Pre-Stateline 2013
For those that don't remember, I crashed out pretty bad at STTARS Round 2 with a AC joint separation that kept me from riding. This lead to Tim Clarke racing my bike and he wadded himself up good. 4 weeks after the crash, I was recovered enough to attend Stateline 2013 and attempt to race.
Stateline 2013
I was signed up to race Beginner, Novice and the Team Race at http://www.statelinechallenge.com/. The schedule had me racing the Team Race Friday, Novice Saturday and then Beginner Sunday. I showed up Thursday night to Primm, NV with a SoCal crew, we had a few night caps at the bar and got ready for practice Friday morning.
Beginner group is first practice of the day. I walked the track early in the morning. The dirt section was setup by the guy who designs supercross tracks. A long asphalt straight lead into a step up that went downhill into a left hand berm turn. You step up again and go down into a right hand bowl turn, up into another step up. You would then take a sharp right to a rhythm section that fast guys would hit double, triple. AFter this there was a large table top and another right turn back onto the asphalt. I was singling the whole rhythm section.
here is a video from a fellow socal racer, Brent Hunnicutt:
So I was 2 laps into my first practice session and I was feeling good coming back from the injury. I go into the dirt section a little hot and overjump the first step up. I end up grabbing some front brake to make the left turn and I instantly get slammed onto my bad shoulder.
2 laps in and I'm thinking my weekend is already over. I actually crashed at the exact same spot as Brent in the video above.I end up practicing 2 more of my 4 sessions and man up to do the team race. The team race had two classes, Pro/Am and Beginner/Novice. There were not enough pro teams, so we all gridded together. 4x15 minute sessions and you tire tap your teammate between each, so each person runs for 30 mins total. Me and my teammate Fred Wilhelmi finished 2nd to last, but at least we finished. I am glad his old geezer ass was taking it easy since I rode like a little girl for the whole race since my shoulder was all jacked. I ended up not doing anymore racing for the weekend. It was a great experience still overall and I plan on racing Stateline again in 2014. The asphalt section was really tight with a lot of 1st gear turns, but the dirt section was pretty fun for what it was.
STTARS Round 4 at Grange
I sat out from the track for another 4 weeks. I made my comeback the practice day before STTARS round 4 at Grange. I was starting to pick up speed and be comfortable on the track and was really ready to race again. My shoulder was not 100%, so I was not going to be going all out. The weekend went great until we hit the mains on Sunday. In the beginner main, we are in the dirt section and I end up mixing it up with another rider and I end up out of control...losing the bike. I couldn't get the bike started fast enough to be competitive but I made my way through the pack and did not get last. My bike was a little buggered up after that and I did not have the mind or time to fix it for the novice main. lame but I left in one piece this time.
here is a link to a video from our buddy Tyler/Screwtape. I am in 2nd place, in front of him up until my crash
Practice day at Adams
Random practice day at Adams about a month ago. I brought my bike over to a buddies and we did a fork service, changing the oil, seals and a few bushings. Long story short, I got distracted and did not torque a brake caliper bolt. 2 laps into the first session and the bolt completely backs out, the caliper is scraping the wheel and it eventually locks while I'm on the brakes going into the turn where Brakelate crashed out bad. I did a full endo, went all the way over and then the bike decided it wanted to slam onto me. I left with a bunch of bruised ribs/torn intercostal muscles and jacked up my shoulder bad, AGAIN. The worst part about this is that I was scheduled to attend Rich Oliver's Mystery School the following weekend. very expensive safety wire lesson learned
Rich Oliver's mystery school
http://richoliver.net/ For those of you who don't know Rich, he was 250 GP champion for many years and went undefeated for a few of those. He learned to ride from Kenny Roberts and has a school where he teaches you how to ride dirt flat track on a yamaha TTR125, similar to how Kenny used to train him. We had a bunch of socal supermoto people at the school, so I HAD to go, regardless of my injury. I was barely able to ride but I could not pass up the group that was going. Norman, Tyler, and a bunch of other great friends from the socal race scene were there. I learned so much even though I was not able to ride to my full potential. Rich's ranch where the school is ran has multiple tracks and his family are all involved. They cook a great lunch/breakfast for you and make sure you are comfortable all day. The price tag was high but I believe it was worth it. Here are a few pics. I am #4, Norman was in his typical storm trooper all white, Tyler is in PINK! I ended up avoiding any crashes all weekend until we were doing the fun races the last day. I was so tired after a race that I slowed down a little quicker than the guy behind me expected, so he ended up crashing into me, and I landed on, you guessed it, MY SHOULDER that was injured! another expensive race lesson learned. pic of the crash at the end.
Today..
So I after the mystery school I decided that I am going to stay away from the track until I am 100% again, so at least 6-8 weeks. I am hoping to be ready for the next STTARS round at Grange in July, but will not be riding if I am not 100%. 3 shoulder injuries in a row has not been fun, and sneezing still hurts my ribs. I am upgrading a few pieces on the race bike now since I am saving so much from not riding. I just got a brand new trick full Beringer 6-piston brake setup, and am having a local guy rebuild my front wheel with a new hoop. When I crashed I also somehow gouged my front tire all the way to the carcass so I will be spooning on a fresh michelin front too. I am also going to install some 13mm offset triples that I got for a great deal with a group deal. I am keeping my weekends busy by hitting the local twisties again. I even geared up the DRZ since it was purely a commuter, but now with the new gearing, I feel like I need more power!
oh well...i'm going to end my rant here. I will try to post up more. we need to figure out a weekend where I can do a full 2 days of riding with you guys to make it worth the drive up.
BRAKELATE I WANT SOME TIRES!
And I am glad to see Norm is still alive, somewhere. 