WERA West Finale
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
November 6-7, 2010
As the final round of WERA West drew near, my anxiety of running at Las Vegas Motor Speedway grew exponentially. I have struggled with the LVMS Classic Course track since the first time I ever rode there in 2005. Struggled mentally... struggled because that track plays to my weaknesses... it's not a terribly flowing track, and there are several critical corners that are incredibly difficult to get correct.
After Round 6 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA, over Labor Day weekend, I was sitting two points behind the leader in A (1000cc) Superstock. Although I struggled with grip at ACS, I was still able to beat the two riders I was battling for the SS championship! And with the help of my awesome pal Jacob Brown aka Donkey, he finished between myself and them in the SS race! Couple that with my podium finish, and I was able to close the gap on the points spread leading up to the final round in Vegas.
During the final round of the California State Championship at Willow Springs International Raceway I had an unfortunate get-off during the endurance race on my friend Shandra Crawford's R6, and bonked my head pretty good. Thankfully I was well enough to ride solid on Sunday, and take home a win in Formula Femme, and run solid 1:30/1:29 in Modified Production.
Through the course of my WSMC adventures, I met two amazing gentlemen; a father/son team of Roni and Chris Duran. Roni takes enormous pride in being the crew chief for his son Chris, who is a routine front runner and local fast guy with WSMC. Roni and Chris have invited me under their canopy for the last several Willow rounds, and have provided the kind of hospitality one only reads about in fairy tales! =) So when Roni offered to be my crew chief for the LVMS round of WERA, I was absolutely thrilled!
LVMS Saturday - Practice and Solo 20
Saturday practice consists of two rotations of practice and a 20 lap solo race for cash in the afternoon. Lenny Albin of RaceTech had recently installed a new stiffer spring in my rear shock, and changed the rebound valving stack while the shock was refreshed. First round of practice was trying out my new goodies! My bike felt absolutely amazing!!!!
Gaining horsepower recently, thanks to Graves Motorsports, my rear shock spring was too soft, causing the bike to run wide in corners and not stand up and run straight. This stiffer spring allowed my bike to snap upright and launch like a rocket sled on rails! I've never done so many wheelies in my life! Not actually knowing how to do a wheelie, it took some getting used to, but soon I was using corner exit wheelies as a gauge for how aggressive I was on the throttle... no wheelie = not aggressive.
Second round of practice started out pretty well, but I was struggling a bit, then I allowed another rider to get into my head, and my confidence plummeted. Roni Duran was instrumental in helping me find my positive mind space as the Solo approached. Roni and my long time pal, (and new racer!) Luke Judy worked the stop watch and pit board for me during the Solo. This provided immediate feedback for me to determine if my weak areas were improving. The race started off with a good start, but soon the one dude I had to beat on Sunday in Superstock, jumped in front of me... it was tough, but I focused on the task at hand of improving on the track rather than letting him get into my head and knock down my confidence.
The pit board was reading some not so great lap times in the first several laps... 30, 29, 28...28...28... ugh... My personal best ever was way back in 2007, in one single lap, on my old 600 - a 1:25. I had yet to ever repeat it.
Laps wound down, experts started to pass me, like my friends Austin DeHaven on Toyes' sick BMW, and Alex Assanti on his fabulous R1, and Wes Kane, who's a stellar performer. It was a fantastic learning opportunity as Austin passed me in a left hander decreasing radius, where I really struggle. I followed some other experts into T1 to discover I was incredibly strong on the brakes. Soon the pit board was reading 26... and 26 and 26... lap after lap. I was thrilled! Although the rear tire was going off, I was able to continue to drop my lap times. Soon I was catching that one rider... the only dude I had to beat for the weekend. I caught and passed him near the end of the Solo. My initial thoughts were that he was tired - but a review of the posted lap times afterward told the true story. I caught him because I got faster. His lap times were steady the whole race, mine started at 1:30 and finished at 1:25! A 25!!!! I hadn't done a 25 in forever!!! What a fabulous way to end the day!!! My confidence was really high, and I felt I had improved tremendously in many areas, and knew where I could continue to improve.
Sunday – Race Day
Sunday dawned a bit chilly, clear and beautiful. The still air was shattered by the sound of fighter jets launching off next door at Nellis AFB. What a fabulous way to start a race day!
