San Diego Supermoto Race

SEEMS YOU HAVE TO CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM FULLY, THEY ARE TOO LARGE.

Life seems to be a day to day thing for me as of late. I seem to come up with things to do, but not sure if I am going to do them. So when I heard about an asphalt only supermoto race in San Diego I was on the fence. I can’t do the dirt section of a supermoto race yet, so a street only would be best since that’s my cup of tea. Late Sat night after a day of driving forever to get quilt material to try to make my dad a quilt in a week for father’s day, I figured I would go ahead and race. Mike said if I was going to race the he wanted to go so off we went at 5:00AM. Miles was generous to offer to use his bike since mine still had all the lights, and so on, on it. I also did not want to race without hand guards. With such a busy and exhausting week at work, I did not think I was going to race. Then with working on the quilt, I really did not think I was going to go. I just through things together and hope I remembered everything.
All the way down there I just did not feel like racing. Maybe riding around, but not racing. I was just not into it. I have been very stressed and I did not want any more pressure. Now I am racing? I figured that it would be some track time and that would be ok. Everyone there was very nice, but there were not too many bikes. It’s a Go Karting event that opened up for supermotos. The grouped the beginners, intermediate, and advanced in the same grid to start but let each group start with a same gap between the next group.

Here is the race schedule.

Practice session 1
Practice session 2
Qualifying
Heat race 1 (10 laps)
Heat race 2 ( 10 laps)
Main race (15 laps)

Holy cow that’s a lot of racing. I have not used what I like to call “supermoto muscles” too much. I ride a sportbike and can do that all day, but my legs and arms were killing me due to the different style. I figured out I could do a few turns on the bike like I ride my sportbikes so I would do that now and then to save my legs and arms in some of the races.

I then found out the track was a mile a lap!!!!!!!! That’s one heck of a big track. I was thinking,” Are you kidding me? I have to do a 15 mile race? After 20 Miles of heat race laps? After a qualifying and two practice sessions that I have idea how many laps they were?”

I did all the laps and sessions and it was time for the main race. I did a lap and a half warm up to find the bike died on the start. I can’t get it going and don’t know what’s going on. I was frantic. They tell me to pull off the grid, but I was still trying to start it when a guy yells out the gas is off. I move the switch hoping I moved it to on and got the bike started. The card goes up and the bike dies again. I raise my hand and it won’t start. They tell me to get off the grid. I am pushing with one foot since I can’t touch with both feet slowly off the grid (that was a fast as I could go) as I was trying to start the bike. How could I come all this way and wait all day (5 PM by now) and not do the main? They started my beginners group and off they went. I finally got my bike started and I was told to go ahead and join them. I took off and was trying hard to catch them. After I caught them I realized I was trying really hard and had sooooooo many laps left to do. They were also not telling us the half way mark on the races. I was just riding and riding. I passed two guys and just kept trying to ride to stay ahead of them. Near the end of the race two advanced riders passed me. I felt pretty good about that since it took them so long to finally pass me. I also was then catching up to a guy that started on the wrong grid spot (that was going on each race, don’t ask me how they could get that wrong when they lined us up on a pregrid area.) that was in the intermediate level. I followed him around trying to pass him. I got him on the last turn on the last lap. I ended up getting second in my class behind a guy on a 650 Kawasaki Versys. Can’t keep up with that thing on that big of a track. Oh and with I would guess about 5 laps to go in the main race my legs were hurting so bad that I could hardly keep my leg out. It was dragging on the ground because I lacked the strength to lift it anymore. My arms were hurting as well and I was trying really hard not to make a mistake due to fatigue. Mistake, as in, get hurt.
Needless to say my body has been feeling it for the last two days. It was a great workout I guess.

More please!



xoxoxoxoxoxoxo