The road to the Cuyuga Track in Ontario is very long and boring. Straight, not one interesting curve. A blue SV650s was in front of me; Karen Ong (a.k.a Astrokat) was happily making sounds with her new MZ Titanium pipe; I followed in staggered formation on my red SV650s. It was early, between 6 am and 7 pm and our escort also included Angela Olah and her husband Marcell Mclean; their truck slowly pulling a trailer of two sportbikes, a BBQ, big blue bins for tools and supplies, an E-Z up… and I can’t remember what else right now. My new husband Dorjän Scott was caging his Mazda and playing well in his role as my own support staff  :D Well, we were sharing my bike so he would also be able to participate in today’s Track Day.

My husband and I arrived from Cleveland the night before so I was trying to clear my head of morning cobwebs, freeway concrete and posted speed limits in mental preparation for track day. This was my second time on a track but the first time on my own motorcycle. Well, third if you include the YSR track day (but that is another story!)

I was nervous, I wasn’t as nervous as FAST but I was pretty nervous. I just wanted to concentrate and think about what to work on…I knew I wanted to corner better and develop a better sense of speed. Time to put Keith Code’s  A Twist of the Wrist in practice!

It was really great to see the Twisty-Sisterz and meet new faces; we had a really nice turn out. Other spouses played support staff like Cecilia’s husband, Richard, his hands right in there wrenching with us. Many Twisty-Sisterz e-mailed the list to tell about their great experiences of meeting strangers and how everyone was so supportive, just pitching in with preparations. And everyone yakked a lot too, boy did we yak!

The first time on the track was messed up. Some miscommunication resulted in me being “sternly” redirected by track staff to NOT use hand signals or pull to the right on a straightaway. It was quickly cleared up that I was following a Twisty-Sisterz only agreed upon strategy. We were using our first session to follow selected leaders to see the lines and braking, shifting and turning points. Immediately after the first session, I vocally expressed my goal to spend more attention on riding than wondering what the heck was going on. Well, who’s the leader? Who’s in our group? We needed to know who each other were and review our strategy together: second rider to move to last position on the straightaway; session to complete when all riders have completed a lap behind the leader.

That second session made a big difference. Our group was much smoother, we knew what each other was doing, being more organized allowed me to familiarize myself with the track. Our rhythm was slightly interrupted when two other TS flew by us and “interrupted” our group.  I smiled in my helmet; it was so cool to see that! I then backed up a little to add some safety space as they passed our stately group in the first turn. WAIT. I was watching them and not paying attention to what I was doing. I reminded myself forcefully, “THIS is a TRACK. ABOLISH thoughts leading to street riding instincts. DON’T let anything distract you. YOU are in your own world right now, inside that helmet.” That mantra continued throughout the day with various other thoughts being added as the day progressed.

Now the third session. Marcell said we were on our own. Dismayed, I wondered if I could do this, I wanted to follow someone, it was so much easier! Well, that Twist of the Wrist DVD and Soft Science of Racing started to pay off. When I could remember what I read, I was able to concentrate on putting that knowledge into practice. Asking Dorjän to time me, I shaved off at least 12 seconds by the end of the day!

Riding well is so much harder than it looks. It’s a HUGE mental effort; challenging so many different things for each of us. It’s a personal journey and I’m really happy to share it with my Twisty-Sisterz.