First round of practice was at 8am, being in the second rotation it was a little chilly out, but Roni had my bike set up and ready to rock. First round went well, I ran lap times in the 28/27 range, not great, but not bad. I was one of the fastest in my practice group, so that was pretty awesome. I'm not often on top of the list!
Second round went even better. Another rider I've been routinely beaten by all year, save one race, was showing me a wheel and I turned on the juice leaving him behind, and landing me in the 26/25 range for the very short round. This left me feeling extraordinarily strong and confident for the upcoming races.
A Superstock
My one big race - A Superstock - was race number one of the day. In the past I had often struggled with performing well in the first race. Typically a bundle of nerves I would utterly choke. Poor start, poor riding, and a poor finish. This year has been markedly different. I am incredibly proud of myself for having overcome that mental obstacle.
Having my whole family there to cheer me on was such an amazing way to get ready to race. =) They all sent me off to pre-grid, and I was the first rider out on the track! Giddy up!!
The expert grid and our novice grid were light enough to warrant a few rows gap between our two races, and one green flag to send us off.
Green flag! I got a killer launch, passed one expert, and took the holeshot for the novice class!!! As we approached T1, I slowed as the gaggle of experts in front of me slowed, but seeing no other novices in my peripheral vision gave me confidence. Out of nowhere I feel a jolt, and the next thing I know I'm asphalt surfing my beautiful R1 down the track!!! It took a moment to register that I was now on all fours riding the side of my motorcycle down the pavement. As I looked up and saw the dirt, my mind began reeling about how I was going to get off my bike before it flipped on top of me! Hitting the dirt slows the momentum of the machine such that it will typically induce tumbling. Being as I was on top of my bike, I was seriously concerned that I would get flung off, and in front of my bike.
Sure enough, I went tumbling, and I recall seeing my bike and I think it hit me a bit, but it did not land on top of me. It did, however, land such that my handle bar went down inside my boot. My boots are very old, and I am in desperate need of new boots... so the handle bar was able to easily slide down inside the boot.
I stood up, and took in what just happened. In complete shock, anger started to take over. Looking around, I saw who took me out. The rider that was in third place for the Championship, he was one point behind me. Seething anger poured out of me... obscenities came out of my mouth uncontrollably, screaming and throwing my fists as if punching him. Although he was still laying on the ground, and not moving much, the venom and anger coming out of me was shocking to the crews that arrived to help, and even shocking to me reflecting back on my behavior.
However, as soon as my bike was lifted back up right, my attention quickly turned to survey the damage. My mood quickly changed to optimism as my big boy looked completely repairable!!!! As the crash truck guys started exiting the track, I saw my dad flying down pit row on my bicycle to check on me. I've never seen my dad so close to tears before, I was shocked at how worried he was. Of course, this was the first time they actually saw me crash, so it was rather shocking for my whole family.
Delivered to my pit like a flower arrangement by the fabulous crash truck guys, I was incredibly touched by what transpired. Roni, Luke, Lenny, Eric DeHaven, and Bernie Broderick all pounced on my bike, repairing it like a well trained pit crew! I couldn't believe what I was watching! It made me feel so incredibly loved. They swapped out the throttle handle bar, bent the front stay and left rear set back into place, duct taped/zip tied the fairings/windscreen so nothing was flopping around. I duct taped around the hole in my inner thigh, put my helmet back on and went back out to pre-grid for the re-start and re-tech. As my bike was being blessed off by the WERA officials, a brand new racer, with his newbie mandated t-shirt and all, looked at me with eyes as large as saucers and reached out to shake my hand as he shook his head in disbelief.
When the 5 board went up, I waited until all the riders went out, then I made my way down hot pit. My tires were dirty and a bit cold, and I wanted to take a moment to make sure everything functioned at speed without jeopardizing any riders around me. As I rolled down the long Vegas hot pit, people were lined up against pit wall cheering and clapping for me!!! I couldn't believe it! It felt like a scene from a movie! I saw my bff Christie Cooley and Nikki jumping up and down, and clapping for me. Words cannot express what that felt like...
I took it easy as I traversed the track, slowly getting faster and faster, warming up the tires, feeling out the bike, feeling out my body - which was getting pretty sore...
