AutoClub Speedway, Fontana
January 25, 2015
With a new clutch, new sponsors, and an upgraded attitude, I was ready to rock Fontana. Thanksgiving weekend was extraordinarily productive with JJ Matter as crew chief. JJ has significant experience with Kawasaki, currently works at one of my biggest sponsors, Graves Motorsports; and has a son who is now a pro racer. I’ve known JJ from around the paddock since his now college age son, Ryan, was a twelve year old on a 125 race bike!
Cousin Matty Buanno, who is my number one “racer-sitter”, is preparing to move away; and I’m sad to have to replace him. Thankfully, JJ Matter and Oliver Kho, are well qualified, talented people.
Over the Thanksgiving track day, I was able to drop my lap times to match my previous personal bests of 1:34; despite the clutch slowly fading; eventually failing the next day. JJ helped with some suspension tweaks that led to a considerably better handling of my ZX10; and a plan for the WERA opener.
Practice and Something Special
Friday dawned warm and windy at AutoClub Speedway; with me flailing around like a crazy girl in an attempt to get my bike ready to ride. Although I got a lot of work done the day before, I had run out of oil while doing my oil change; and had to make arrangements to have Terry Heard bring me a gallon of oil to the track! Thank God I know people who own little motorcycle shops, and are willing to help a racer girl out 😉
I was finally ready to ride for the 11a session; a bit behind the eightball – I hate being behind the eightball! But it all made for great footage for Abe Greenwald, from BuzzFeed, who was out filming my adventures for a short documentary film about my racing!!
Yup, you read that right! BuzzFeed is doing a documentary about my racing! I had answered a request they posted on Facebook; and a few weeks before Fontana Abe emailed me to say he’d like to do a documentary about my racing!!!
I made up a document that described motorcycle racing, how you go from learning to ride a motorcycle to racing a motorcycle; how our club racing feeds into professional racing; the different classes/bikes; a track map, description of what to expect during the track day and the race day; and I arranged the logistics behind the scenes. I hooked him up with Brian Reynolds, of CaliPhoto; for some on-track shots. Abe, being incredibly green to motorcycles and racing, made a brilliant decision to leave the on-track stuff to the professionals – CaliPhoto.
This opportunity to showcase our sport, my sponsors, my program and women riders; is beyond exciting and a once in a lifetime event that I attempted to take full advantage of.
Abe came out and filmed all day Friday, during practice; and returned on Sunday for the races. I made him attend the riders meetings so he could understand what’s going on, and I coached him on paddock etiquette so he’d be safe. It was very important to me that he got some homework ahead of time so he had a good idea of what to expect on the days he was out there. He represents the audience that will be reached; people who know very, very, very little about motorcycle racing – and potentially know very little about motorcycles.
Abe had me discuss things on camera; such as short interviews after the sessions were over; explain some of the work I was doing on the bike, etc. I did my best to formulate my answers in way the “lay-person” could understand.
We did an interview in the classroom after the track day on Friday; where I was pleased to tell my story. I feel Abe represented me very well; and the focus of the story line was more about my personal story of facing my fears and learning to do all these things by myself; and not about my gender. When I got into the motorcycle scene; it was learn how to load/unload my bike, work on it, transport it, etc; or sit at home and wish I was at the race track. While I’ve had amazing people in my life to help me figure these things out; the true reality was learn how to load my bike into the back of my 1964 F250; learn how to swap wheels, change oil, etc; and drive myself to the track in my old ass truck or sit at home and wish I was going to the track.
Of course we addressed the elephant in the room – my gender – and I am thrilled with Abe that he did not seem to make this documentary about me being a girl rider. While the finished product still isn’t out yet; the way he filmed, the questions he asked; seemed to represent my story well.
Friday was very productive; and despite not getting my 1.0 springs installed until late in the day; I was able to dust off the cobwebs and ride well; despite the wicked strong wind that picked up shortly after noon. The wind became so bad that it forced the cancellation of the Saturday track day!
Sunday morning still had strong winds blowing; but thank God it died down to less than 20mph by the afternoon for the races.
Race Day
Open (A) Superbike and Open (A) Superstock were separated by only one race; so I knew I would be struggling by the end of Superstock; but stoked to get my races done quickly. My endometriosis has viciously come back and has been debilitating in the last few months; resulting in a woeful reduction in my fitness. Thankfully, the hard work I put in late summer/fall built a strong foundation; but I knew I would struggle at Fontana. AutoClub is such a physically demanding track, that even the big fit guys will get tired!
