all just comes undone.  I know I could go through there quicker, just wasn’t able to get the bike to cooperate.  Tibo was out there later in the day, he was the first to comment on how the bike kept going wide, and could hear that it wasn’t responding correctly.  I had been thinking it was me just not being smooth enough with the throttle, but after having someone else ride it, they confirmed that it wasn’t me.  Yippie,  I like it when it’s not me causing the issue.  I really love it when I hear things like: “you aren’t slow”.  It kinda makes my weekend.

I was hoping to play a bit more on Sunday, but the weather had other ideas.  It was colder, but not as breezy, so I was good with it.  That was until I put on my leathers and stepped out of the trailer to see snow flakes.  Nope, not a chance was I going to ride then.  Well, I might have just to say I’ve done it, but once the cold ground was wet, I wasn’t about to chance it, not with race rubber on the bike.  If I’d my DOT street play tires with me I still might have…but not with race rubber.

So on the way home, I called Aaron to see what we could to about this throttle issue. He decided that he really needed to ride the bike himself to see what it was.  This lead us to plan on heading over to Sandia on a Monday with really nice weather to test it and tune on it.  He’d bring his laptop and cables we’d see what was really going on.  Well that was the plan.

We actually got the perfect day for the test and tune.  Meet out at the track in the afternoon, turned out there ended up being 5 of us out there playing… along with two others, (that’s another post, one of them was the kind that give sportbike riders a bad name)   We had Ernie with us, it was great to watch him, practicing some of his stunts and drifting.

Aaron and I traded off bikes, so that I could see if his did what mine was doing and he could feel what mine was doing.  He found it… it was the 5-15% throttle application the bike would surge and almost stall if you just held it in that range.   Which is what I do just as I get off the brakes just before I stand the bike up and am able to get hard on the throttle.

Now, it would have been great and we might have been able to fix it all right there, but someone forgot the cable.   So the bike is getting tuned this week and I’ll pick it up on my way down to Deming for the race weekend.

Here it is February already, I haven’t had a the  chance to ride the track bike since Oct.   So what am I going to do this weekend?  I’m hitting the track.   Can’t wait to see if the new map helped with the flat spot.

Schedules are being posted for all the different clubs.  I really want to race some new tracks this year.  But, I really need to spend some time and money on my house.

It was just a great day for racing at Sandia.  For me, all of my championship finishes were pretty much set, regardless of how I finished or if I even rode at all.  It was one of the most fun SMRI race weekends I’ve done in awhile.  Since this was my last event for the year, I’d rather recap the year, thank my sponsors and those that helped me then, tell about each race.

This turned out to be a banner year for me, especially if you look at how I finished out my last novice year with 2 championships, 3 if you count the one in UT.  It was the kind of year I’d hoped for last year.

Finishing an entire season is hard to do and I actually managed to do more then I would have imagined possible at the beginning of the year.

• I raced in UT, AZ, CO and NM, with 4 different race clubs;
• Got to race and ride on 8 different track configurations, at 5 different tracks.
• Help instruct with new racer classes, coach numerous students on the track and off the track with the MSF.
• I was able to convince 3 track day riders into doing their first races.
• I converted 4 street riders into track day riders.
• I got to attend two schools with the YCRS guys at Miller.
• Attend the WSBK race at Miller.
• Meet a few AMA and WSBK racers
• Participate in a 4 hour endurance team rely race which included racing in 2 states, with two different clubs in one weekend.
• I took part in one of the most awesome birthday present deliveries I’m ever heard about.  Picked up a bike in AZ, stored it, cleaned it up, transported it to UT, and helped hide it until the party.  It was awesome fun.
• But, one of the best things about all of that was, I got to do it all on my own bike.  After last year, that is huge.   The bike was fantastic, even though there are still some mods I’d like to make and tweaks to the suspension that need to be figured out but I’m feeling comfortable on it and I love riding it.

Talk about going out with a bang.  With wining two SMRI championships this year, I get to move from Novice to Expert.  It’s going to be a huge change is some ways and in others I won’t really notice the difference.  I’m going to have to get used to having people pass me again, maybe even lap me in a few races.  I just hope they drag me into the corners and help me pick up some more speed.

I really need to thank my 2011 sponsors, for helping this happen:

PJ’s Motorcycles:  That mostly goes to Aaron, again this year.  He didn’t have to suffer through as many calls from me on Sunday this season, because he did such an amazing job of getting the bike sorted out over the winter.

