Saturday
I first arrived at Thunder Hill Westside hosted by ‘Carters At The Track’ at about 7:30 am. The first thing I did when I got there I helped my dad unload the van, then I went around and said my hello’s to everyone there. Then my dad and I went down to registration, to sign in. Once we signed in, we hung out at the Feel Like A Pro pit area. At about 7:45 I walked down to Sheemoto’s pit area, and did a yoga session with about 7 other women. The yoga session lasted about 15-20 min, then we all walked down to the hot pit lane for the rider meeting, which started at 8:15.
After the meeting, I went to go get geared up for sighting laps, because I had not been to Thunder Hill Westside in a considerable amount of time. Once I had all my gear on, the Feel Like A Pro staff and my dad helped me get the bike ready to take on the track. Once the bike was ready, I rode down to the hot pit lane to begin going around the track to get the feel for riding that track again. After the sighting laps, I went back out onto the track again in the B- group. After that session, we immediately moved me up into the A group. When I went out with the A group I first focused on figuring out my lines and what gear to be in throughout the track. Later Young Lee arrived at the track to train, and help me with my riding. Then I spend the next couple of sessions trying to refine my lines, and look for reference points. But as I was riding I felt the bike begin to push out on me. So we went down to Dave Moss’s pit area, told him what the problem was, and he began to work his magic. He told me to come by after each session, and tell him how the bike felt. We eventually got the suspension dialed in by the second to last session. But by then I was tired and didn’t want to work on anything, because I was tired and it was extremely hot outside. So I just focused on trying to get on the throttle sooner. After the last session, we headed home. Overall it was a productive and tiring day.
Sunday
I arrived at the track at about 7:40 am, which was later then we wanted to arrive, but we were just glad we weren’t late for the riders meeting, which starts at 8:15 am. We hung out in the Feel Like A Pro pit area, while we waited for the meeting to begin. At about 8:10 I walked down to the hot pit lane and waited for the riders meeting to begin. In the meeting, they said everyone would be running the opposite direction. So after the riders meeting, I talked with Bryan Bartlow, and he agreed to lead me on track and show me all the new lines. So when the announcer called up A group, Feel Like A Pro helped me get the bike ready then Bartlow and I rode into the hot pit lane and took off for the track. Riding in the opposite direction was a much faster pace because most of the corners are going downhill, whereas in the original direction we would go uphill a lot. After that first session, I felt a little more confident on the track. Out of both configurations, I enjoyed the second one the best.
Later in the day, Young suggested that we move my bars back a little because they were too far forward, so we adjusted my bars back. Once we did that I spent the next session getting used to the new bar setup. Once I got used to the bar setup, I started working on body positioning, and reference points. And like the day before, it was extremely hot. So because of the heat, we ended up packing all of our stuff up early. It was kinda convenient though because we didn’t want to have to sit in 6:00 traffic. And on top of that, my hands were covered in blisters. Once we got everything packed and ready to go, we went around and said our goodbye’s to everyone and headed home. Overall it was a fun and tiring day.
Monday
Me and my coach Young woke up at about 6:00 in the morning to get ready to go to the Sonoma kart track, which is about an hour and a half away. So we left the house at about 7:15ish started our trip to the track. Once we got to the track we saw Young’s friend Bryan Davis, who ended up pitting with us. After inviting him to pit with us, we uploaded all of the stuff we brought which consisted of both of our gear, 2 ovale’s and one NSR 50, some gas, and chairs. We also brought a canopy just in case we couldn’t find a shaded area. We ended up finding one though, so we didn’t end up using the canopy. Once everything was unloaded Young and I did some warmup exercises and stretches. After that, we went over a game plan of what to work on for that track day. About an hour later I got geared up.
It’s been a while since I had ridden the Sonoma kart track, so it took a little bit of time to get used to the track. And on top of that, I hadn’t been on the ovale for a while, so I also had to get used to that again. While I was out there getting used to the track and bike again I worked on my lines, and reference points. I did this for about 3 sessions. Once I felt better on the track and the bike, I worked on focusing when I got on the breaks, and where I got on the throttle. I did this for about 2 sessions. After that I had lunch. For lunch I had a chicken sandwich, carrots with ranch, and some cherries. After lunch, I went out on the NSR 50, which took a lot of getting used to, mainly because you had to shift a lot more, and the shifter was a little more in the forward position, so I ended not being able to shift a couple of times, and finally the last thing that took some getting used to were the footpegs. They stuck out a little bit more compared to the ovale, so I drug the pegs a couple times. But once I got used to the bike it was much easier. After one session on the NSR 50, I got back on the ovale. I missed the shifter a couple of times, because I got used to the shifter being farther forward like on the NSR. After another session, I did for the day because the track was going to close in about 15 minutes. So I came in, got my gear off, put it away, and helped load everything into my parent’s van. About 30 minutes later we were on our way home. It felt like a productive day, but I was tired from the previous 2 days, so it felt like I was mentally dead.
