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Well I was a little worried yesterday about the rain, which came upon Atlanta shortly after I left my driveway. The rain stopped south of Atlanta so everything was packed up while it was still dry. By the time we got to Bremen, the clouds began rolling in from the east. Ten minutes after parking a torrential downpour started. This lasted for almost two hours, where wave after wave of rain would pass through. Bremen had access to the weather channel and they announced over the loudspeakers that they were waiting on the last band of showers to pass through, then the track would be prepped.
One of the guys under the red tent called me Shorty, and asked what class I was riding. Apparently there are a few very fast women who race here from time to time, and they usually compete against the boys. Last week a man at the auto parts place called me Shorty too. Yay I have a new nickname.
Practice was supposed to start at 5pm, but we didn't get onto the track until 7:30 or so. The maintenance people spread loads of sawdust on the corners and back sides of jumps and plowed that into the ground. Considering it rained for nearly two hours (often heavily) the track wasn't half as slimy as I'd expected. We were allowed two laps practice which was barely enough time, but things were already two hours behind schedule.
Finally the races began. There were 16 races in all, many of which combined different classes in one race. There are two motos per class so the entire race order would be run twice. Each race lasted 4 laps, which averaged about 10 minutes per race.
Mine was the 14th race of the night, so I spent an hour or so watching in the bleachers before walking back to the truck for my bike. After stretching I rode down to staging and counted two other ladies in the women's class. Since there were so few they put us in the same heat as the 80cc experts and delayed the start for us so we wouldn't get mixed up.
A track worker gave us the Ready board as soon as the 80's left the gate. Moments later he turned the board sideways,which means that the gate could fall any second. Finally I saw the bar fold backwards into the dirt and we were off.
I reached the first corner (about 1000 feet away) in second place and held onto that for a few more corners before a girl on a Yamaha (Megan) passed by.
This was Toni, she lead the entire moto and was very fast!
My goggles were so fogged up.. I couldn't see a thing so I did what I shouldn't do and pulled them off. A lap later one of the 80cc guys caught up and passed me. His back tire flung a little piece of dirt in the corner of my right eye.. I was lucky it didn't go square into my eye.. Goggles suck but having my eye put out is much worse. I decided to leave them on no matter what next moto.
An hour and a half later race 14 was called staging to get ready our second moto. I was a little early so I watched the preceding race before starting my bike up again.
I felt more relaxed this time, and again reached the first corner in second place - I was a little closer to the leader this time. She quickly pulled away leaving me to fend with the Yamaha rider. I held on to second for half of a lap this time and was finally passed on a little step up that I didn't feel comfortable jumping. Half a lap later the yellow flags came out.. I crested a big step-up and saw another Kawasaki laying in the middle of the track. My first thought was that Toni(the winner of our first moto) went down, I was worried but there was someone helping out on the side of the track so I didn't stop. The next time I came around the rider and bike were gone, so I felt better. The rest of the moto was problem-free and hey, I wasn't lapped by any of the kids on 80s either.
As soon as I exited the track I rode over to Toni's pit area where she was hanging out with her family. I asked if she was OK and she said yeah - she went down in the first moto but not the last one. So the other Kawasaki rider was one of the 80cc racers not her. She asked if I'd raced before and since this was the first race as the real me, I said no, this was my first. We chatted for a minute and her parents said they hoped to see me at the races again.
My forearms felt like they were on fire.. one of the guys said it's just arm pump and everyone has it happen. It was almost 12 midnight and I was getting tired!
After loading up we drove to the lounge where the results were posted. Toni finished first in our class, and second out of fifteen riders in the 125 beginners class (which was a boys class except for her and another girl). The concession people were giving away leftover pizza so I picked up two cold cheese slices and sprites for the drive home.
I finished last in both motos but I had a great time and didn't go down either. We ran into Toni's mom again at the car wash so Dara & I talked with her for a little while before heading back to Atlanta. After unloading everything I made it home around 3:30am and went straight to bed.
Dara helped with changing my spark plug and snapped most of these photos.. I was glad she came along for support, I was a little afraid going out there. I didn't have any problems, thankfully.
ok and now I'm running late to st mark.
too-ta-loo.
One of the guys under the red tent called me Shorty, and asked what class I was riding. Apparently there are a few very fast women who race here from time to time, and they usually compete against the boys. Last week a man at the auto parts place called me Shorty too. Yay I have a new nickname.
