Rather than the usual dress up and drink or hawk candy this Halloween, I decided to go to the track.  Our friends, Kathlene and Jerry, let me know about the TrackDaz special for October 31- November 1 at the Streets of Willow at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, CA.

I had never been on the Streets and had only run the big track so I was a little disinterested at such a smaller, slower track. Jerry said that the track would actually improve my riding skills because it was more technical so I decided to at least try it for one day (Oct 31) and then we planned riding dirtbikes the following day (Nov 1) so Shawn wouldn’t be bored out of his gourd after pitting for me the day before.  So we packed our stuff up and met J&K out at the track early Saturday morning.

Already I knew it wasn’t going to be the usual track day.  We had a transmission issue in the truck on the way there and couldn’t get out of 3rd gear for many, many miles.  I had a riders’ meeting at 8 AM and the GPS advised that that ain’t gonna happen! We were really running it close. 

 We finally got there with 10 minutes to spare. Kathlene greeted us dressed as a witch, and the TrackDaz crew were all dressed as various ghouls, ghosts and hilariousness. Nothing like being black flagged by Tigger. 

This trackday was different, all I had to do was to check in and attend the riders’ meeting.  I came back to my pit and my canopy was set up, my carpet and chairs were laid out, my cooler with my drinks, food all in place, my bike was on stands with warmers, engine being warmed up, everything being checked, it was already teched, he was putting in the amount of fuel I asked for specifically, base notations of compression, rebound, tire pressures, etc were being recorded.  Shawn had taken care of everything. Now I know what it is like to have “a ride”. Well, without the money, glory, sponsors, or the speed it takes to garner such. But nonetheless! I know what it is like to have a pit crew! And to boot, Shawn can now fully appreciate what it is like to be the pit crew.   Holy shit! I could get used to this!!

I started out in group C [as usual] and after the first session Shawn had mentioned he felt I might be able to move up to B since it appeared I was being held up behind slower riders. The track was a lot more technical than I expected. It was a lot of fun though. Sure enough after my second session Gil from TrackDaz came by and asked if I wanted to move up. I was thrilled! I said I was nervous about it so maybe I could get him to follow me and I follow him to determine if I could handle it. One of the other guys from TrackDaz said that it would be the best thing because I would progress faster. So I did it and felt like I was bonsaiing it, nervous as hell that I was holding people  up and what not. I came back off and they said not to worry and Gil said he’d follow and lead me the next session.  So he showed me some lines and what not and we let the faster riders go around us at the right spots and I got faster and faster. Then I got slower. Like 10 seconds slower! WTH! Shawn came up to us and was not thrilled (soccer Dad!! He just read this and said “Damn straight! UN-ACCEPT-ABLE!!” :p) Well, I thought I was going faster. hehe.

Then I was left on my own (kicked out of the nest), and I improved my time better each lap. A few times I had come off the track early because I was so tired.  One other time because I hit my knee on the curb of turn 2 and I was not thrilled about it. It was the first time I had ever dragged a knee and it didn’t feel good. So the rest of the day I was apprehensive about dragging a knee, so I began dragging my bike.

Yes, I am aware that I need to file my nails shorter. I didn't have time.

So after scaring the crap out of myself the first 2 times in turn 2 and 1 time in #3 when hitting the peg (what an awful sound) I stopped leaning as much, but somehow improved my time. I don’t believe I was hanging off more, so honestly I just was not near the limits of the tires in the turns. Ergo, I could go faster.  On the last turn before the front straight, I felt the rear sliding a bit so I just kept the throttle smooth and it was so much gentler than I expected.  I decided after experiencing that twice, that I could not exit any faster at that angle so I went a little wider and came out screaming in 1st and kept it that way until just below the limiter to hit 2nd.  My speeds on the straight were better than most because of keeping it in the band and my bike was shrieking compared to most.  But still, I was in the rear of Group B with some slower riders behind me. But not many. I wasn’t exactly Johnny Rockpage (I’m kidding!), but damn it I was in Group B!