Feeling confident that my machine was operating safely, I lined up in my grid position. My start was not quite as good, but it sure wasn't bad! The one rider I had to beat jumped in front of me, but I just tracked him around the course. Tracking him allowed me to pick my battles, and slowly increase the intensity of my riding. Pushing a bit harder and a bit harder... after taking the half way flag, I was confident in my ability to perform, and my big boy's ability to take everything I was going to ask of him. I made my move, passed Chad Ambrose to take over 2nd place, and proceeded to check out. In the end, I beat him by 8 seconds. I took the checkered flag as the happiest - and luckiest - girl in the paddock! I thought I just won the A Superstock Novice Class Championship!!! I couldn't believe what just happened!!!!
Women's Superstock
WSS was immediately following A Superstock, I sat on hot pit momentarily, then went right back out for the warm up lap. During the warm up lap, it suddenly dawned on me that I may have just won... or lost... the A Superstock Championship by one point. ONE point. But it didn't matter, because I finally BEAT VEGAS!!!! I finally got out of my mental ditch and mind fuck that was LVMS!!!! So with a big smile on my face, I lined up my big boy on the very last row of a multi class race. Heavyweight Twins Ex/Nov were gridded in front of us girls. In front of us Novice girls were the two Expert girls, Christie Cooley and little Marisol Lacour on her new R6. The flying French Canadian Nadine Lajoie was gridded next to me.
My launch was again ok, my clutch was just not the same after the crash, slipping and causing my launches to be not quite up to par. No matter, the one girl who would give me a run for the money is Christie, as her and I have enjoyed some epic battles all year! Most of which consist of me chasing her little skinny ass all around the track! My big boy and his big power propelled me in front of her as we got rolling off the line, but Marisol and her killer launches were in front of all us gals.
I took an outside line as we went through one, and held off an initial challenge by Christie, and got around Nadine. As we approached T2, I was still tracking to the outside, and some of the poor novice twin guys were about to get pounced on by a pack of wildcats. I was tracking just outside and behind Marisol, and having had studied her from behind in the past, I knew her moves, and I put myself in a position to capitalize on them. In my peripheral, I see Miss Christie come flying up the inside as we're about to apex T2, but knowing Marisol's MO, I giggled as she slammed the door on Christie. As I accelerated around all of them, I giggled as I yelled out to Christie "Suck it, beeotch!!" I rocketed passed one other twin (at least one, I think) and flew into T3 on a mission!!! Exited T3, passed two twinsie boys on the inside approach to T4, and took off like a hot train outta Barstow down the back section of LVMS!
I caught and passed one more twin rider to take over third place overall! I caught up to the second place twin rider, he was running in 2nd in his Expert twins class, and thus, second of everyone on the grid. Since we were not racing each other, and I didn't want any drama, I only passed him in the back section, where my bike was faster, then he would over take me on the brakes coming off the back section, and I would just let him go. Back and forth we went for the last few remaining laps, and I was doing just enough to make sure Christie stayed behind me. I knew she would be HOT after me!
At the checkered flag I took 3rd place of all the bikes on the grid, the overall win in the Women's Class; and first for the Women's Superstock Novice class. =D I had the class championship wrapped up already, as I had such a large points lead. I made my stop at post-tech and the girls that work for WERA gave me hugs and high-fives and expressed their pride at seeing me get back out there! That was so amazing!
As I came back to my pit my whole family was there cheering for me!!! Hugs all the way around, and lots of excitement!!! I was especially thrilled to see Lenny Albin so excited! I don't think I've ever seen him that happy! As a talented suspension guy, he works with several top level club racers - like my pals at Hooter's Suzuki - and several AMA teams; to see him that impressed and happy over my little ol' novice class performance meant so much to me! Lenny has supported me so much since last year, and I cannot express how much it meant to me to go out there and make him so proud. =) Thank you, Lenny!!!
I expressed to Lenny how I thought I just won or lost the SS Championship by one point. He couldn't stand the suspense any longer, and went up to the tower to talk to Sean Clarke, the second big boss man of WERA. ;-) Lenny came back, and gave us all the fabulous news. I had tied Chad for the Championship, but since I have more race wins than he does, per the rulebook, I am awarded the Class Championship for A Superstock Novice!!!!!!!!!! WOW! Talk about barely winning a Championship!
Needless to say, I was jumping up and down and yelling and screaming so much that people from pits all around us were looking, and giving thumbs up! =D
In addition to this fabulous news I found out I ran a personal best lap time during A Superstock, of a 1:24.5 and followed that up with five consecutive laps at 1:24 in W SS - a 0.6 second spread between all five laps!!! With a new personal best of 1:24.1!!!! I took second in A Superstock by 8 seconds, and took the overall win in Women's Superstock by 6 seconds; beating the other novice girl by 43 seconds in the 6 lap race.
