2010 brought Zoe together with the infamous and mysterious, grizzly mountain ducati fast guy, Pat Blackburn and the Mountain Militia Racing Team. With an 848 and a ton of moral support the 2010 season was shaping up to be a whole different ball game. Buttonwillow brought a few struggles, including a lack of track time and confidence on the bike.
In case I wasn't nervous enough riding such an amazing bike, the first practice Saturday morning, coming through Riverside, I felt an explosion hit my foot and I thought I had blown a rod through the cases. I immediately stood the bike up, pulled in the clutch and shut it off, just in case. I coasted off the track to an access road on the right and got off to check out the damage. No holes in the cases, no oil pouring out... in fact, everything seemed fine. And then I noticed the back wheel didn't look right. Something was funny looking back there. Oh, there was no chain, that's why it looked weird. The chain decided to mysteriously snap (it wasn't too tight, it wasn't too old, and it didn't break at the master!) on me.
Everything seemed to be fine until I wound up in the same access road, pushing my bike back into the pits again, because, it turns out, the chain had caused a hairline crack in the case and it was slowly dripping oil onto my pipe and blowing off lots of smoke.
Life continued, racing happened and I struggled to figure out how to ride the 848.
But Round 2 at Infineon held more hope for me. Until my radiator started spewing fluid from a manufacturer's defect in the bracket, which caused it to spring a leak all over my rear wheel. With that under my belt I was a bit more cautious than necessary. Even my competition remarked that I looked less aggressive on the track. What had gotten into me?
In case I wasn't nervous enough riding such an amazing bike, the first practice Saturday morning, coming through Riverside, I felt an explosion hit my foot and I thought I had blown a rod through the cases. I immediately stood the bike up, pulled in the clutch and shut it off, just in case. I coasted off the track to an access road on the right and got off to check out the damage. No holes in the cases, no oil pouring out... in fact, everything seemed fine. And then I noticed the back wheel didn't look right. Something was funny looking back there. Oh, there was no chain, that's why it looked weird. The chain decided to mysteriously snap (it wasn't too tight, it wasn't too old, and it didn't break at the master!) on me.Everything seemed to be fine until I wound up in the same access road, pushing my bike back into the pits again, because, it turns out, the chain had caused a hairline crack in the case and it was slowly dripping oil onto my pipe and blowing off lots of smoke.
Life continued, racing happened and I struggled to figure out how to ride the 848.
But Round 2 at Infineon held more hope for me. Until my radiator started spewing fluid from a manufacturer's defect in the bracket, which caused it to spring a leak all over my rear wheel. With that under my belt I was a bit more cautious than necessary. Even my competition remarked that I looked less aggressive on the track. What had gotten into me?
I continued to mosey along through Saturday practice without riding the bike anywhere near its capabilities. As we gridded up for Formula Afemme I still hadn't gotten my head on straight. 
When the green flagged dropped I finally accomplished what I had been envisioning for the past three weeks and I got the hole shot and led the pack up the hill into turn 2. My lead didn't last long as Christie and Joy passed me into the carousel and quickly stepped away. I rode around in third while unbeknownst to me, Deb Barton was coming back from a mishap on the first lap. That sly little lady finally caught me and came around my outside in turn 7. With a carrot out in front I held on for the next couple laps, but as I drove to pass a bunch of lappers on the straight before 7 I held it open a little too long and blew the corner. With that mistake Deb picked up a lead and my podium chances faded away.
When the green flagged dropped I finally accomplished what I had been envisioning for the past three weeks and I got the hole shot and led the pack up the hill into turn 2. My lead didn't last long as Christie and Joy passed me into the carousel and quickly stepped away. I rode around in third while unbeknownst to me, Deb Barton was coming back from a mishap on the first lap. That sly little lady finally caught me and came around my outside in turn 7. With a carrot out in front I held on for the next couple laps, but as I drove to pass a bunch of lappers on the straight before 7 I held it open a little too long and blew the corner. With that mistake Deb picked up a lead and my podium chances faded away. A little bit of me wishes I hadn't been racing so I could've watched Christie ride because I hear she was a bat out of hell. Hopefully next month I'll have a front row seat for that show.... or, even better, I'll just hear her behind me.
On Sunday morning I realized I had been afraid of chucking the bike down the track and wadding it into a little ball and I gave up that fear. I rode a little bit harder and ended up dropping 4 seconds from Saturday's best time. Though 750 Superbike and Formula 1 caught me off guard with millions of swarming bees diving into turn 2 on the start, Open Twins brought the civilized manner of racing back. I had a nice battle with a 1098, swapping positions a few times, and eventually taking advantage of a mistake he made.
Overall, I learned a lot and prepared myself for next month. With some more track time before the next race I should hopefully be ready to lift up my skirt and ride.
photo courtesy of christie cooley
You will be fast on it Zoe. Your body positionlooks great. You can do it. Believe in yourself the tools are in that tool boxof yours you just have to pullthem out. :)
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