As far as I know, Katie Carney is currently the only women racing WERA’s Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, although recent emigrant to Georgia Teri Gorrell may make appearances at some of the Mid-Atlantic races. Katie’s started off her 2009 year with a bang, finishing at the tops of her novice classes during her second year of racing. Enjoy her exciting race report from action at Virginia International Raceway just this past weekend. Great job Katie!
It was March 20 and I felt like I had been waiting for the season to start for entirely too long! It was a long, cold winter and financial limitations meant that I barely got to touch the bike or do any upgrades during the off season. I changed the springs in the stock forks and on the stock rear shock for lighter springs, more specific to my weight with the help of Joe’s Garage Racing and SpeedWerks.
The first session of practice was amazing! It was like I never missed a day of riding. It felt just as though I was on the bike yesterday and this was just another day of the 2008 season. The bike felt perfect, but I took it a bit easy as the track was still wet from the day before. I didn’t put my transponder on for session 1 – it was a “feeler” session for me and times were the LAST thing I cared about. As the day went on, I worked on braking later, getting on the gas sooner, and overall just cleaning up my lines and shaking off the winter rust. Practice was successful and I was able to get my times down to 143s, which is where I left off in November 2008.
Saturday I raced the middle weight solo, which is 16 laps at VIR, so it’s a much longer race than Sunday’s sprints (6 laps). I knew the solo would be my strong point – I trained long, hard, hours all winter at the gym and on the bicycle in preparation for this!
I sent in my pre-entry early, so I was gridded up 1st row center! I was excited and nervous all at the same time. I got up to the grid, and put my feet down but my legs were kind of shaking. It felt like 10 minutes before the #1 board came out and I popped the bike into gear. Before I knew it, the green flag flew and we were off. I made it into turn 1 in 3rd place, but came out of 1 in 2nd. I hung onto second place for 2 laps. Going into lap 2 I kept thinking of how excited I was to hold onto second place and be that far ahead for the first time in my racing career. I got passed going into turn 1 and was able to hold onto 3rd place for 3-4 more laps. I dropped back to 7th in lap 8 and the front pack of 1st-5th pulled just out of my reach. I knew what I was going to do and I knew the guys in front of me would get tired towards the end and I would not. I was able to keep my heart rate low, control my breathing and knew exactly what lap we were on because I found a good place to count. Lap 14 came up and it was time to make my move. I went for 6th place in turn 7 (the same turn I had a nasty crash in last year) I got into 5th place at the top of the hill before the roller coaster and put my head down – giving 110%. I ran my fastest lap time (139.5) the very last lap of the race! I finshed 5th, which is also a first for me too(my best finish next to that was a 6th place at the Summit National last August).
Sunday morning practice was COLD (about 29 degrees for practice 1). I went out for the second practice and felt okay – my laps were about 6 seconds off my race pace from the day before, but I felt comfortable so I was satisfied.
My first sprint was race 2: C Superbike. Third call came and we pulled the warmers off, took the bike off the stands, and I headed through the pits trying to focus on my goals. As I pulled up to pit out, I exchanged a thumbs up and good-luck wishes with all the guys I have been battling with since last year as well as some newer racers that I met doing track days. This was going to be a fun race. There’s nothing like being out there racing against people who I have faith and trust in and who I know have that in me as well. The whistle blew for the warm up lap and it was time to go get ’em! I try to go for the warm up lap at about 90% my race pace, so I can get in my rhythm and get all my braking and shift points down. I was gridded up in the 3rd row on the left of 3 racers, so I knew I had to get a great start to finish well.
On the grid, my heart began to pound really hard as I thought more and more about what I needed to do and how soon the race was about to happen. I had been counting down for 4 months for this very moment and here it was – I was on the grid, staring down at turn 1 from the kink at VIR.. on my gorgeously wrapped R6. I could hear and smell the motorcycles around me, yet it didn’t fee like I was really there. I snapped back to reality when they put up the 2 board. I was getting anxious and was staring at the starter, watching his hands as he flipped the 2 board over, now showing the 1 board. His hands repositioned as I revved the bike up and before I knew it I saw the green flag, popped the clutch, wheelied but then bogged the bike a bit and was headed into turn 1. I was in 5th going through 1 – not a bad start, but not the best either. I held my position for a few turns and stuck with the group for the first half of the race, ending up in 7th by the start of lap 2. There were guys crashing out in what seemed like every other turn and I had no idea what position I was now in. I didn’t see anyone I could reel in before the end of the race and I crossed the finish line in 7th place. It was a decent start to the day: Not where I wanted to be, but it was a start. I had one more race to go. When I came back in, I checked my tire pressures and it turned out that my front had only 24lbs in it, when it should have been at 32. This was a very important mistake that I certainly fixed for the second race of the day.
After drinking a ton of water and relaxing a bit, it was time to go back out for race 13: C Superstock Novice. For this race, I was gridded up 4th row; right of 2 racers. The warm-up lap went well, and I was back on the grid, staring at the starter. The green flag dropped and I got a good start – going into turn 1 in 5th place. I got passed by someone entering turn 2 and stayed with the front pack for 3 laps until I missed a shift going down the fast downhill section known as the “roller coaster.” The pack got about 2 turns away from me, but I could still see them. I was pushing to catch up and noticed that I was now catching 5th place. I also noticed that the group was beginning to get away from him and he slowed down slightly as he lost his tow from the group. I caught him on the last lap and saw that we were catching a lapped rider very quickly. I knew that the lapped rider could either help me or hurt me and that I couldn’t let 5th place get away from me. We entered turn 7 – a fast uphill right and both had to fall in behind the lapped rider. I was right ON 5th now and as we crested the hill and headed into a sweeping right turn, I saw 5th making his move on the inside of that rider. I reacted immediately and went on the outside as we split the rider mid-turn. Back down the roller coaster and I was still right there, waiting to make my move. As we exited the last turn onto the straight, I opened the throttle as soon as I possibly could and wide open moved my butt back until I felt it hit the tail. I got the draft off 5th and broke away about 50 yards before the finish line, just getting 5th place. I finished less than a half second in front – and was completely ecstatic. We shook hands in turn 3 for such a good, clean, fun race and I could not help but to be completely giddy the entire cool down lap.
My total results are :
MW Solo Novice 16: 5th out of 29
CSB Novice: 7th out of 37
CSS Novice: 5th out of 31
The weekend went great. I had a personal best time on Saturday (139.5) and ran below last year’s personal record (141.8) all weekend! There were no incidents and the bike looked and rode wonderful! I have to thank all my sponsors including: Trackwraps, SpeedWerks, Shoei, Galfer, Pirelli for getting me there! I would also like to thank Joe’s Garage Racing for the great track-side support they provided.
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