Race Tech:  Lenny, who is always available to answer my questions and give advice on how to make the bike handle better.

SIDI Boots ( MotoNation):  I’ve been using these boots on the street, in the dirt and on the track since I started riding.  I’ve experience a number of crashes, and I’m convinced the boots have saved my ankles and legs enough time to pay for themselves.  I don’t believe there is a better boot out there.

XBAM: Bree who makes my sore muscles feel great, so that I can go out there and ride, even with all of my past injuries.

Speedin’ Motorsports: Brian, who did all kinds of work on my trailer this year, helped me out with parts and supplied me with oil.

Amsoil:  Has proven it’s self in a hard test this year with both of my bikes.  Since switching, I don’t have the issues with finding neutral that I used to have.

Chick Hawk Tire Warmers: Their warmers are the easiest to use and offer great flexibility.

Fastline Racing:  Without all of Daryl’s help and support it would have been an impossible year.  Not only did the supply my favorite Power One DOT race tires, he gave me a place to crash on the weekends.  Help with things not related to tires, one of these days I won’t need so much help fixing all the little things that keep popping up.  Not to mention his, fantastic wife cooked us all dinner.

Suomy Helmets:  They have protected my head more times then I would like to admit.  I’m really going to miss those flower designs.

Woodcraft cfm:  Without these parts, I wouldn’t have made it to any races.  Their customer service is above and beyond what I’ve experience with other companies, for that they will always get my support.

Amour Bodies:  Body work that fits and holds up to multiple crashes… so much so I still haven’t needed to replace them.

Tachyon XC:  Cameras that work every time, without drama.  It provides me with video that was fantastic for figuring out where I could improve and helped the students I filmed improve.

I also need to thank a few people for helping me out this year:

Brian, Thank you for putting up my crazy ideas again this year and letting me talk you into doing a 4 hour endurance race on no sleep.

YCRS: The things they helped me with were just fantastic, they helped me to get over the confidence issues I struggled with the year before, and helped me to figure out how ride faster and consistently with less drama.  (ya all know what I mean… those pucker moments)  I know it surprises people when I talk about racing and tell them that I very rarely scare myself.  Where most have a moment each lap or 3-4 moments during a race, I might have one per day.

Poker & Brandon: for the super exciting and completing insane weekend of racing in two different states in 48 hours, as well as all the good company at the track.

Rybo and Dave:  For scrambling to put my bike back together in the 30 minutes between practice and the first race of the day.

Mike and Lindsay: For giving me a room every time I’ve come up to UT to race and visit.  I know that extended house guest are trying, no matter how much you love them.

Mike, Tim, and Warren: for allowing to me to play a part in their endurance team.

To Mike (TMC) a third thank you!! For taking time to follow me around the track and yell in my ear during a race weekend.

Greg, thank you for all the bike insight, information, and advice.

Utah SBA Master’s of the Mountains Round 7 2011

I just had to go back to Miller for this round; I mean really who can pass up the FULL track at Miller?  4.5 miles 23 turns, what’s not to love?  I went out a day early this time so I could attend the track day on Friday, which just happened to also be my birthday.  I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend my weekend.  I needed Friday to get my act together,  I spent most of the day working with Shorty, on drills.  Some of which went well and others, let’s just say it made it very clear where I needed to focus.

Saturday with UTSBA is mostly practice with 1.5 hour endurance race at the end of the day.    I got some help with dialing in the suspension on the A bike, after the major changes we’d made at Inde, I was feeling pretty comfortable on it, but just couldn’t pinpoint a couple of the things that were buggin’ me.  So I had one of the guys who’s really good at dialing bikes in take it out.  After a certain amount of ribbing about my gearing being way too short, I pulled out a different rear sprocket for it.  Really I could have gone down about 4 more teeth, for that straight.  The other thing he came up with was raising the rear about 3mm, to help get more heat into the front tire.  Since he didn’t think that it was really biting enough.  I took it out for the last two sessions like that; wow, what a difference.  I was able to drop 4 more seconds off my times, that put me closer to where I wanted to be, but I really think I should have been faster then even that.