All in all, this was the best track day ever.  I was so thrilled and was completely bummed to leave the net day.  We were staying in J&K’s RV at the track and although it feels as though I have stayed at a track a million times this past race season, not ONCE did I feel like I did that morning. When the bikes were starting up and the announcer began his morning welcome over the loudspeaker. The track was calling to me. Not Shawn, ME!!!  I had this yearning feeling like I absolutely had to get out there and do better, pull a faster time, more, more, faster, harder. You know the feeling. It was fresh in my mind and body and I knew I could do it. But today was not my day.

Surprise! Shawn saw I wanted to ride and he found out there were cancellations. There were a couple of spots and I was taking one of them!  This time I could make real improvements now that I knew the track better.

The day before I had a habit of  knocking down into 1st before turn 2 with some rear chatter. NO biggie. We don’t need no stinkin slipper clutch!  So Shawn said try braking harder and later and then downshifting before turn 2 and I vastly improved my entry speed, and subsequently had a wider line and faster exit. Which had me better set up for turn 3. And on and on it went.  I had managed to considerably improve my performance IMHO and pulled a 1:37 which Shawn then said he wanted to pull me off the track at that point because I shouldn’t be improving by 3 seconds a lap. As he says, “too much.” 

Well, we both know why I began improving. My pseudo-nemesis was on the track.  I targeted, drafted and passed and then pulled away. It was an act of God I tell you! Shawn said that he thought, “don’t do it baby, back off.”  And then he said, damn it, there she goes.  Then he was proud after he saw I was in control of my riding, lol! He applauded me when I pulled into the pit and had a huge smile.

The last session of the day was AWESOME.  Jerry and I went back and forth on the track (he was on a Yamaha WR400  and was kicking my ass in the turns. SO I would pass in the straights and exits (My weakness is not braking deep enough and corner entry) and he would pretend like he was going to kick me heheh. He said he thought, ‘NO! You’re gonna park in the corners’, lolol Take that! Jerry!  There was barely anyone on the track so we had a lot of fun. The mid corner speed and exit of the back bowl was so intense my last lap I started thinking, “look ahead, look ahead. look ahead” and then started breathing for a few breaths like I was in Lamaze class HAHA!  I think I even let out a woo hoo when I could finally stand the bike up again.

The one thing I really wish I would have done was hang off more and get my knee out there. I would have been dragging all day. Something about it freaks me out. 6 Track days under my belt and I’m still apprehensive. All I had to do was hang off and rotate my leg out a little.

Turn 2 where I first dragged a knee--on the curb.

Shawn said I was doing so much better.  And Jerry and I were closer than I had been all weekend on the last sessio. Even Gil had followed me and told me in my last session that “I was smooth”.   I felt like I had made some leaps and bounds.  Next time hopefully Shawn will be out there with me and train me even more.  

Many thanks to Shawn for pitting for me so well that I had not one worry, thank you to Jerry and Kathlene for letting us stay with them at the track and for inviting us to begin with, and of course the good times, also to Gil and Trackdaz for their help and encouragement, the track cafe for their delish Garden Burgers and Cali Photography for the great pics. Can’t wait to get back out there! The Streets is now my favorite

When I first got my CBR it was a mite high for me on the street so I mistakenly had it lowered. There were two lowering kits, a 1 inch and a 3 inch kit. I chose the 1 inch. Well, that made it a bit difficult to flick in the esses, or any turn really.  So Shawn talked me into putting the OEM dogbone back on. Now, the person who lowered my bike apparently kept my old one so, he ordered me a new one.  A week later, it came in the mail and we put it on as soon as he came into town.  Then I waited about a month to even get on it. Once I came back from Daytona I had to wait even longer.

