Posts tagged ‘Race Thoughts’

WMRRA cornerworkers in the morning. Photo by Jason Tanaka.

Ever since I first considered riding at the track, I’ve always thought that I had a grasp of what I was really getting myself into. Whether it was the physical risk I was taking, the expenses involved, or the time required, I was willing to endure it all for the occasional kick in the pants. Even through the incidents and injuries I’ve already sustained since I’ve jumped into it, I haven’t given it a second thought. Until today.

This first race weekend was planned out to be super easy. Saturday, participate in the first race and make it my goal to be in very last place, which would ensure that I wasn’t riding over my head. Sunday would be spent cornerworking and getting some of my Novice graduation requirements out of the way since it wouldn’t be the nicest weather, anyway.

Unfortunately, Saturday was rained out for me, since I didn’t have a set of rain tires to go with the puddle-riddled track. I still went to the track in the morning just to check out how everyone was doing and if there was anything I could help with. The place was so full of volunteers that I couldn’t really add much. I was gone by noon and still managed to make a pleasant day out of it.

Today (Sunday) started out just as expected. Get there in time for the 7am cornerworker meeting, grab coffee and breakfast, get our assignments, and go enjoy the races while performing our duties. The clouds were staying high, the track was drying up, and we had gone three practice sessions without incident. One more and I get to see my one teammate that managed to get out this weekend, Donny, run his first race.

I was assigned to the inside of turn 2 with Karl and Mel, which was freshly paved this year and ridiculously flawless. With such new asphalt compared to its previous, almost cobblestone state, the racers’ lines were smoother and more confident through this: one of the two high speed carousels of the track. It seemed to me like nothing would be happening today at our corner.

That was my exact thought as I watched the exit of turn 2 just moments before Mel yelled “bike down” from half a step behind me as she watched the turn entrance. I heard the familiar crunch and scrape of a bike hitting the asphalt before I managed to turn my head to see the rider and bike fly into the tire wall at what looked like full straightaway speed.

From that point forward, things seemed to come in segments. Running to the track edge and waiting, seemingly for an eternity, for the red flag to be called and the racers to see it and stop. Realizing, as I look across the track impatiently waiting, that the downed rider hasn’t moved this entire time. Finally crossing the track and gravel and having my heart sink at the sight of the situation. Hearing Mel call to him and telling him that we were there, trying to reach him through those distant eyes with comforting words. Wondering what was taking the ambulance, the medics, the Life Flight helicopter so long to get there. Standing back and feeling useless as Race Rescue, paramedics and firefighters all took turns trying to revive him. Things didn’t start gelling together again until I was making a statement to the county sheriff.

Things seemed to be taken a notch down when they got him breathing again and a pulse. Not really wanting to leave the scene until we were sure that the authorities got everything they needed, I watched the helicopter lift off with him strapped to a backboard. I found myself wondering what if that were me? One of my close friends? Family?

Since Bryan, I quit riding on the street. It wasn’t safe. The track became a haven. It was relatively safer, and it wasn’t quitting riding altogether. Just when and where I did it. But for the first time since I first got on the saddle, I’m thinking of quitting motorcycles forever.

Claud Jinks passed away today at Harborview Medical Center. Condolences to his friends and family. Rest in peace.

Tim helping me get my bike ready. Photo by Jason Tanaka.

You’d be lying if you tell yourself that you’ve never waited at a stop light, anticipating that red light to change.

Everyone does it at one point or another: You pull up to a light and patiently wait, until you become aware of the seconds ticking by as the light won’t change. You start looking over at the crossing light, which annoyingly stays green longer than it should. It actually crosses your mind to put the car in park to run out and push the walk button, hoping to make the light change faster. Just as you swear under your breath, you see the cross light turn yellow, and you lift your foot off the brake just slightly, only to be affronted with a two second delay before your light turns green. When that glorious, refreshing color finally clicks on, you goose the gas a little too much and lurch away from that prison of an intersection. Half a block down the road, you realize how ridiculously worked up you got over such a mundane situation.

I’m waiting at a red light right now. Except it’s not one that turns green. It just goes out. And there’s no such thing as gassing it too much coming off this line.

This light is the testing red eye belonging to the start line that is WMRRA‘s first round this coming weekend. Having just seen the tip of the iceberg at 2Fast‘s New Racer School, practicing starts and participating in a full race simulation, gridding up for my first Novice race has become a very large, looming shadow on the horizon. It’s the final destination after a long-awaited vacation, or a three day weekend after a very long week.

This weekend can’t come soon enough.