I had decided to not do the endurance race solo this year, actually I wasn’t going to do it at all, but I got talked into riding an SV for the LW GTU endurance race.  I didn’t get any practice time on it before heading out there.  Needless, to say it was a blast, even though I had to think too much about my shifting.  Even though my street bike is still std shift, I really don’t like it when I race bikes that have a regular shift pattern; I’m way too comfortable with GP shift, it just makes sense for me on the track.  After I got lapped by the only other NM racer there and missed shifted in the attitudes, I decided to call it a day.  SVs really are hoot to ride and of course I was just as quick on it at the end as I had been on my own bike.  Little did I know at that time… I was going to get credit for being on their championship team.  How great, to get credit for that little bit, I rode.

Sunday brought on the sprint races and a whole bunch of new issues and problems for me.  I let myself get talked into racing the B bike instead of the A bike.  Which meant swapping wheels and sprockets between bikes, normally it’s not too big a deal, but I was having issues with my asthma that morning so things just didn’t go quickly or smoothly.  Turns out that it also meant pulling the front fender off the B bike since it was rubbing on the tire.  All of that was smoothest part of my morning.  The bike really does handle well and aside from subtle differences, it rides like the A bike.  I wasn’t quite as quick on it as I had been on the A bike, but I wasn’t far off.  Since it’s been almost a year since I’d ridden it, I was quite pleased, however, that was short lived.  When I got back in from practice one of the guys noticed that the right fork was leaking at the foot, of all places, right next to the brake pads….  So that meant swapping everything back to the A bike so that I could make my first race, which was in 30 minutes.  It’s this kinda stress I could really do without on race days.  Thanks to some great friends, it all happened and I made it out to girds for my first race of the day.

Being a visitor, riding a bike I hadn’t ridden yet that day, after swapping parts all around,  and not having had time to check grids, meant I just gridded up at the very back for the first race and I continued to do that for the rest of the day, since the people I was there to race against where in the back too.  Turns out that was likely one of the smartest things I did that day.  The girds where a decent size, I was actually surprised that everyone made it through turn 1 in a controlled manner for the first race, that however only lasted until the 6^th turn.  When I got watch my dear friend get flung and then slide across the track.  Since I was in the back part of the group, I didn’t have to do anything drastic to avoid him.  It really did mess with my head though.  I fell farther back until I saw that they’d removed him from the track and didn’t red flag the race.  It’s really hard to race with people that you care a great deal about,  not that I’m ever okay with watching people go down, but there is just something about it when, they are good friends.

As it turned out this day I had a front row seat for each of the wrecks and I’d venture to say just about all the guys who ran off the track in my races.    For the Novice GTU race I got to see the two wrecks that stopped the race and resulted in the ambulance having to roll.   Not really things that I enjoy watching.   All things considered the day went really well and I continued to get quicker through out the day, so I’m pleased with the weekend.  I would have love the weekend if I’d managed to be a great deal quicker and I know it’s there.  I just haven’t been able to tap into it so much for the last part of this season.  Life really needs to stop getting in the way of my fun.

September 2011 so far is one of the best months of the year…  Double header for SMRI followed by a weekend of riding with CCS.  Only to cap off the month with my Birthday as well as spend 3 whole days riding the full track at Miller.  Just awesome!

I managed to talk Tina into going over to Willcox AZ to ride Inde with me.  She just did the track day on Sat.  It was only the 3rd track she’d ever ridden.  I could tell from all the grinning that she was having a fantastic time.  Really, what’s not to like about the place.  The facilities are top notch the track surface is great, there is run off and, Xcel track days puts on a very nice event.

It was such a relaxing weekend for me.  All I had to do was ride, it was such a nice break from helping to run things.  We drove over on Friday so that we could get a parking spot.  I am kind of picky about where I like to be in the paddock, so I make it a point to get there early enough to get what I want.  We dropped the trailer off, said hello to the few people that I knew from the last time I attended a CCS event, then headed back to the hotel to get some rest.

Sat. got off to a very early start, I sat out of the first practice, so I would have enough time to change wheels, put the warmers on and let the tires come up to temp.  I went out for  the second session, and it took me about 4 laps to remember my way around, pick out reference points and get up to a pace that I figured wouldn’t get me bumped down to the B group.  I spent the time between the next sessions getting my beacon set up and getting their transponder mounted on the bike.  Who’d have thought it would take 40 minutes to get that done…

The rest of the day was totally uneventful, with the exception of the azzhat who almost took me out coming back onto the track after running off.  I’ve got no patience for Tools who push to go fast and can’t control their bikes while doing so.  Riding over your head and crashing doesn’t mean you are fast.  I wasn’t getting to the pace I thought I should have I needed to drop about 6 seconds to be competitive.  I figured that was going to happen and was getting frustrated again.  I was sure that I should be running 5-6 seconds faster then I was.

