Tales from a female racer's perspective...

My perspective: my 10-year HS reunion
August 16, 2002

Since I did not attend the last race at Roebling because I was attending my 10-year high school reunion back in Grand Island, NY, I'll talk about that.
Everyone always says, "wow, 10 years, I can't believe it has been that long!" I know it is cliche', but it is so true. When I walked up to the "beer blast" at the local VFW, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. Are you supposed to be all excited about seeing everyone and go around hugging them? Or do you say "it's been so long, you look great, what are you doing now, where do you live, are you married, do you have kids....?" Within about 2 minutes it occured to me that there was no script and no plan needed. It was 10 years later, some looked different (just a little older), but whatever you had in common as friends back then somehow is still there. Conversation came easily. No one cared what we were all doing for a living, how much we are making, etc. We all just enjoyed re-living the "old times". We had a great time.

So how does this tie into motorcycle racing you ask? Well, there were a few common things people said to me. One was "you look the same" (I think that is good?!?) and "I heard you race motorcycles!" It seems that word spread quickly...in disbelief, quite honestly. I never "looked the part" of a racer back then or now, so picturing me on a race track probably was a little shocking. It did make for great conversation!

I told Jeff that as soon as he was done racing to call me on my cell phone. As I was sitting outside by the Niagara River in the house where I grew up, my voice mail beeps. Jeff leaves a message "I am fine, bike's not, talk to you later." Thanks Jeff...leave me no details! I call Ray and Dawn's cell phone to get the details. No answer. I call Rick's phone and he answers. Rick tells me "it's not that bad, just minor damage." Pheww!

I have raced all of one stickin' race this year - what happened!! I miss it...a lot. Hopefully we will be able to attend the Labor Day weekend race at Roebling. This year's schedule was difficult for us to stick with. Until next time....

Tales from a male racer's perspective...

Why you should ride within your limits....
August 16, 2002

what a concept eh?......As I look over the damage to my once brand spankin' new '02, I step back and CRINGE....What A fool!!! I was running someone else's race. Funny thing, Nicole learned the same valuable lesson during the Aprilia Cup Championship last October at Daytona running Shannon Silva's race pace during a practice. Do we ever learn? Apparently not, especially after hearing the same story over and over. Let's go back to last Sunday morning prior to the start of the Lockhart Phillips Unlimited GP race. Oh yea, did I mention that a couple of AMA Pros showed up that morning to take the Suzuki money?...a member of ArcLight Suzuki and from Team Tapeworks?....yes they were incredibly fast and upped the ante' on everyone's pace..including mine. Flag drops, everyone bonzai's into T1, hey I'm in fourth behind the Arclight fastie, Byron and Ron....not too bad, but i'm riding the wheels of the bike trying to keep their pace and so is everyone else. My-chron flashes "1:15:76" at the end of the second lap. Still in 4th heading into T1 and not trying to think about the 3 (YES 3!) false neutrals that plagued me in HVSS during the prior race. "Go deep and take a inside line" I think to myself as I head into T1, snick down 2 gears, keep the tire hop to a minimun, look through the turn and away we go... ooops a little to hot. Scrub off some more speed, off the race line a tad but not to bad. Oh no! they're getting away!...up the pace, I can hang with them....mid way through T2, I begin to loose the front end. I feel a lazy, slow lowside coming on, and sure enough here it came. The low side seemed like it took a eternity to complete itself. All I could think of was that fantastic save that Valetino Rossi made when he began to low side and saved it by firmly planting his knee into the track but that was Valentino not me. Now my thoughts quickly changed to "hold on to the bike" which I did. The bike dragged me off the track and as soon as we hit the grass we became separated and I saw the bike take a tumble. I sat there for a second and then ran over to the bike, it was still running. I picked it up and realized that the front brake resevior was broken and leaking fluid. My day was done. I rode to T4 and into the paddock area and parked it. Now that it has been a few days since my circus act, I came to the conclusion that I got caught up in the "I'll just hang with the fast guys and follow them" not realizing that I fell into the same death trap of running someone else's race. Learn by my example everyone. As a side note, the race was red flagged during lap 4 when Ron Perry, who was running his best weekend lap times had a mishap in T4 and went into the woods. He was MediVac'ed out of there on a LifeFlight. I understand he is doing ok with a few broken ribs....maybe he to was running someone else's race.....God's Speed Ron...