So far Aug has turned out to be a REALLY expensive month for me and we were only 3 days into it. I almost didn’t go up for the school, getting a new clutch in the truck was murder to my bank account. But, I had been planning on attending Jason Pridmore’s Star School @ HPR since April. I still needed to get up to Denver to pick up my truck with its new clutch. So why not just follow though??? I hitched a ride up with another NM racer, we tossed my stuff in his trailer on Friday morning and headed up to Denver. Xen had never been to HPR, so the last 45 minutes before we got to the track, he kept asking “are we there yet?” and “are you sure, there is a track out here?” LOL. I’m pretty sure once he laid eyes on it that he was really glad that I talked him into going.
This was my third time riding with the school and each time I’ve come away with something good to work on and learn how to fix an issue that I was having. I make it a point to take something away from everyone that works with me. It was all those years of riding horses that taught me how to be a great student and how to get what I need from the instruction that I was getting.
This time I was really looking forward to someone telling me why I couldn’t drop my lap times down to where I really think the should be. I know that I have the skills to be doing the faster times, but I just wasn’t able to get there. I’ve finally gotten some consistency to my times, but they just were dropping. I actaully really like the smaller schools, but I know that it means they don’t break even. I had a much better time at this school and got some really great help from the instructors. If I had thought about it a little more I would have been able to figure out where I was killin my lap times…. it’s always in the heavy breaking that I’m weakest. It’s been that way off and on for the last two years, I get hung up on coming into corners once I’m there or they are linked I’m great and there isn’t as much to improve on there. I got a couple of drills from Wyeth and spent the rest of my time that first day working on it.
Unfortuneately my first day was cut a little short. The oil cooler failed on the bike, again, and this time it spit oil all over my back tire (and the track) I was very lucky that I happened to be in the slowest corner on the track when the tire broke loose and I ended up going down. I also was very lucky that I came off on the lowside before the tire caught and flipped the bike over onto it’s other side. The damage to the bike was actually minimal, considering. Its the first time I’ve ever seen a rearset get folded in half….. There was some rash on the body work and the tail sections has allot of duct tape in it’s future, and the clutch cover took a beating and was splintered into multiple pieces. I just ended up with some bruises on my left elbow and on my hip. The elbow at this point is many lovely shades of brown, blue, green, and black. The hip bruise is already gone. Everyone was really great and kind, esp. since my little spill costed everyone some time on the track. It took awhile to clean up all that oil. I really felt kind of awkward since I was the only female (other then an instructor) and I was the first one to go down. I was really worried that I’d get some smart remarks/attitude about that. Not how I wanted to represent. Maybe there was, but I never heard it. It might have helped that Jason talked about it being a mechanical failure and that I hadn’t actually done wrong. It made me feel a little better about it, but I still beat myself up over it for most of the night.
I ended up riding one of the school bikes for the second day, I’m really glad that I did. I’m planning on heading up there again to race in two weeks, I needed to get over my fear of that turn. It was better by the end of the day, but far from where I should be. I have to say that those gixxers are fun bikes, but I missed my low end torque. It was the first time that I’ve ridden a bike and was able to feel a difference in the tires, other then on my street bike. The Dunlops have a very different feel, Iwasn’t sure if I liked them or not. It may have just been the nerves from riding a bike that wasn’t mine and riding post a fall… those things kind of mess with your head.
I’m already looking forward to riding with them again next year.