Subject: Ducati Revs America, or my date with Troy Bayliss (not) Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 12:07:37 -0500 From: gayathri Well, you know the real reason I signed up was for the chance to meet Troy Bayliss and ride with him on a track. The 996sps, meeting other racer chicks, the clinic with Freddy Spencer, Nick I. and Jeff Haney were all just gravy. (Tho they were great gravy!) My hopes were dashed at Imola when Troy crashed with Laconi and broke his collarbone. I suspected he wouldnt be riding, and when I arrived at Las Vegas I. Raceway on Frday, my hopes were completely crushed. Susanna Schike (sp?) was kind enough to share her room with me, to help with hotel costs, and I had to find her friend Mark Duncan to get the key. Lucky for me, he was hanging out at the HMC Ducati trailer, and offered to introduce me to Troy, Ben and Reuben. Now, understand, I'm a total fan of Ben Bostrum, not just 'cause he's American, but 'cause he and Eric have always been friendly, laid back and just NICE guys at the track (they've come out to Willow Springs a few times), but I've been secretly nursing a huge crush of sorts on Troy Bayliss ever since I read this article in AMASuperbike.com (http://www.amasuperbike.com/bayliss_2000_a.htm) and I just wanted a chance to meet him without the huge crowds and get his signature on my helmet. I bought a brand new helmet just for him to sign. Crazy, isnt it? Anyway, my throat just about closed up when Mark brings me over and I shake Troy's left hand, and ask him, "How's the collarbone healing? Mine took forever..." and next thing you know, we're having this conversation about slow bones and what a pain in the ass it was not being able to ride, and joking about doctors, x-rays, etc. I told Troy that the only reason I signed up for the weekend was to ride with him, and how disappointed I was that I was not getting the chance, but how HAPPY I was he and Laconi werent seriously hurt.... (and oh MI GOD, what a race that was! you all had me at the edge of my seat with fear and sheer amazement...) I was just really pleased at how sweet he was, and what a smile! *swoon!* Thanks, Troy! Then Mark takes me over to see Ben, who smiles at me when I ask him when is he comin' back to Willow to pit for Jeff Bostrum, and signs my helmet. Just as we turn away, Reuben Xaus comes back off the track, and Mark takes me over to him... Reuben is the tallest racer of the lot, and was happy to sign my helmet, but he couldnt manage to get the paint pen working -- next thing I know, he blooops a HUGE glop of paint onto the helmet, and in distress, flicks the pen, which bloops paint all over my hands! (Hahahahaha! i was laughing at his complete consternation, and calmed him down enough to sign the helmet, and cleaned off the extra paint with a spare TShirt from the Helmet Shop...) His english is fantastic, and turns out he knows about 4 other languages too (I assume Spanish is one of them). I smiled to myself and said, the rest of the weekend can only be icing on this cake, as I said good bye to some of the fastest men on two wheels and headed around to check out the sights. Ran into Sonny Mediana, an LaBiker, who'd driven with his wife, kids and Mom-in-law the night before, and we walked around with Chris Kelly (buddy from WSMC) who was kind enough to snap some pics of me getting my lid signed. I saw my favorite actor from the TV show VIP (Dustin Nguyen) but he was too swamped with hangers-on for me to come by and say hi. Went to see Doug Polen talk at Ducati University about suspension setup and got some good tips on things to try out, and then went to the Motorcyclist Q&A about safer riding. Mitch Boehm's new leathers are quite nice. It was funny -- many of the women there were riders themselves, and when the group started talking about some advanced racing techniques, one chick raises her hand and says, "What does ' backing it in' mean - - -- You'll have to explain it in simple terms, I'm a girl." to which a bunch of other women JUMPED on her -- "Dont apologize for being a woman!" and I said, "Not getting the vocabulary isnt because you are a girl, its because you dont hang out with racers..." (Man, I was PISSED at her. Like we need her to give the guys any excuse to talk down to us...) BUT! Motorcyclists' Mitch Boehm, Freddie Spencer School's Jeff Haney, and Doug Polen all reacted with versions of "Dont make this a girl/ boy thing, it aint..." and then explained what 'backing it into a corner' meant. Now, tired, I catch a ride back with Sonny to the hotel, and run into SuperSarah and Andrea (yay! two more LaBikers!). They check in, we hit the showers, and starving, have dinner at the Sahara's Steak house. YUM! By this time, the NYC WiST contingent finally gets together, and calls me. We're done with dessert, so I desert the LABiker Chicks and head out to Mandalay Bay with the WiST girls! (Jean Pinelli, Kath Corgan, Eve and George (?)) The Mr Olympia Contest was going on, so Mandalay Bay was wall to wall testosterone and muscle'd bodies, both boy and girl. (Inspiring for me, I started to lift again...) Joe Weider was walking about too! The drinks were fabulous at the Mexican Grill, and tired out, we all head back to the Sahara. I finally meet Susanna just as I'm about to fall asleep -- she comes in with Mark. We pass out, sleeping hard for our long day coming up.... - -------------------- Saturday -- Thanks to Susanna for getting us to the track - we got picked up in these van converted mobile homes, so I got to lay on the bed and watch everyone else. Some woman from Sports Illustrated was there, making me nervous. I dont like much of the 'regular' press, and a women's magazine always makes me nervous -- how much is it aimed at men, not women, or how much is it really like Martha Stewart Living? I dont know anything about the magazine, tho Squidboy tells me later that the spinoff was actually by Sports Illustrated regular editors who were women... Fortunately, I'm too unattractive to the camera for them to spend more then a few seconds talking to me. (Given some of the women there, I'm not really surprised they blew me off. A relief!) We get to the track, unload our gear, get some breakfast (I can barely get down some yogurt, and granola) and get into the classroom with Freddy Spencer, Jeff Haney, and Nick I. Great chalk talk, as well as tips on what to try and do out there. A couple of the other women I met mentioned there was some attitude going on here -- women sizing each other up, etc. But I put it down to: 1. I know I'm shy, maybe they all are as well. 2. some of the women had language barriers to overcome (the German girls...) 