ANGEL FIRE, NEW MEXICO MAY 15TH

 Here is a link to more photos of the trip http://rockettesauce.shutterfly.com/pictures/236

This past weekend I did a WEBE race in Angel Fire, New Mexico.  Being from Texas, this was by far the most technical race I have done yet.  I did one lap in practice and decided to save my energy for the race the next day.  It rained the night before my race and I was thinking….I’m just going to scratch and get my money back since it will probably be wet and even more gnarly….but I didn’t.  While we were lined up ready to go, right before my race started, they told us it had snowed up on top of the mountain the night before.  I knew I had to ride smart just to finish the race before and even more so now. 

It was a dead engine uphill start on the ski slope.  I tried taking off in first gear a few times with no luck, before my line took off.  I finally got it to fire up and decided to start in first.  This turned out to be a mistake b/c the bike would not start when my line took off, so I had to start it in neutral, and by that time, I was the very last person off the line for the whole race.  My 125 was struggling to make it up the mountain, but I just held it wide open in either 1st or 2^nd  gear and it got the job done.

The most technical part of the race was a super steep downhill section that was about 100 yards long and all rock!  Someone in practice went end over end down this hill and landed in the hospital probably because they got going too fast and tried to slow down pitching them off the front.  It was the scariest and hardest thing I have had to go down and I managed to get down it successfully all 4 times without falling.  I finished 2^nd in the women’s class and 61 out of 81 in the C race.  Not too bad considering I mainly ride sand and I was the last one off the line.

RUSTY'S WALNUT CREEK APRIL 30TH

The congo line of ladies!

We raced at my favorite property this last race, Rusty’s Walnut Creek.  The start was off the bike to the left with bike in gear running.  I practiced it a few times standing on my starting blocks and decided to do it in 2^nd gear.  I got a decent jump but just did not pin it enough in the first corner.  I was 3^rd back trailing the other two girls just flowing out the turns putting pressure on them.  We Congo lined for almost the entire first lap.  4^th place passed me at one point on the first lap, and started stalling it in every corner (not sure how with an auto clutch).  After the 2^nd or 3^rd corner I railed through from behind knowing that she would hit the electric start and try to battle with me again.  I just held my line and she t-boned me trying to knock me off my bike.  Since I knew this was her plan, I was ready for it and so it didn’t mess up my drive.  I pinned it from there and never looked back leaving her in the dust.  2^nd place ended up going down in the deep sand and I managed to maneuver quickly on the outside to get around.  I kept up the pace and didn’t let off.  The battle this year between all the women has been amazing.  We push each other to go bigger, better, and faster.  I ended up finishing 23^rd out of 68.  This property was voted best track of the year for a good reason!

I am getting ready for my next non TORCS race in Angel Fire, NM on may 15^th!

TEXAS EXTREME BRAZOS VALLEY April 17th

This was my first time racing anything other than TORCS.  I decided to check out this race series since we had already raced this property in TORCS and it was a lot of fun.  Everything in this series was so much different and more “laid back”.  This series is not as big as TORCS, so on Saturdays all afternoon is practice, which is fun.  I went out and did 2 laps on sat and just had a great time riding.  Their laps are about 4 miles longer than TORCS, so the trail also doesn’t get as beat-up either. 

There are only about 2 or 3 women that ride the series so they ride in the men’s B and C classes, so I signed up for the open C class.  It was a dead engine start, so I decided to start in 2^nd gear.  My bike lit, but I stalled it immediately b/c I didn’t gas it enough. I was at the back of the pack just eating dust.  I came up on the first easy/hard split and took the hard.  As I went down the hill there were 2 people in the bottom stalled out and it threw me off so I down shifted to 1^st, but mistakenly shifted to neutral and realized on the uphill.  I quickly tried to shift to first but it was too late and I rolled back down the hill.  This series also doesn’t have sweepers to help people get their bikes out so I was down in this “V” trying to turn my bike around and get it out. It was so hot that I ended up taking my helmet off and cooling down for a bit. By the time I got my bike out I was so far behind it didn’t matter how hard I pushed it.  I just used this race for seat time and just to have fun with it. since I wasn’t battling for points I was able to just relax and trail ride the rest of the race.  Brazos Valley is a very unique and challenging course with over 300 acres at this property there will always be something new and interesting to ride here.