So today, Shawn shook it down as I followed behind on my Kawa. Then, I got on it. Oh. My. God.  Ohhhhh myyyyy Godddddd………I cannot wait to  go to the track tomorrow!!! I am  going to ride the shit out this bike! And Shawn is kind enough to be pitting for me tomorrow to boot!

Once again the race at Bonelli Park in San Dimas is gowing near. It feels like I just got back from Maryhill and with that I am spoiled ass rotten. I went to Barrett the other day and was surprised I ever rode that road as hard as I have. I was skurrrred. Especially with my Maryhill set-up still on my sled.  HOleeee shite! I had to tighten my trucks back up and realize that my pinks are not good for Barrett, the lime greens would have been better suited. Even my GPS wheels handle Barrett’s creek-bed, cracked-up, trenches better. But I love my pinks and will be  using them for this year’s Nationals.

Needless to say I am a little excited about the race.  Although I am now on injury from a drunk driver accident, my doc isn’t too worried about the race since my neck is forward and it’s  a short sprint with one turn. But I am not allowed to jump at all though–no skydiving, no BASE, no dirtbikes, no wheelies. So I am frickin b-o-r-e-d.

It should be different this year. I was only streetluging for about 4 months at the time of last year’s Nationals. The only thing I am really bummed about is the entry fee for a couple of runs. $130 bucks? For Bonelli? Lame.  We get like a run or two (since there are so many downhillers) and so little streetlugers for practice on Satrurday, ONE qualifying run, a warm up lap and the race.  Which means I am going to have to go all ovaries out and just bomb the hill and hope I don’t hit the hay.

At last year’s event I hit the hay twice, made it to the semis and made it to 8th place. My hay landing during the consolation heat was because I came up on my coach Rick Wilson and didn’t want to hit him with my feet so I raised up my legs. That combined with my back-then-bad-habit of not keeping my shoulders on the rear of the pan made me spin out and high side.  Which SUCKED because I was on his ass. 

So this year, I will hopefully do a lot better. It’s not for a month so I hope my neck will be so much better off by then.

Although I was told that technically I’m “not riding a wheelie, I’m popping a wheelie.”  Well my response was “So effin’ what!” lol I did it!

I have tried forever on my various motorcycles, but I was always afraid to drop it or I didn’t give it enough throttle, or maybe I just suck more than I know.  Whatever the case, this time Iwasn’t going to stop until I succeeded. 

It all started when I was out riding dirtbikes with Shawn. I watched him wheelie so I tried. And I tried. And I tried. And I failed.  I failed so epically that during one attempt I lost the front end on the driveway and so Shawn decided to step in and give me a lesson. This time we took it out to the front yard and after a demo and some pointers he threw me out of the nest.

The first few were not that great, they looked more like race starts and some where I damn near went over the front after grabbing too much front brake.   And then…I got it!! It was easier after that I had a hard time getting much traction after ripping the front yard up so I had to move around to virgin soil.  But, now I can’t stop and when I get on Shawn’s bike it is so much easier and I don’t have to be at a stand still with his bike. I think I am going to sell my bike and get a bigger one. I am thinking about a Kawasaki KX100!

Here is a short video with some outtakes at 1:50 so be sure to at least skip to the middle. This is meant to be a a funny vLog so be kind with your criticism of how I am treating my clutch and how badly I suck.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylZUX_LQwZY  It’s all about the fun, and Shawn and I have a lot of it

We all trained for the Mary Hill race coming up again today and I think we all improved greatly–well I did, the rest of them are current and fast enough already. I had been out of it for the winter and spring and now training is paying off. I should be ready for my race in Sept for sure.   MG is a fast, twisty run and Mary Hill is slower, but twistier.  After MG, we went to the Vista and where before  I had run over that blind corner in the shade, I never once went over my line dangerously. However, I was all over the road again (we all were) on MG.  I have GOT to stop that.  When we all take off at once the competitiveness gets the best of us and we act stupidly.  The good news is that by the end of the day I was better. My first two practice runs, not so much. Thank God there wasn’t much traffic.