I did get to ride a 675 that had the full Triumph race kit on it, along with all kinds of goodies on it.  OMG!!!  I really loved it, but I was really surprised at how great it felt after he made it a point to tell me how the suspension wasn’t quite dialed in, as I was getting on it to go ride.  Mine had been jarring me all over the place all day.  So after talking about the differences, he suggested that we should take a hard look at my suspension.  I’d swear that Chris spent at least on hour going over my bike, he changed everything about how it was set up.  He was too nice a guy to say anything to me, but I could tell he wasn’t impressed with it.

I went out on Sunday for the first of my two practice sessions, taking it kind of easy since I’d been warned that the bike was going to ride really different.  Big shock, when I came back into the pits, I checked my lap timer…. I dropped 3.5 seconds from the day before!!!  I had to go hug Chris once I got off the bike.  The bike felt so much better, I couldn’t believe it.  It gave me hope that I wasn’t going to be finishing last in all my races.  Yippie.  I dropped another second in the next practice, too.  It still wasn’t enough, but at least it was better.

I ended up doing two races back to back, my favorite.  However this track is much longer and there are some places to rest. Unlike Sandia and the races were only 5 laps.  So it wasn’t hard at all to run back to back.  If only I could get better at starts.  I managed to stay with most of the pack for the first lap, then they started to gap me more and more.  I did catch backup to one guy, and pass him on the last lap.  Which made me feel a lil’ better, then checking the lap timer on the way in I saw that I dropped yet another second of my times.

The next race, again my start killed me but once again I stayed with a group of riders until I had a guy stand me up in turn 2.  I was kinda worried about hitting the wall on the exit, I managed to keep it together.  I did ended up losing 3 spots after that, it was a dirty pass and I watched him to the same thing to at least 3 more people in the next 4 turns.  I’m not sure what makes guys think that is necessary.  If you are truly that much faster, you should be able to pass without bumping into riders. There was one other guy in that same race who pulled a rather dirty pass on me on the backside of the track.  There were others who saw it and were more upset about it then I was, but figure they are just compensating for their short comings to make them feel better about themselves.  Too bad it didn’t really piss me off I’d have likely dropped more then a 1/2 second off my times.   I did catch back up to two guys on the last two laps; I wasn’t able to get around them both. I did get one of them at the line.  I’m sure that I would have gotten the other one if I’d had one more lap.

My last race was the last race, such a long gap in the day kills me.  I just can’t seem to get back into the swing of things when I have such large breaks.  My start was the worst one of the day.  I was really the last one into the first turn, I almost stalled it.  Ick.   I got held up for first two laps, but once I got round those two I was able to pick the pace back up.  I was very happy to see the other female on the girds doing so well.  It was nice to not be the only girl out there.

Once the racing was over it was time to pack up as quick as possible and make the 6 hour drive home.  Good thing I had the next day off from work, I would have been useless.

This did answer the question for me about why I wasn’t able to run faster times at Sandia.  Suspension!  It’s such an important thing.  I’m really hoping that I’ll actually be able to 57 second lap times  at our last race there.

I really like having just one weekend taking up time for the club.  It’s more work up front prepping for the track day and the races, but it really is nice to not make multiple trips down there.

The Saturday track day had a really light turn out,  I didn’t spend as much time on the track as I had the last track day.  There wasn’t as much need, I helped out a couple of people, but it allowed me to concentrate on my riding.

I was working on trail braking, but I may have taken it too far.  I wasn’t able to run the same lap times on the old config that I’m capable of running.   I struggled all day with being able to drive out of the corners.  I just couldn’t figure out what was up with me, I know I can go around that track faster then I was.  I just didn’t know how bad it was going to be…..

Sunday started of smoothly, and was easier then normal.  I actually got to run two practice sessions.  First time in two years, that’s happened. I wasn’t running close to my race pace, but I wasn’t concerned, as I don’t ever in practice, but I’m usually a bit quicker then I was going.

So just to mix things up a bit, I’m not going to recap the races in order.

Now I had a blast mixing it up with Dennis in the Super Vintage/Fourmula Femme race.  Even though we were really in different classes, I had already given him a hard time earlier in the day.  He wanted a rematch and he got it, next time he needs to make sure that he has better tires on that bike so we can have even more fun.  I got around him in lap 2 or 3 of the race, he didn’t really push me like he had earlier in the day.  I was able to gap him and make sure that he didn’t gain on me.

