Blackhawk Farms Raceway, June 2012.
This picture represents the beginning of a new chapter in my riding. After an extended, Air Force mandated hiatus, I got back on track and spent a day with Jason Pridmore’s STAR school. It made me look at my riding in a whole new way, and taught me the things I’m supposed to be doing when I “slow down to go fast.”
Read the full report on my experience here.
Can’t wait to spend another day learning with Pridmore and the gang! Come on, spring…
Grattan Raceway, September 2009.
This was the weekend I discovered Grattan, a track built by someone with a deep understanding of the capabilities of racing motorcycles, and a pathological hatred for those riding them. Every corner on the track has some trick about it. It’s off camber, blind, has an elevation change, rippled pavement, or some sinister combination thereof. And if that wasn’t enough, in the mornings, the turtles like to come out of the ponds and sun themselves on the track surface, making an already impossibly challenging track into an obstacle course.
I kinda love that place. Can’t wait to go back.
Summit Point, September 2007. After spending a couple seasons at my two local tracks, I had the chance to try something completely new. And it. Was. Awesome. Summit Point is a track that seems to have a little bit of everything, including a long front straight leading into a downhill, hairpin right for the first turn.
Through the afternoon sessions, I had been using what I thought was a mark on the track as a brake marker for turn 1. Turns out, that mark was actually a shadow, and as the afternoon wore on, it moved ever closer into T1, until I suddenly got in there way, way hotter than I thought was prudent! Summit Point is the track where I learned just how good my brakes are.
Mid-Ohio, September 2006. This was the day I finally got to get on a “real” race track, and one that I had been dreaming of for years. It was everything I thought it would be, and then some. Mid-Ohio has been a source of triumph and frustration ever since. I always love to ride there and have made some huge strides in my riding, thanks to the challenging layout, but I always leave feeling like I didn’t go quite as fast as I could have. There is perpetual unfinished business at that place, but I always look forward to going, and always have left with a smile.
I miss that helmet, though. It’s been retired.
We’ve reached that deep, dark hole in the middle of winter. The point where it never seems like it’s going to end, and all you can do is dream of the glories of summers past. I ran across these shots from my first ever track day, in September of 2005. It doesn’t seem that long ago, thinking about it. But looking at myself, I can see that it has been.
There’s a part of me that misses the exciting innocence of that time, when I was new to the track. It was heady stuff. New skills learned every session, faster laps every lap, finding out more and more about what this incredible machine could do for me. But you’re only a virgin once, which I suppose is probably for the better.
And hopefully, that’s just what they’ll do. This is my brand new pair of Alpinestars SMX-Plus racing boots, to replace my nearly 8-year-old pair of the same model. These new ones look slicker and seem to have a better ankle bracing system. They’re also vented, a feature my previous pair lacked. Hopefully, they’ll be just as well built as my old pair, which survived 8 years and 20,000 miles of riding, sweating, walking, hiking and crashing, and still work astoundingly well.
I should note, I got these on a pretty awesome discount from the boys over at Sportbike Track Gear. I’ve been doing business with them for years and years, and never have been disappointed with their prices or their service. I highly recommend them.