Rick didn’t play this Sunday, he is still healing up from last time.  The corner I was talking about last time, that I was afraid of being named after me, well, it is officially “Johnny’s Corner” now. He went off and then fell down the 10′ drop. But got up and gave the thumbs up. VICTORY!! Unfortunately the SD card was full by then so no footage  

Here are some stlls from POV on Justin an Johnny’s angles.

I'm on the far left

I escaped another day without wadding. Yay!

Took off on my dirtbike on Saturday and had a lot of fun! Although I overheated a bit again. I ate it going uphill pretty good. Lost the front end on the side of a sandy rut (I need a new tire, but would have probably lost it anyway) and then I fell hard enough it affected my breathing for a fraction of a second. Almost as if I were on the cusp of having had the wind knocked out of me. That sucked.  So I try to get the bike up and it falls on me, good one.  I wind up having to drag it down hill and then get momentum again to get uphill.  One should not dirtbike by oneself when no one knows about it and also when you don’t have fluid with you.

I was testing out the new rear tire and started out on the track and I then I just kept going a little bit further and further away from home. Pretty soon I was a good hour or more away, in the middle of nowhere, coated in dust and funkiness. Needless to say I am sore. But it was great

BTW girls and guys It is green sticker season in CA. No red stickers allowed.  Even if you have a spark arrester and you’re stock. It is that time of year again. October is not far though!

Had the feeling for the flavor of a Pringle last minute.  So I took my GoPro with me but mistakenly had it on the wrong setting (it was a bit dark) and it took 784 (almost) useless photos of the occasion, most being in my stashbag. Good job. 

So here is what it looks like in dark, blurry, still-form before jumping, during freefall, during opening, and then turning to land, and then landing.  BTW I got to watch a huge fireworks show off in the distance during the ascent, it was great Gave me something to look at.

July 19 – Backdated

Justin has been on my ass to train for Mary Hill coming up in Sept and he is so right, I need to get back on the street. SO I head out there and invited my friends, Kathlene and Jerry, along as well.  S was busy racing in Mid-O so he wasn’t present.  We met at MG at 7 am and headed up the hill. I did a few runs down MG and on the first run, thankfully with POV cam onboard. I got these shots. Sweet!

Moral of the story?   Street Luging is dangerous. And try not to upset people pulling horse trailers. It is your responsibility to get out of the way and not upset others on the road. While it is a gray area, and not exactly illegal–cars have the right of way and you should do anything in your power not to piss people off enough to pass stiff laws against your sport. Not to mention, you can get killed.  [I kind of suspect street luging is the most dangerous thing that I do]  Just be smart and watch your lines. I usually begin setting up to go over the line so I can apex this turn using the whole road but this time I chose to go slower and not go over the line since I was not current. It paid off.  In all actuality I should  ride wider at this point and apex the turn at the yellow line and NOT go over at all. But I hate Jake’s corner, it makes me nervous so I try to stay awy from the outside edge of it. I don’t want them to have to change it to Marianne’s Corner.  Ironically staying tight will probably get it renamed before going wide.

I will post some vids next week, there is some amazing footage of the guys flying past me (they are current), including shots of Derrick’s custom, self-built, crazy-ass, head-down machine (seen in the top pic) and some good times in general.

Kathlene and Jerry did awesomely!  I am trying to grab some stills from their videos, I didn’t get too many stills on my main cam so it will take some work. But they both rocked!  Although Kath did crash at the end of her first run due to braking issues. My coach, Rick, got a little hurt. Johnny accidentally pit manuevered him and Rick flipped about 3 1/2 – 4 feet in the air at about 50-55 MPH. We were taking turns drafting pretty hard so we were all pretty much flying.  Rick wadded right in front of Jerry and I, it was pretty massive of a crash. Hopefully after he heals up he will get back out there.

