More Mechanicals – Oh Em Gee.

I was pumped for Sunday. PUMPED! After a seemingly unending quest for the perfect pair of roadracing boots, perfect boots naturally being the answer to all my riding flaws, I was loving my new Alpinestars Super Tech boots after a day of practice and a failed 20 lap race. They are white, they are awesome, they are disco boots and make me want to shake my money maker. In addition to being dazzlingly white and sassy, they have the perfect traction on the bottom, the perfect thickness of sole, and fit reasonably well around my delicate female foot.

I just knew they were going to help me turn the bike better. Don’t ask me how I knew that, but I did. I delighted at the thought of tossing my old race boots in the garbage can at home, even though they’ve been with me since my first month of motorcycle riding. Sometimes it’s just time to move on!

Anyway, I had two pretty good practices in the morning. I felt confident that James, Zoran and I had sorted out the weird electrical shorting problem I was having with the fuel system.

I was excited for Women’s Superstock; I was hoping to jump ahead of Joy and her R6 on the start and stay ahead of her through turns 1 and 2, then maybe hang with her as much as me and my little v-twin could, and I was also stoked that I talked fourteen year old SV racer Marisol Lacour into joining us on the grid. Novices Nadine Lajoie and Kristi Martel were absent this weekend, so Marisol was guaranteed a first place finish for WSS Novice.

I head out on the warm up lap preparing to hit all my marks and get in the zone, but as I was driving out of turn two my bike felt funny. I shook my money maker (just to be clear I do not actually make money racing, that’s my boyfriend’s job) right, then left, then right, then right again, and as I started to pin it through the infield, wringing the throttle’s little neck made no difference as my bike would not rev much above 8,000 RPM. It’d hit 8 grand and then feel boggy and weird, and not really go much above that.

Ugh.

It continued to feel really weird through Riverside and then coming down out of Lost Hills. It was un-raceable. I really didn’t know what to expect on the start or throughout the race, or if I’d be doing more damage to my bike, so I brought it in after the warm up lap. I was so sad.

As for the rest of the girls…

Krystyna Kubran…
Shandra Crawford…
Joy Higa…
Marisol Lacour…

I think they all had good weekends. I’ve been so busy lately and I really need to get serious about some money making initiatives, of which this is not one. KK managed to put a few boys behind her in her big girl bike races like A Superbike, Formula 1, and A Superstock, Shandra mentioned that she had a good little fire lit under her ass thinking I was behind her all through the women’s race, Joy put down a 1:57 in WSS which is pretty damn awesome, and Marisol continued to make forward progress out of the doom and gloom that a nasty highside can hang over your head.