Saturday's Incident
Concerned parents need not read on past the cut.
I crashed! My first ever.
It was Saturday afternoon, late in the day. I was in a hurry, hoping that I could go the whole session without James lapping me, and a young man I was chasing highsided right in front of me coming out of Turn 12. He was in transit, off of his motorcycle, directly in front of me on the left, and his bike was also in transit, also directly in front of me, just to my right. I didn't know who was going where so I braked to try to avoid hitting either bike or rider. I braked so hard that my rear wheel came up off the ground, and I noticed that I was still heading for his motorcycle and I guess must have turned the bars to try to change direction. Braking hard + turning bars aggressively = crash. I went up and over the left front of my bike, landed hard on my head and right knee and tumbled. I remember going "uhhhh! Owwww! Uhhhh!" in my helmet until I came to a stop.
I looked over my shoulder and saw other riders approaching me so I got up and hustled off of the track. Everything was still working but my head, knee and elbow were sore. Surprisingly, my bike wasn't badly injured so I was able to ride it off of the track. They rolled an ambulance for the other rider who was knocked out, but only briefly.
Instead of hanging out for the barbecue and then going to Chico for dinner that night, I just chilled out in my hotel room with James, pizza and the movie Elf. I was basically fine but felt a little bit anti-social and emotional, and for no real reason that I could think of. Maybe I just didn't feel like talking about it with people I didn't know that well. I had a bad headache too.
Anyway, the next day I proceeded with my New Racer School. I had gotten down to a new low of 2:12 before the crash, but I was a little shaken up afterwards and kept things slow and smooth, averaging around 2:17. The school was all day long with zero breaks and I was perpetually late for both my track and classroom sessions. In a way it was good, because it helped keep me from stewing about my crash or psyching myself out about it (not that I necessarily would have done that, but I might have). I passed my evaluation and now have a license to race with the AFM.
Monday I had another track day at Infineon. Driving home that night I had to pull over and snooze for a few minutes, and even still I almost fell asleep at the wheel. Today at work, I am exhausted, but feel relatively accomplished.
I crashed! My first ever.
It was Saturday afternoon, late in the day. I was in a hurry, hoping that I could go the whole session without James lapping me, and a young man I was chasing highsided right in front of me coming out of Turn 12. He was in transit, off of his motorcycle, directly in front of me on the left, and his bike was also in transit, also directly in front of me, just to my right. I didn't know who was going where so I braked to try to avoid hitting either bike or rider. I braked so hard that my rear wheel came up off the ground, and I noticed that I was still heading for his motorcycle and I guess must have turned the bars to try to change direction. Braking hard + turning bars aggressively = crash. I went up and over the left front of my bike, landed hard on my head and right knee and tumbled. I remember going "uhhhh! Owwww! Uhhhh!" in my helmet until I came to a stop.
I looked over my shoulder and saw other riders approaching me so I got up and hustled off of the track. Everything was still working but my head, knee and elbow were sore. Surprisingly, my bike wasn't badly injured so I was able to ride it off of the track. They rolled an ambulance for the other rider who was knocked out, but only briefly.
Instead of hanging out for the barbecue and then going to Chico for dinner that night, I just chilled out in my hotel room with James, pizza and the movie Elf. I was basically fine but felt a little bit anti-social and emotional, and for no real reason that I could think of. Maybe I just didn't feel like talking about it with people I didn't know that well. I had a bad headache too.
Anyway, the next day I proceeded with my New Racer School. I had gotten down to a new low of 2:12 before the crash, but I was a little shaken up afterwards and kept things slow and smooth, averaging around 2:17. The school was all day long with zero breaks and I was perpetually late for both my track and classroom sessions. In a way it was good, because it helped keep me from stewing about my crash or psyching myself out about it (not that I necessarily would have done that, but I might have). I passed my evaluation and now have a license to race with the AFM.
Monday I had another track day at Infineon. Driving home that night I had to pull over and snooze for a few minutes, and even still I almost fell asleep at the wheel. Today at work, I am exhausted, but feel relatively accomplished.