Open (A) Superbike
I got a killer initial launch off my front row starting position; only to fail to grab my up shift before I hit the rev limiter; shuffling me back several positions. I made some ground back up by being aggressive on the approach to the turn into the infield. Passed one rider on the run into turn five; and held a solid 5th place position the entire race. I was surprised at how strong I was running! On the second to last lap I was shown a wheel in turn nine; and was like “oh hell no” and turned up the heat; dropping into a new personal best lap time of 1:32.5 – two full seconds faster than I’ve ever gone before! No wonder my lungs were burning when the race was over! On the cool down lap I got thumbs up from the rider whom I held off – a good friend of mine, and strong racer! I got thumbs up from the multitude of riders behind me that I held off! And a congratulatory fist bump from another friend of mine, who happened to whoop me handedly at Willow just a few months earlier on his new CBR 1000! Exhausted, but incredibly proud of myself; the best part was seeing the female corner worker, at the last turn, jumping up and down and clapping for me as I exited the track!!!
Honestly, one of my favorite parts of racing is seeing the corner workers who are just so proud of me, and so happy to see me do well. Many of them are female; but several are men too. One guy found me, and wanted to say hello, and tell me he is my biggest fan; and just loves to watch me ride. Support like that makes me so proud!
Superbike
5th/13
1:32.5
Open (A) Superstock
My start was profoundly better; exiting turn three in third place behind two AMA Pro racers!!! The opening laps were strong! I made a move in T12, off the fast back straight, but nearly blew the corner. That was a harsh learning experience. I learned that I only need to pull alongside the rider to make the pass stick rather than fly past them and nearly off the track. I also learned that rather than slowing down and falling behind; I should have cut the corner, and got back on the track behind the rider.
As the race wore on, I settled into a solid 4th place but was becoming exhausted. My poor fitness was showing in the form of mistakes, and slowing down. In a disappointing turn, a rider capitalized as we turned into the infield for the last lap of the race. Unable to re-pass; I was regulated back to 5th place. In the end, a front running rider was disqualified; bumping me up to 4th place – which would have been a third place had I not lost a position!! I am still disappointed with myself. While being sick made me unable to work out in the month leading up to the race; I am happy we don’t race again until April 4/5th; giving me time to get my fitness back on track and stronger than ever.
The opening laps of Superstock were incredibly strong; and I found myself keeping the front runners ten or so bike lengths in front. Superstock also highlighted a significant suspension issue that caused the front end of the bike to just plow through corner exits like a Mac truck. I found myself on and off throttle to keep the bike pointed in the right direction.
New braking techniques from my new sponsor, Ken Hill Coaching, helped me to gain those 2 seconds; and helped me get the bike pointed in the right direction to rocket out of corners. If the front end wasn’t plowing I think I could have easily dropped more time. I netted a new personal best during the Superstock race, of 1:32.3.
Superstock
4th/7
1:32.3
Thank You
Immense gratitude to Cousin Matty Buanno and JJ Matter for working hard on my bike, getting the tire flip done in the short time between races; and taking incredibly good care of me all day Sunday!!
Thank you to Abe Greenwald from BuzzFeed, for the phenomenal opportunity to showcase my program, my sport, and my sponsors to a whole new audience!!!
Thank you Dale Kieffer, from CT Racing – Pirelli, for the “factory support” as usual; and the lightening fast rear tire flip between Superbike and Superstock!
Thank you to Ken Hill, for the small, yet phenomenally effective, braking tips that had such a huge impact on my lap times.
Thank you to Ed Sorbo, of Linderman Engineering, for jumping in on Friday to do my spring swap when everyone else was too busy to help me out. Thank you to Barry Wressel, of KFG Racing/GP Suspension for shipping the springs last minute to the race track – just in time for Friday practice!
Thank you to Jasn Parkinson, of Environmental Control Systems, and former multi-class champion in Utah; for the new sponsorship opportunity, and believing in me. Having your mentorship and support is more valuable than anything else.
Thank you to my sponsors who have helped to make this season possible; and those that have been with me since 2009; and helped me to reach this amazing new level.
Environmental Control Systems (ECS)
Graves Motorsports (gravesport.com)
Ken Hill Coaching (KHCoaching.com/rickdiculousracing.com)
Jeremy Toye (#ToyeBuilt)
Alessandro Assanti of Bike911 (bike911.com)
Pirelli Tires (CT Racing – ctracetires.com)
Cortech (cortechperformance.com)
Impact Safe-T Armor (impactarmor.com)
Scorpion Helmets (scorpionusa.com)
KFG Racing/GP Suspension (kfgracing.com)
JRi Shocks (jrishocks.com)
HELLA HIGH California (gethellahigh.com)
Moonstone Cellars (moonstonecellars.com)
MC ProDesign (mcprodesign.com)
Chicken Hawk Racing (chickenhawkracing.com)
Vortex Racing (vortexracing.com)
Joe Salas of 4theRiders (4theriders.com)
RaceFuelz (racefuelz.com)
Motorex Oils (motorex.com)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/abefg/race-like-a-girl#.qrN93B08V
