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Motorcycle Racing

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Racing isn’t for everyone, it requires a certain level of skill, tenacity and hard work to achieve a level that most people will not have the time and funds to accomplish.  I’ve heard people be blunt in saying that racing isn’t for the faint of heart, if you are willing to stack $100 bills and light them on fire then you may be crazy enough to race.  I chuckled at this comment, but had I been smarter, I may have actually turned and ran.  However, I am who I am, I love a challenge and instead of heeding that comment and taking it to heart, I decided that it was something I wanted…needed to do to prove to myself I could accomplish that unlikely goal.   If you are interested our local club racing chapter is WMRRA.

It has been a journey to get my expert license, to race those ten races and finish.  Just because you sign up for ten races doesn’t mean you get credit for them, you must finish, which means you cannot crash and you must cross start/ finish.  I’ve done more than ten races and crashed out on a few, it is heartbreaking, you question your abilities, the pain of the injuries makes you second guess your skills or your bike, you get the picture.  As a racer, you are constantly trying to improve yourself or your bike to give yourself the upper hand.  Let’s be clear, I don’t have the latest bike, I have a 2004 Yamaha R6, bone stock and with Ohlins cartridges and a GP suspension revalved and resprung rear shock (cuz I’m a girl), Vortex brake and clutch levers, rearsets, clip ons, case covers, sprockets, sliders and chain.  There is no slipper clutch, no electronics or gp shift.  It’s old school and it has made me a smoother rider not being able to rely on electronics to save my ass.  What I have developed is skill and smoothness, no dumping clutches, trail clutching and trail braking, learning it takes patience to initiate a turn with precision at times and that multitasking all these things as you are entering a corner in triple digits is an accomplishment like nothing else.  Not everything goes right all the time, timing can be off, your mind not clear, so many things can happen to mess up that could be perfect turn, but it is the trying over and over again to do it that says volumes.  We are not anything if not tenacious and seeking that feeling of the perfect lap (i.e. the drive onto the straightaway, patience to your brake marker, braking, gear selection, trail clutching and trail braking to the apex, letting the bike finish the turn, rolling the bike up on the fat part of the tire to get the perfect drive out of the exit, repeating this process 16 times a lap at the Ridge Motorsports Park)  is what brings us back over and over.

June 27, 2015 I finished my last novice race and when all was said and done I came in 7th.  It was a personal goal that I achieved on that day, I had promised myself one day I would get my expert number and at least place in the top 10 and that day I did both.  I went from #809 to my chosen number #72.   My love of riding, whether it is on the track or on the street, is about passion for a sport unlike anything else.  Anyone who rides understands, those who don’t, think we are bonkers risking our lives.  It just appears that our sport raises more fear in people than many other sports, yet I find motorcyclists to be some of the most interesting intelligent individuals out there.  Even if you never race, come to the track, take lessons from a trusted individual, read, absorb as much information on how to be a better rider.  In doing so you will be a rider for life and reap the benefits of that information when a situation arises that requires you to use your skills appropriately.  Ken Hill was the person that said to me, “Practice makes permanent” meaning practicing without a plan means the development of bad habits that will be hard to break, so go into every practice with a plan and make “Perfect practice permanent.”

Novice Racing

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I have recently been asked by several women why I chose to be a novice racer and is it something they can do as well? The answer to the first question is I’m a little whacko and truth be told spent most of my life trying to make others happy while neglecting my needs. Becoming a mother in my mid-twenties and having been a part of corporate America since I was 18, I knew the ins and outs of that world, thus I became a corporate wife (sort of). As my boys were growing up, my marriage was coming to an end and I needed to find myself again and this is how my journey with motorcycles began. Having always wanted to learn how to ride and it having this bad ass kind of feel to it that was incredibly empowering (should I survive) I was game, again this is where the crazy comes in… The BRC class was my first foray into the world of motorcycling and after 3 terrifying and exhilarating days I received my endorsement. Then came the search for continuing my journey, my next step. I found that there were intermediate classes offered but most were after you completed some riding time on the street (since riding in a parking lot wasn’t real preparation to riding in everyday conditions). Not helpful. Then in searching for schools, up popped “track training”, 😉 hmmmmmm what is that? Well, that ladies is how it all began for me…The California SuperBike School (http://www.superbikeschool.com) was the catalyst into finding out about track schools like 2 Fast (http://www.2-fast.org) and OPRT (http://www.optimum-performance.org). Being a gal you certainly stand out in a sport mainly dominated by men, but I believe that walking into racing completely unaware was a blessing, the fact that I was so naive and genuine, those guys took me in, taught and have helped me along the way. By no means do I even know all I should, but now I’m much more aware if what it takes and it’s been a journey that I would’ve taken many times over exactly the same way.

As for becoming a racer, it is actually fairly easy. Search for an organization in your area under road racing associations and if you live in Seattle it is WMRRA (http://www.wmrra.com), Portland it is OMRRA (http://www.omrra.com) and nationally there is WERA (http://www.wera.com) too, check your area for a local one near you. Visit their website, find out how to become a racer and start your own journey. There is one thing I wish someone would’ve warned me about though, it is that racing is great until you crash then it becomes expensive and a mad rush to get everything put together again before the next race. Be prepared to spend every free moment searching for parts, finding the right people to fix your bike and make sure you have great health insurance because everyone eventually will require some form of medical attention. Please be aware of the risks involved and don’t believe that you are exempt from falling, we all do and it happens so fast. There is risk in everything, but this allows us to race with controlled risk, every racer knows what they are getting into. We all have to go to work after the weekend is over, have families to return to, loved ones to care for so there is almost a gentlemen’s code that you don’t take out people intentionally, you race with dignity. Sure sometimes accidents happen, but when they do there is no hard feelings and it is funny at times to see one guy walk up to another and say, “Hey sorry about that man” and they shake hands and get busy fixing their bikes for the next race. This is the only place where I’ve seen one guy take out another and they will actually give each other hugs, yeah we are seriously twisted. I’ve found a place where I feel at home, where competition and camaraderie co-exist, feel like I’m a part of a huge extended family, part of a community…I finally found myself in this crazy place that I now call home.