I went out to Willow Springs for a track day (on the main track, 2.5 mi) hosted by Trackdayz on Sunday.  I was pretty worked up about turns 8 and 9 before I got there, not to mention the wind, sand, etc.  so I was not exactly feeling confident. S put a Pitbull Steering damper on and modified my bellypan for better ventilation so my bike was ready to go the next day.   So we packed the bike along with everything I felt I needed, stands, a canopy, chairs, cooler, toolbox, gearbag, etc. etc. No tire warmers??!! OMG!! But then I realized it wasn’t going to make a bit of difference. This track scared the crap out of me and my skills were not going to override the stickiness of my soft compounds. Not to mention the track surface was psychotically hot.  So the poor man’s tire warmers? The sun. My pit area after S set me up…

BTW I want to add a bit of thanks to my friends, Kathlene and Jerry. We had to borrow Jerry’s Jeep and trailer since we weren’t able to secure a rental truck. Now when you think of a Jeep, what do you think of?  Most certainly not a set up like Jerry’s. This thing can practically climb El Capitan.  It’s beyond sweet. So we traded vehicles for the day.  I definitely made out better IMHO .  I only wish I knew how to use one of these things as the cool factor was definitely wasted on us. We had no 4×4 skills, so we drove it like a Mercedes, heh.

So we get to the track and it is suffocatingly hot already.  The morning started out relatively normal.  I had to attend an intro meeting/class since I had never ridden at Willow. [edited/added 8/2/09: After class, I came out to a set up pit and my bike on stands and my gear set out, Thank you Shawn!] Then out we went for 2 observation laps and I thought we were supposed to come back in to let the instructor know what we thought of the track (lame).  [It's long, fast, and needs airfences, that's what I think.  Next?]  But we were lead outside the hot pitlane and then back onto it to go back out on our first session. Wait. I don’t even have my speedo covered in tape. And incidentally I forgot to register AND tech during the class commotion. But someone was too busy yelling at the starting gate guy (Harry??) and he just started waving people out. He had mentioned I had better come out and tape it when I get back out after my session was over.  I wasn’t going to look at it anyway, I don’t care what my speeds are–I care what my times are. This is not my first rodeo. Although it certainly seemed like it…

What the hell is going on?

So! I follow this guy out that was in front of me,  not knowing he was an instructor (accustomed to Fontana’s yellow jerseys) even though he had Trackdayz on his leathers. D’oh!!! and I’m going around the track watching his lines thinking, man this dude is slow.  So I follow, follow follooooow and at turn 5  I just can’t take it anymore, I’m gonna pass him. Granted Willow track days seem to only have a flag station between turns 6 and 7, the one at the front straight was green all day, there was no one there to change it out. So you don’t know anything until turn 6 unless there is an emergency where the corner workers elsewhere may red flag if there are cornerworkers at their stations. So  anyway…I set up to pass this guy and right as I am on his ass waiting to ease out of six…BAM!! BLACK FLAG!!!  There is no meatball flag there, nor do some of the instructors know what a meatball flag happens to be.  Whatever the case, I am in trouble and this is a site lap.  Who the hell gets blackflagged on a site lap?

I follow the instructor (still unbeknownst to me as being such) to the pitlane and I get reamed by one of the workers. I told them that I thought I had done TWO sitelaps already and thought this was the first normal session (I could see no yellow flag until #6) and he asked where my tech sticker was. Shoot. Forgot about that. Sorry. So that was one strike. The lack of registration was strike 2 but [edited/added: 8/2/09: I was told that] either were supposedly not my fault  as it was their responsibility to make sure I did it [and that I should never have made it on the track without a sticker]. Whatever, I did forget. It is my fault…ooops. [I take FULL responsibility!!] Then I found out what I was in trouble for: I went into the race line before turn 1. Well, I thought they meant when the sesssion was fully on, I knew no one was even near turn 3 much less coming out of turn 9 so I thought it was safe. Well apparently they mean all of the time to instill good habits. Ooops. Strike 3. So then I admitted to trying to pass the instructor which I had figured out by now was, in fact, an instructor even though I did not know it at the time.  Strike 4. Am I retarded? He had TrackDayz emblazoned above his ass. See Shawn? I do NOT look at other men whatsoever. lol