The Papa Roach song, Kick in the Teeth, became my new theme song. "...cuz when it feels like a kick in the teeth I can take i...…throw your stones and you won't see me breaking... I won't go down till I'm six feet underground... What doesn't kill me will only make me stronger in my head..."
A Superbike
Well, there was really absolutely nothing that could happen in A Superbike that could possibly top anything that had just transpired, so the goal of this race was to have fun and show them - and myself - that those first two races were not a fluke.
This race was the very last one of the day, and after several hours passed, my injuries were really starting to sink in, the adrenaline was wearing off, and I was feeling the affects of the crash. Several broken ribs, a sprained left wrist, a large bruise and scrape on my inner left thigh were the worst of it.
My start was pretty decent, and I jumped into a solid second place position. I chased around a guy whom I've raced with only a few times at Willow Springs, and a few WERA events... a guy who has beaten me every time! As lap one became lap two, I realized I might have something for him... but as lap three came and went, I realized my body just didn't have anything left. I was comfortably in second place, by a good margin, and opted to just relax a bit and bring it home. =) In the end, I took 2nd in A SB by 19 seconds, and finished 2nd in the A SB Novice Class Championship!
In Summary...
An unbelievable weekend! It means so much to me that my whole family was there to see it all, and I take immense pride in coming back from being taken out on the start to performing personal best lap times, and taking three podiums and two class championships!!! To give that to those who've supported me means more to me than actually winning them!
Lenny Albin - I cannot thank you enough for the support you provided me over the last two years! It means so incredibly much to me to have performed so well for you and be able to show you, through my performance, that your investment in me was worth it!
Chuck & Andrea Graves (Graves Motorsports) - Your support this year was immeasurable. To bring more Championships to your collection this year means so much to me! Thank you so incredibly much for your support, advice, and fabulous go-fast goodies!!!! I am looking forward to running my 2006 R1 again next year as an Expert!!
Dean Mizdal & M Racing - Thank you for building an engine that has served me so well all year long!! Your support last year, and especially at the beginning of this season, is much appreciated!
Duran Racing - Roni Duran... I cannot thank you enough for your positive energy, technical soundness, and incredible talent as a crew chief! You were invaluable during this final round in Las Vegas. Chris Duran - thank you for the advice you have provided to help me become a better rider. Thank you both for welcoming me under your canopy with open arms. =)
Corey Neuer/Chris Maguire of CT Racing - Pirelli -Your support this year, as well as years passed, is greatly appreciated, and I can't tell you what it means to me to finally - FINALLY - have podiums and Championships to give you guys!!!! I couldn't have done as well as I did without my awesome Pirelli tires!
JP/MG & STAR School - You guys gave me the tools I needed to take my riding far enough to be a Championship contender... and now... finally... a Champion. Thank you so much!!!!
My Amazing Family & Friends - Your support made this possible... thank you for believing in me!!!!
Roni Duran, Luke Judy, Eric DeHaven, Bernie Broderick, & Lenny Albin - I cannot even begin to express my gratitude for getting my bike repaired and getting me back out there in time to make the re-start!!! Thank you just doesn't seem to be enough.
Pato Vigil - Five & Dime Tattoo - Thank you for your amazing support and encouragement!! I couldn't have done it without you!!!
CrossFit Inferno - CrossFit provides fitness levels for the unknown... well, CrossFit also builds mental toughness for the unknown. My Inferno pals - you guys have helped CrossFit become a critical part of my life, and has provided me with the physical and mental toughness needed to tackle the curve balls that get thrown my way... like being able to come back from that crash and take the championship! I am thrilled to showcase how CrossFit has helped my racing - mentally and physically! Thank you Inferno!!!!!!
Special Thanks...
To my sponsors for their incredible support! I couldn’t have done it without you!!! Central Coast Mechanics - M Racing - CT Racing / Pirelli Tires - RaceTech - Graves Motorsports - Duran Racing - Catalyst Reaction Suspension Tuning - Scorpion Helmets - MDG Racing - Ponyrific.com - Cambria Bicycle Outfitter - Jason Pridmore’s STAR School - Moonstone Cellars - Five & Dime Tattoo - CrossFit Inferno - Factory Body Works
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