AFM Round 1 at Buttonwillow – The Girl Report

This was the most unusual week I’ve ever had at the track.

First, foremost, and most unusual, a fifteen year old girl beat all the boys yesterday. Boys like Lenny Hale, Matt Eccleston and Sebastiao Ferreira. Elena Myers started with the lead in 600 Superbike, and led the whole race until the last lap when Lenny got by her on the approach to Lost Hills. Somewhere between there and the finish line, Elena passed him back and finished the race ahead by a nose.

Unfortunately she was disqualified for her win in 600 Production for having an aftermarket throttle housing, at least that’s what I heard. But we saw her beat those boys fair and square. An aftermarket throttle housing may be against the AFM’s rules for production racing, but it didn’t make her go faster. She did it all herself and I was inspired. I love having Elena at my races! I need to not be so shy around this high school motorcycle racing rock star, be a real journalist and go get the scoop for PBAC before Roadracing World or Mike Solis do!

Congratulations Elena!

As for the grown-up ladies racing motorcycles this weekend, Zoe Rem is one of the quickest women in the AFM right now; she pulls very competitive lap times on her Motion Pro SV650 and even came away from a Thunderhill round with a Top Novice trophy and 12th place in Formula IV last year. I’m really excited to see her progress and kick ass in 2009 with her expert plates and strong racing program, but unfortunately her motor blew at some point on Saturday. With dire forecasts of rain, doom and gloom for Sunday, what does Zoe do? Go home and cry and eat bon bons? NOPE! She goes over to the Race Bike Rentals tent and rents herself a Ninja 250 so she could have a hope of getting some grid points for either of her classes, 650 Twins and Formula IV. What a bad ass! I saw her get a blistering start in the 250 Production race, coming in third and on the box her first day ever on a 250cc race bike. Simply awesome.

In other news, new racer Svetlana Gorina finished her first ever motorcycle race; Clubman Middleweight. Congratulations Lana! I’m sure you’re going to be just as addicted to racing as you have been to track days.

Most of the racers were unhappy about the rain, clouds and wind we all woke up to Sunday morning. Miraculously, the rain stopped, the track got dry, and we were able to race, but it was extremely cold and the wind was blowing everyone all over the track’s already precarious surface.

Other weird things were going on too. James Randolph and I had been in Buttonwillow since Monday for a track day, and on Tuesday, I got stung by a bee while on track and James got bit by a brown recluse spider that was being reclusive inside his race boot (also while on track) that had sat all winter.

We didn’t do anything about it for a while because we thought it was a bee sting too, but the wound got worse and worse. Wednesday and Thursday we hung out in Bakersfield, riding our bicycles along the beautiful Kern River Parkway and partying like rock stars at the Red Roof Inn, but Friday night we spent about six hours in the Bakersfield ER getting his bite looked at. Saturday night was spent chasing prescriptions at various drugstores. Sunday, well, was a weather mess, but he still ended up finishing second in the AFM’s big race, Formula Pacific.

Again, it was just a weird week.

Myself, well, I felt like I was trying very, very hard to go fast, but I was going so slow. And yet, I had my highest finishes ever in 650 Twins and Formula IV on my Pirelli shod, Vanderkitten Racing SV650. Could be that most of the competition just decided to go home due to the inclement weather – the wind was severe and so was the cold.

Well, congratulations to all the girls this weekend. The next AFM round will be April 24th – 25th at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, and will feature the AFM’s first ever women’s racing class. We can’t wait!

Elena Myers, Expert, Kawasaki ZX6RR
600 Superbike, 1st of 31 finishers, 01:52.690
600 Production, 1st of 24 finishers, DQ

Joy Higa, Expert, Yamaha R6
600 Production, 17th of 24 finishers, 02:01.303
600 Superbike, 26th of 31 finishers, 02:03.358
750 Production, 15th of 20 finishers, 01:59.893
750 Superbike, 17th of 25 finishers, 02:01.269
Formula 1, 17th of 22 finishers, 02:02.065

Svetlana Gorina, Novice Clubman, Suzuki GSX-R 750
750 Production, 20th of 20 finishers, 02:11.290
Clubman Middleweight, 13th of 18 finishers, 02:09.076

Shelina Moreda, Novice, Yamaha R6
Clubman Heavyweight, 11th of 12 finishers, 02:15.563
Clubman Middleweight, 16th of 18 finishers, 02:18.068

Zoe Rem, Expert, rented Kawasaki Ninja 250
250 Production, 3rd of 5 finishers, 02:19.662
Formula IV, 20th of 20 finishers, 02:20.840

Jennifer Lauritzen, Expert, Suzuki SV650
650 Twins, 14th of 18 finishers, 02:12.225
Formula IV, 19th of 20 finishers, 02:14.997

Shandra Crawford, Expert, Suzuki SV650
650 Twins, 16th of 18 finishers, 02:13.095
650 Production, 7th of 9 finishers, 02:14.874

Christie Cooley, Expert, Suzuki SV650
650 Twins, 9th of 18 finishers, 02:04.975
Formula IV, 13th of 20 finishers, 02:04.599

Debra Barton, Expert, 125cc GP bike
Formula III/USGPRU, 13th of 18 finishers, 02:04.069

Lisa Mazurkiewicz, Expert, Kawasaki Ninja 250
250 Production, 4th of 5 finishers, 02:21.039