Celebrate the little things!

Well, it was around 1:30 PM on October 5th that I low sided in turn #3.  It knocked the wind out of me and I was pretty certain that I'd sprained my ankle.  Weird, the way adrenaline can drive you to escape a dangerous situation.  Incredible actually! 

I stood up with the help of Loudon's awesome corner workers and started to walk towards my cycle.  I made it all the way to the bike before even noticing that my knee was likely injured.  The bike slid much further than I had and it came to rest at the wall of tires.  Looks like the canopy was damaged from that tire impact and not the lowside.  Glancing down at the bike and seeing it was pretty much OK, lent me the opportunity to do my own self assessment.  Naturally, I found I was coming up a little short by comparison.

Dan from FTF Cycles rescues my ride.

My friends and paddock mates were all awesome.  They made sure that anything I could possibly be stressing over (other than making the 'go to the hospital' decision) was taken out of my way.  They were still up against their own race schedules but it's as though they took turns making sure that I was well.  I really owe them all a debt of gratitude.  This is really what racing is all about.  These guys rally around and support you in the paddock.  They'll help you make your machine purr, teach you about proper technique and befriend you.  Of course, when the green flag drops, we're competing with one another but that's racing too. 

I really love my racing family.

I've had a lot of time to replay the series of events that lead to my lowside.  Mostly, I suspect that I was pushing too hard.  It was my last race weekend of my rookie season and I wanted to meet or exceed certain goals that I had set for myself.  That's really my mistake, pushing too hard instead of minding my experience level.

During the race, I really executed well from launch to race pace.  I didn't run into trouble until my lap times started approaching speeds I'd never rehearsed before.  I think I would have been just fine if I hadn't encountered traffic and adjusted my lines to make the passes down the back straight off of turn #2.  And I passed 4 riders, way too many tangents for me to calculate with my level of experience.

What am I celebrating today you ask?

Dana's left leg with the brace adjusted to 70 degrees

I'm celebrating my privileges!

If you're gonna ride; remember to Twist It!

-diz

Every last detail...

Attention to detail

I feel like I did a great job evolving the Ducati during Season 1

 

 

-diz

Why Racing Superbikes?

Why Racing Superbikes?

I've never really been much of a sports fan.  I've probably made that clear in a number of ways.  But mostly because I'm just "sports clueless". When I was first introduced to superbike racing - Wow! It just did it for me.  It wasn't really because of any one rider.  Back then it was because everything was so graceful.  The radius of the turns and the lean angles of the bikes and riders.  I could just watch them for hours.  I'd only ever heard classic drag cars up until then.  Occasionally, some funny cars but the superbikes where just something totally different.

Stick with me, remember - I'm not a sports person.

I really love math and I'm constantly playing little geometry games with everything I see.  I'll glance through the room and determine intersection angles, volumes, areas, tangents.  Shove them together and look for some interesting patterns.

It's probably a little bit autistic really. And jeeze, I'll notice if you move nearly anything in a room that I've been in a few times.  But I probably won't notice that you've shaved your beard. 

Unless we're really close, then I'll notice almost everything.  ++ 

Getting setup to flick the bike

 

Riding on the race track is just like that for me but beyond what I can process in real-time.  In fact, I'm just now learning to listen on a bunch of new inputs from the bike.  Unlike reasoning with people, the track offers more constants to interact with.  I have developed a wonderful desire for pushing my understanding of the track.  Doing a year and a half of track days really fanned the flames of those desires.

Racing introduced many new variables into the challenges.  One of them surprised me quite a bit: I'm super competitive.  I know how to lose with dignity but I don't like it.  I realized that slowly but steadily during LRRS Round #2.  The first time that 'I' passed someone during a race was energizing.

In my last race before I had the low slide (which I'm still on my ass more than not), I started lapping the racers in the wave after me.  That was really really exhilarating.  It most likely contributed to my slide.  I'll have to learn to turn those feelings up and down if I want to continue to competing successfully. 

Why do you follow racing?  Why do you race?

If you're gonna ride, remember to Twist It!

-diz

The girls are home

Well I thought of few of my readers might have wondered how this racer chick is feeling a few weeks after her accident.

I'll try my best to make sense of my current thoughts for you.

Well, where to start?  I know, as you can see in my x-ray above, my patella is broken into 5 or so pieces. There was a good amount of pain during my first two weeks but I managed it with the pain killer that my Dr. prescribed. 

I spent 2 weeks in an immobilizer brace.

I'm finally getting around reasonably well with my partial mobility brace.  It's a lot more comfortable than the immobility brace that I wore for the first two weeks.  I'm definitely experiencing noticeable weakness in my injured leg and my good leg is really feeling the extra burden.  My brace is set to 40 degrees of motion and in about 1 more week, I can advance that to 70 degrees.  I hope to start physical therapy then and get my range of motion and strength back. 

This was my first real broken bone - ever! and that fact is not lost on me.  Unlike simple sprains or other injuries that I just ignored when I was younger, I don't know what a nominal healing baseline measurement should be for me. 

That's kind of weird?!

Makes me feel a lot more innocent somehow

The girls are back home again!

 

Now, from my analytical voice...

I've looked at my telemetry data, studied the photos, obsessed over practice videos and inspected my tires.  There's not nearly enough evidence to support my having learned the bike too steeply.

I must have unsettled the chassis when I was between turns 3 and 4.  There's simply no other reasonable explanation other than that. 

Now, I just don't remember putting pressure on the right bar end. 

I think that I have a vivid memory of how I executed that last lap.  If I smooth the data just a little, it can justify what I believe I may have done wrong. 

Here's what I'm thinking...

I was getting on the throttle at the apex, not loosing much rear traction but perhaps lightening the front contact point.  That would explain my memory of driving out and then feeling the front tuck.  I think I chopped the throttle then, that's not the right decision.  I should have continued to accelerate smoothly and let the bike stand up.

What to you folks think?

Work items...

Well, I was already planning on retiring my race skins from the bike after each season. 
I thought that it would make a great artifacts to hang around the workshop.

Here's the extents of the damage that my crash in round 7 incurred.

Naturally, my GP Canopy has seen betters days. 

I will replace the fairing stay with a new one I had in stock.

My GoPro totally took a shock.  I thought that all the safety wiring I did

may have been over the top.  I feel differently now.

Looks like I'll need a few parts for the rearset and

maybe I'll replace the engine guard impact plate too!

Round 7 Race Report

The 848 prepped for round 7. 

What a marvelous machine and Ulli is an awesome photographer

Well, it's the end of my first race season and I'm sitting on my couch writing this race report with a broken knee cap, sprained ankle, bruised ribs and a remarkably wide smile.

Dana looking on at Ducati w/ smashed canopy

I was originally planning to ride LRRS practice on Friday, race Saturday and Sunday and top my dessert weekend off with a session of Tony's Track Day on Monday.  Unfortunately, my weekend ended after my first race on Saturday. 

DMZ Racing #358 sets the pace for the Novice race 

My launch in race 1 was really strong and I rode a strong wheelie nearly 2 scoreboard's distance.  My first lap was a 1:31 which is about 3 seconds faster than my fastest lap 1 times.  I kept on the throttle all the way through turn 2 and the back straight.  I ran a little deep in turn 3 but recovered my speed by really get off to the side of the bike up the hill.

Dana making last minute adjustments

I found a slightly deeper entry into the bowl (turn 6) and it allowed me to get all of my pointing done quickly and push a good radius all the way through to turn to the flip through turn 7.  I felt really smooth and ran solid 1:28's for the rest of the race.

Which ended carving through turn 3 in lap 4.  :(

Dana gets her first ambulance ride

 

note the damage to the rear set, not really a bad slide

 

And wins her first race!

1st Place Rookie race

I'll be healing for a few weeks...

If you're gonna ride - remember to Twist It!!

Details coming soon!