Even more fun the FF race was the SuperTwins/HW Vintage race.  I sat in 4th for the whole race, but I had Dennis right on my tail the entire race.  He’d get the drive on my coming out of the hairpin and out of turn 4, but he didn’t have enough to get around me.  Just enough for me to hear him there and show me a tire a couple of times,  I haven’t had to work that hard since the first FF race when he was in front of me and I struggled to get around him for 8 of 10 laps.

That made the AmU race just that much more exhausting.  I really hate those back to back races.  It’s like the mini endurance racing.  Now, after having to work so hard and then to have a so many rider in this class that usually don’t run it and that are faster then me.  I knew I didn’t have a shot at the top 5.  I was really frustrated though that I couldn’t get around Dave.  I know I’m faster then him.  That’s when I really started to wonder what was wrong with me.  I have never had to work that hard to hover around a 1 minute lap time.  I just wasn’t able to exit the corners like I knew that I should.  I ended up finishing dead last, this is a first for me this year and I wasn’t happy about it.

The last race was the NovU race; this is the one that I cared about the most.  I knew that Mike was going to take off and I figured that Donny would likely finish 2nd. I was really hoping that I could hold up Matt and finish 3rd, but I had to settle for 4th.  It was the same thing as in the AmU race.  I was working super hard to just get under the 1 minute mark.  I just couldn’t figure out what it was.

After getting back to work and talking with some other racers about what they saw me doing and what I was feeling.  There just wasn’t a good explanation as to why I was struggling.

August was a busy month for work, I would have like to travel up to CO for their race.  However things didn’t work out that way, we lost two people at work, So I had to cover more weekends then I would have liked.

I did fit in some dirt biking the day after coaching an MSF class.  Not a bad way to spend a weekend.  I managed to recruit two new track day riders. The road rash I got from running that 125 two stroke into a tree was fun as well.  Once again, it was driven home that I’m not capable of kick starting a bike.  I’m also not very happy on a 125 two stroke.  Now, once I broke the clutch lever and had to switch bikes with Dylan.  I had a blast on his 510 husky four stroke.  He had more fun on the two stroke.  It was a perfect trade.  WE were able to ride for a few more hours after the swap.  I really need to get my own dirt bike!

The Aug. track day was sponsored by PJ’s Motorcycles.  It’s my favorite track day,  so many Triumphs on the track, it’s great.  I spent the day chasing down riders on Triumphs helping them as much as I could.  It was the most session I rode all year.  I ended up riding for two solid hours without a break.  I was wiped out at the end of the day.

The Aug race day that SMRI held two weeks later was once again on the new configuration. That config is exhausting, and it was super hot out that day.  Really, if it’s not even 7am and you are sweating while unloading, you just know it’s going to be miserable to ride and it was, esp. with my first two races being back to back…

Supertwins didn’t work out as I had hoped, I was still having suspension issues across the new sections of pavement, with the forks bottoming out, that makes it really hard to go fast.  Right off the bat, Kyle got out in front of me and then when I hit those bumps and couldn’t turn, I had three more get in front of me.  I was able to get back one of the spots, I was closing in on the next one when the race got red flagged.  On the Brightside the rider wasn’t hurt and it gave me time to get water before AmU.

Good thing too, I jumped out into third and stayed there for only about 3 laps. I just started slowing down and it made easy for Matt to get around me.  I didn’t even care, I was more concerned with finishing and not wadding up each time my forks bottomed out.  I thinking about how much fork oil to add once I got back to the pits.

Next up was the NovU race, I jumped out in front.  Imagine that the hole shot. It’s so rare for me, however, it didn’t last long.  I had one guy get around me after about 4 laps and then I bottomed out the forks again. Adding the oil helped, it only happened once this time out instead of every lap.

It cost me too much time and I just watched him pull away from me slowly.  I had one guy catch up to me on the last 2 laps and he made me really work hard to stay out in front of him.  If he’d had gotten a better drive out of the last turn I just might have ended up in 3rd.  I was running the most defensive lines I know to make sure that he stayed behind me.  I crossed the line .04 seconds in front of him.  Not as close as the NovO race last year where I finished in 2nd .004 in front of 3rd place, but still closer then I would have liked.

I was so happy that for my last race, I only had the women to worry about.  I knew that I wouldn’t have to push at all and I could just work on the corners that I felt needed improvement.  It was my best finish of the day… 1st of course.