Practice was supposed to start at 5pm, but we didn't get onto the track until 7:30 or so. The maintenance people spread loads of sawdust on the corners and back sides of jumps and plowed that into the ground. Considering it rained for nearly two hours (often heavily) the track wasn't half as slimy as I'd expected. We were allowed two laps practice which was barely enough time, but things were already two hours behind schedule.
Finally the races began. There were 16 races in all, many of which combined different classes in one race. There are two motos per class so the entire race order would be run twice. Each race lasted 4 laps, which averaged about 10 minutes per race.
Mine was the 14th race of the night, so I spent an hour or so watching in the bleachers before walking back to the truck for my bike. After stretching I rode down to staging and counted two other ladies in the women's class. Since there were so few they put us in the same heat as the 80cc experts and delayed the start for us so we wouldn't get mixed up.
A track worker gave us the Ready board as soon as the 80's left the gate. Moments later he turned the board sideways,which means that the gate could fall any second. Finally I saw the bar fold backwards into the dirt and we were off.
I reached the first corner (about 1000 feet away) in second place and held onto that for a few more corners before a girl on a Yamaha (Megan) passed by.
This was Toni, she lead the entire moto and was very fast!
My goggles were so fogged up.. I couldn't see a thing so I did what I shouldn't do and pulled them off. A lap later one of the 80cc guys caught up and passed me. His back tire flung a little piece of dirt in the corner of my right eye.. I was lucky it didn't go square into my eye.. Goggles suck but having my eye put out is much worse. I decided to leave them on no matter what next moto.
An hour and a half later race 14 was called staging to get ready our second moto. I was a little early so I watched the preceding race before starting my bike up again.
I felt more relaxed this time, and again reached the first corner in second place - I was a little closer to the leader this time. She quickly pulled away leaving me to fend with the Yamaha rider. I held on to second for half of a lap this time and was finally passed on a little step up that I didn't feel comfortable jumping. Half a lap later the yellow flags came out.. I crested a big step-up and saw another Kawasaki laying in the middle of the track. My first thought was that Toni(the winner of our first moto) went down, I was worried but there was someone helping out on the side of the track so I didn't stop. The next time I came around the rider and bike were gone, so I felt better. The rest of the moto was problem-free and hey, I wasn't lapped by any of the kids on 80s either.
As soon as I exited the track I rode over to Toni's pit area where she was hanging out with her family. I asked if she was OK and she said yeah - she went down in the first moto but not the last one. So the other Kawasaki rider was one of the 80cc racers not her. She asked if I'd raced before and since this was the first race as the real me, I said no, this was my first. We chatted for a minute and her parents said they hoped to see me at the races again.
My forearms felt like they were on fire.. one of the guys said it's just arm pump and everyone has it happen. It was almost 12 midnight and I was getting tired!
After loading up we drove to the lounge where the results were posted. Toni finished first in our class, and second out of fifteen riders in the 125 beginners class (which was a boys class except for her and another girl). The concession people were giving away leftover pizza so I picked up two cold cheese slices and sprites for the drive home.
I finished last in both motos but I had a great time and didn't go down either. We ran into Toni's mom again at the car wash so Dara & I talked with her for a little while before heading back to Atlanta. After unloading everything I made it home around 3:30am and went straight to bed.
Dara helped with changing my spark plug and snapped most of these photos.. I was glad she came along for support, I was a little afraid going out there. I didn't have any problems, thankfully.
ok and now I'm running late to st mark.
too-ta-loo.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-16 02:28 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 01:52 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-16 02:50 pm (UTC)From:Anyway, AWESOME. I'm glad you had such a great time.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 01:55 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-16 03:46 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 01:56 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-16 05:01 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 01:57 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-16 07:19 pm (UTC)From:I miss you. It's been too long since we hung out. If you ever want to visit Virginia, just let me know.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 01:58 am (UTC)From:I'd love to come up and visit sometime.. VA isn't that far away..
no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 06:49 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 06:51 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 06:54 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-16 08:54 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 02:00 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 04:00 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 06:55 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-07-26 04:03 am (UTC)From:I know you mentioned Saturdays not being a good day for this, but I wanted to double check & see if you were definately busy this Saturday? If you can I'd love to have you come along to help me with my bike at a race in Bremen.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 03:12 am (UTC)From: