Ok, last weekend I attended the XTYline women’s day event on Saturday and then stayed for Sunday’s track also.
My friend Kristi rode too! Her first time on any track and she did pretty good! She's already made plans to go back the end of this month, so I just may have to join her.
We got there late Friday night, right before the gates closed. There were already quite a few people there carrying on, having a great time. There was a bonfire and a general party atmosphere, which was nice.
We decided to camp out at the track to save money, and that worked out really well since it’s not hot anymore. In fact it was downright COLD on Friday night and colder on Saturday night. Sunday morning you could see your breath until the sun got up enough raise the temperature.
Saturday morning we got the canopy set up, the bikes unloaded & everything situated. After the rider’s meeting, the women’s group got together and we figured out who would be working with which instructor, talked for a while and got to know each other a bit.
I met 051000RR’s friend Jama, who was very cool and a pretty fast rider too. There was such a wide range of riders there, from girls like Jama who were already fast, to a few girls who had never been on a track, to those like me who are in between.
There were three groups that day: the women’s group, novice (which consisted of novice & slower intermediate riders) and expert (which was faster intermediate riders & experts). I started out in the women’s group with my instructor, Kelly, and one other girl. After a few sessions of getting reacquainted with the track, Kelly & I and a different girl moved into novice. We stayed there for the rest of the day.
There was a little survey to fill out where you identified your strengths & weaknesses, and a section where you listed things you wanted to work on. I wanted to focus mainly on body position, and I also need to work on downshifting and braking when approaching corners, so that’s what I worked on pretty much all weekend.
Between each session, the women would gather in a room and talk about different topics and have questions answered, etc. It was really great to talk to other women about this stuff, and get information from the female instructors. Let me tell you, they were just fantastic! I learned a lot just from hearing them talk. I wish I could have had Jen work with me some, but it just didn’t happen. I hope that one of these days I’ll get a chance to follow her around and pick her brain, so to speak. (Yes, that’s another hint, Jen!
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Kelly was great though, and really put a lot of effort into helping me out. I wasn’t expecting half as much attention as I got, and it was greatly appreciated!
I think there was something like 17 or 18 women riders and about 7 instructors, so there was lots of time for everyone.
On Sunday, it was just a regular track day with all three groups (novice, intermediate & expert), but Kelly was still there so she was still able to work with me some. I started out in Novice, but was getting frustrated at being stuck behind slower people, either having to pass them, or sometimes not wanting to or being able to. I kept pitting in and riding back out to get away from slower groups. So after lunch I moved up to intermediate. Kelly was riding intermediate too, so she was able to follow me around a bit. She had suspension problems that day though, so she wasn’t able to ride with me as much as we had hoped. She has a lap timer and she said the best time she did while following me was 1:46. So, not speedy Gonzales by any means, but I think I was being pretty consistent in my lines & never ran off the track. I only came close to it once towards the end of the day, in turn 13. I just lost focus for a second & started heading towards the outside, then regained focus on the meatball sign on the left, but forgot to then turn and look to the next one on the right for turn 14 and nearly ran off the track.
Scott was right behind me with the video camera during that session. I was laughing about it as I went through 14, but thank goodness the camera had put itself on stand-by so there’s no evidence of that near-mishap!
They also did a mock race on Sunday for each group. I didn’t ride in one b/c I had moved out of novice, and I certainly wasn’t going to ride in the intermediate race. Scott rode in intermediate though and got 2nd place. Actually he got third, b/c Ian jumped in the race and worked his way through the pack and passed Scott in turn 13, so technically Ian was 2nd, but he wasn’t supposed to be in the race to begin with so as far as I’m concerned Scott got 2nd!
As far as my bike goes… I am loving this bike more & more every time I go there. I interpret this to mean that I am just really getting to know it well & am learning to ride it better (after almost 2 years & 20,000+ miles, you'd think so huh?). I really want to put a slipper clutch in it, since I’m obviously never going to master throttle blipping on downshifts and I’d rather cheat and have less stress than piss myself off corner after corner trying to get it right. In other words, I give up. Give me the damn slipper clutch!
I also have to say that I love these tires I’m running more than ever (M3’s). I’ve done 4 track days on them now, with commuting & pleasure riding in between and they are still holding up well. Granted I’m not riding at a blistering pace, but still… I’ve always been very afraid of slipping tires, but these are making me get over my fear.
Anyway, we had a such a great time I can’t really begin to describe it. That’s the most fun I’ve had there yet, which is saying a lot since I’ve never had a bad time there. Love the track, I’m feeling more & more at home on it every time I go.
I'll post some pics as soon as I get copies from my friend, and hopefully can get some from the track photographer, if there are any of us worth looking at.
Thanks again Ian, Jen, Kelly, and everyone else who worked to make the weekend a success!
last weekend
She actually got her knee down in turn 10 (I think) so I can't wait to see her pics!!
