WMRRA Round 1 — The Ridge

My first club-level race weekend. My goals going in: complete races, be competitive, minimize risk, have fun. I was hoping for a podium, but with a right arm that isn't fully healed yet, I wasn't going to risk throwing myself on the ground for one.

Race 1 — Saturday

From pole in Open Amateur. Uneventful in the best way. Saw Breah off in Turn 11 picking flowers, came up on a single-lapper in Turn 3 (not the friendliest place to make a pass, but it went clean). Took the win by 10 seconds.

Race 9

From P2 on the front row with Thomas on pole and Ryan on P3. Had a proper battle with Ryan on his RS660. He showed me a wheel in 13 and pushed me wide. I kept it, but he slid underneath me in 15. Next lap he got me again in 11, so I pulled the same move on him in 13 and pushed him wide. It was a blast. I big-biked him back down the straight and took the overall win by half a second. Since we both won our own classes, we weren't really racing each other, just each other's pride. Ryan has real pace and skill, and I'm looking forward to more battles with him, even if it's not exactly a fair fight on the straights. Bummed to come around and see Rex, my NRS student from Friday, parked off in 8B. He gave me a nice wave. I waved back and kept fighting.

Race 12

From pole. With a day of racing under my belt, I wanted to very intentionally focus on staying relaxed and just riding my best, even if that's not necessarily the fastest I could go. Hit all my apexes, kept my vision forward to my reference points. My fastest flying lap came on the last lap of the race. When I was most tired and most relaxed, I was quickest. So it turns out pushing versus relaxing doesn't always change your lap times by much. Good lesson for the rest of the season.

Race 21 — the one

From P2 on the front row again. On the first attempt, I got a poor start and dropped into the mix heading into Turn 1 and 2. Followed some advice Mark had given me, worked my way to the outside, and made my way through a bit of the field between 1 and 3. By Turn 13 the top four of us were nose-to-tail, still on lap 1. I was fighting with P4 trying to find a way through on the left and was about to give up the apex when a crash went down up front. Pretty confident the apex was clear, I pretended I was flat tracking and took Turn 13 really tight to stay away from the chaos. In hindsight, I should have been more patient and taken them one by one at the other corners. Race got red-flagged on lap 2 for possible oil on track.

On the restart, still from P2, I stalled the bike at the launch and let the entire grid past me, laughing at myself for making this mistake. Finally underway, I put my head down and went to work. Clawed back to P9 by the end of lap 1, picked off three more on lap 2, then one rider a lap for the next three laps, settling into P3. The rear tire was talking to me (my Pirelli SC2 was hanging in there, though I should have swapped to an SC1 for the heat, confirmed later by Sage). Ended up P3 overall, P1 Open Novice. Most fun I had all weekend.

Takeaways

Final tally: 3 overall wins and 4 class wins across 4 races. Fastest flying lap was a 1:54.934. An excellent starting point for my first WMRRA weekend, five months out from breaking my arm flat tracking and on a bike Patrick and I just finished rebuilding. Plenty of work to do on race craft and passing, but I feel good, getting stronger every day, and I can't wait to keep fighting back down to new PBs and scrapping with all of you out there. You just gotta want it.