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.