Easter Weekend

Easter Weekend 2007. More track time than you can point a 400 at! This weekend was something truly amazing, in good and bad ways. First things first, I was up for three track days in the space of five days. For Easter Sunday I was booked into an advanced ride day at the AHG track (thanks to Ryan and Robin for buying me that), on Easter Monday I was doing level two of the Trakdayz course, and on the following Thursday I was doing a tuning session at AHG again.

Sunday: AHG
Things started out badly. It was raining, it was slippery, it was cold and generally miserable. Not exactly a perfect start, and the weather certainly didn't instil any confidence in me. I had left my helmet and gloves out on the bike assuming we'd only be having a brief meeting before heading out to the track. This meeting turned out to be an hour-long session. Meanwhile my gloves and helmet were well on the way to growing moss.

With damp gloves and lack of confidence, I jumped on the bike (along with everyone else that felt much the same) and proceeded to attempt to warm up the tyres and do some laps of the track.

Cutting a long story short, we did some slow speed manoeuvring, some emergency braking, cornering, weaving and general body positioning. From there we had free reign of the track (which had dried up eventually over the course of a few hours).

During this free time, I took the time to get my lines sorted and concentrated mainly on getting correct entry and exit speeds, rather than generally belting around the track. I didn't get out of third gear, and I didn't brake more than I needed to. Later in the session as I was starting to get into the swing of things, I came acropper when my foot slipped off the footpeg whilst I had my knee down going around a left hander. I guess it was lucky that my knee was down and it took the brunt of the fall, and my bike didnt have far to go to hit the ground.

I ended up with some scuffs on my leathers, a cracked screen with bent brace, scraped bar end, a scrape on the rear fairing (saved more so by the rear stand pickup bobbin), with no damage to the front fairing or the tank thanks to the oggy knob. Thanks to Amber for helping me start the bike up and Andrea for hosing my bike down from all the rocks and dirt after it slid into the sand.

After getting a little distraught and losing my confidence, Ryan convinced me to get back on the track by starting out doing some laps around the skid pan and making sure the bike felt okay and that no other damage was done.

Within the hour, I was back on the track doing what I love: riding. I chose not to hang around for the tuning session as I was already tired. I didn't want to make any more mistakes, and I didn't want to wear myself out for Monday.

Monday: Wanneroo Raceway
I was in level two for the Trakdayz course, and I was excited that I didn't have to be in the veggie group anymore. I could play with the bigger bikes now, ride with people with more track experience... or so I thought! Again, the day started out badly with some dude who will only be known as "Sete", rudely telling me "that space is taken, mate". I'll give you "mate" Sete. That truly pissed me off. Nowhere are there any spaces allocated, or named or numbered. Its first in best dressed, but being the stupid person that I am, I moved over and parked elsewhere. All his mates in the same group ended parking him in anyway. Sux2bU Sete.

The first two sessions of the day were a little shaky. Wanneroo is a big, fast sweeping track. Coming off a tight technical track into something like this, was scary. Not only that, but I'd forgotten how to ride it. Of course, having an incident the day before also didn't help, so I went slowly and consistently over the first few sessions. I was not however, impressed with the behaviour of certain members of my group overtaking me in the wrong places or chopping me up. In summary, they were riding like dicks. Not all of them, just a few of these "mates" that were pretty much racing each other.

Sete got a few warnings about his general bad attitude towards everyone else on the track, and he was even caught on video doing wrong, but still, he rode like a dick and I just got angrier and started losing more confidence. He was essentially ruining my day.

One of the instructors suggested that I drop down into group one, saying that I'd be faster than most of them on the track and that I'd have more free space to ride like I should have been doing as soon as I got on the track...

So I did. Into level one. Like being a complete n00b. I felt completely different. I knew Sete was not on the track at the same time as me, I knew that I would have some more space, and I knew I could have more fun. And I sure as hell did. It was like starting anew, I was confident, I was getting off the bike more, and I was having FUN! It only took up two-thirds of my day to get there!

^^^ Props to Matt and Dugy for their excellent photographs - you guys make me look fast when I was riding like a girl.

In all, it was a good day and I took many things away with me. That night Tash organised a PSB dinner at an Italian Restuarant. Most of the time was spent chatting and catching up with fellow members, scribbling in crayon on the table papers, throwing bits of chocolate egg and enjoying a good meal.

Thursday: AHG again
It was all on again at AHG, with a busted bike with bits of race tape all over the place holding the screen together and masking the scrape on the fairing. The session was held in reverse orientation which meant more right handers (spew!), but towards the end I was really enjoying the track - it was like learning it all over again. It was a great day for more track time, with the sun out and a slight breeze.