Said instructor, I found out his name was Chili, said ‘I saw you getting ready to swoop turn 1′ and he said thought “don’t you do it and you did it.” I was told 3 times not to and then a 4th but I swear I thought they meant when a session was active not just beginning–with no hazards in place. I assure you they do not mean this! There is NO exception to the rule.  Chili told me there is NO passing on the yellow flag. I am used to a waving yellow for that, but I don’t remember them telling me this in class so I have no excuse. However, I didn’t see a yellow flag until turn 6, as it was in the guys other hand as he was thrusting the black flag at me no less. So it was one huge miscommunication. They communicated it and I had clearly f*cking missed it.

So I talked to Chili and tell him the track is a bit intimidating and I was missing the double apex points on turn 1 and turns 8 and 9 were freaking me out. So I followed him the entire day and he gave me pointers on decreasing my times.  I followed him into turns 8 and exiting 9 a lot faster than I normally would have so I am very thankful for his help. My favorite turns at Willow are turns 5 and 6 and then flicking out of 9 almost hitting my knee on the cone every time. Awesome. I hate turn 1 and turn 4. I still am not hanging off enough, so sometimes I scrape my toe on turn 3.

Then some braniac somehow spilled oil from turns 7 all the way into the pits. 8 and 9 were ruined after the first few laps of session 1.  Kitty Litter everywhere, in your eyes, in your mouth–disgusting. Not to mention in your head mentally.  At least it was not synthetic oil. That kitty litter messed me up for the first 3 sessions until they blew off the track and even then, not cool.  Anyway, I got better and my times eventually got better. I didn’t have a transponder on for the first or the last laps but I did for the ones inbetween. We did have quite a few red flags (every 5 seconds some yahoo was crashing in turns 2 or before 3, or even out of 6). Easy there, Francis. So that screwed up our times and sessions most of the day.

The day was incredibly hot and we were reminded repeatedly to drink fluids. I tried and tried. But still I had only gone to the restroom ONCE in about 10 hours. I drank until I felt I was going to puke. I was dehydrated and my leathers didn’t make it any better. I hung out in S’s friend’s trailer in the a/c a lot and kept placing cold towels on me. But I wanted to get on the track and get my money’s worth so I went out on every session except for lunch (even though I did not eat, I was just too hot to ride anymore) and then the last session because I simply could not ride anymore.  I needed to get out of my leathers and drink fluid and cool off. Besides I could not get any faster than 1:59  — I was irrtated no matter if it was fast enough for a novice race license by only 1 second or not. S is almost 40 seconds faster. Ugh!  So I was bummed.

But obviously not too bummed.  I was in a good enough mood for a geek, lol.  We had a redflag and there was a photographer at turn 1. After witnessing Chili geek it, I felt compelled to myself.

BTW It is definitely worth mentioning there were a lot of pretty, FAST, women at the track–I believe there were 6. This one blond with long French manicured nails was kicking the pants off of the guys in group B.  It was good to see that!

Karen and I did another jump and I am pretty sure we got the shot.  This time, no headlow, no flips, and a funny landing through sprinklers. Plus Shawn came alog om the observation ride again so we got some good exit footage as well. So it worked out.   It’s all in HD so we’ll be able to use it for sure. The jump was a great one, too. It’s how balloon jumps should be.  Once it became work, it wasn’t as fun anymore but this time it was fun. I was stoked enough to even geek the camera.  And you know I’m having fun when I’m geekin’  lol Pics to follow. This one up top is from my iphone and I look about incoherent as I can be. Way too early. *love the hair!*