3. I'll bet MANY of the US women racers are totally used to be with "the guys" and had no idea what to do with "the girls". Zina Kelly, the only other woman who I'd ridden on a track with other then Vicky Jackson Bell, was in another group, so I didnt get to ride with her. Then the clusterfuck as 30 chicks try to get into their leathers when 15 of 'em need to be on the bikes right now. Doug Polen and Reuben Xaus are to be on the track with us, as well as Vicky Jackson Bell. Ow. Hurts to get into the leathers. I'm stuck on the back protector. Ow. Hurts to have someone help me. I should have taken the motrin. Watch everyone leave. Hear someone crashes on the second lap and watch as they all come in... We jump on the bikes, (I'm on #5) and head on out as soon as they clean up the crash... I'm SLOW as molasses on a cold morning. I just concentrate at first on getting the track lines right, and figuring out turn in and slow down points. As the session winds on, I'm starting to figure out hanging off a 996, and realize that this bike is sooooo light, (at least compared to me, some of the little girls complained it was hard to turn...) and just kept looking thru those turns. Susanna passes me, in turn 7 and I decide to stick to her for a bit, but we both catch out of the corner of our eyes, another woman who tries to pass us both, and she goes off the edge of the track. I see her fall, catch the bike tumbling and see it try to get back on the track. Stay on the throttle, swerve and get away from it... put out my hand and follow Susanna off the track. eww. Didnt need that. I'm terrified of crashing. I'm completely PISSED at the chick and refuse to find out who she is and how she's doing for fear I'll say something I'll regret. The nice thing about Las Vegas is that there are only two right hand turns out of 9 turns. (I'm a little afraid of decreasing radius rights) The bad thing is that since there are only two rights, the rest are lefts, and I'm on my bad foot a LOT... ow. I just about fall off the bike when the nice mechanic comes to take it away from me.... ow. Think about the track, think about the bike. Love the bike. Hate the track. (Its too flat.) I tell my friends later: "It handled like the FZR, only better. It had power and torque like my T5, only more so..." I _really_ enjoyed riding that twin. During our break, I just walked around, hunched over and fat, 'cause I'm afraid to take the leathers off, and they dont stretch enough for me to stand straight (on purpose). My ankle hurt like hell and walking was the only thing that seemed to help. Riding on the track with so many fast people was hard for me -- I'm really out of shape and out of practice, and while both Vicky Jackson Bell and Reuben towed me around -- I think if I had this same chance in 6 months, I'd have gotten a ton more out of it. Its still inspiring me to keep at trying to get better, and given that its the first track time since I crashed, I'm on a new track, and on a new bike, I think I did pretty well. It was fun trying to chase Susanna and Judy when they'd pass me, but my ankle was really achey by the last session. Rueben came by and exaggerated his hang off style -- trying to get my ass off the seat, and I said, "oh, I wish!" but I pushed 'cause he's really sweet. Afterwards, he gave me some pointers about body positioning and mentioned, "Tall girls have trouble like me, we're all angles when we hang off..." I promised to keep watching him next season and trying to hang off like he did. :) I enjoyed finally connecting with VJB -- hopefully, I'll get to talk to her some more at the track this coming race weekend. Meet Jan Plessner from the Motorcycle Industry Council and end up having lunch with her, SuperSarah, Andrea and someone else. Turns out Andrea knows Evans Brasfield thru his wife, and I know Evans thru the track (and he used to be an editor for Sport Rider and some other mags) which was a cool issue of "its a small world" and reminded me that we're all connected. Saturday night was a blast -- I had dinner with Miss Judy, and let me tell ya, that one on one time was _awesome_. Thanks, Judy! I really enjoyed the company, the food, exploring the Venetian. The Ducati party was fun, tho really loud and too crowded. I had to laugh at some of the girls who were hanging all over Ben Bostrum when he came by and when i saw Eric, I said to him, "HEY! Arent you someone famous?!?" and when he gave me that look, I said, "Congrats on your season from a fellow Willow Springs racer." and he just smiled that truly cute smile, forgiving my obnoxiousness. There were a few bad moments for me -- the girl crashing in front of me, feeling way too slow, realizing how much things still hurt... but they were definately outweighed by riding those Ducatis, meeting Troy Bayliss, Reuben Xaus, Jeff Haney (what a CUTIE!), Freddie Spencer, and Nick I., Judy Mirro, Susanna, the other WiSties (Jean P, Kath Corgan, Eve, who am I missin'?), Jan and getting to hang with the LaBiker women, Andrea and SuperSarah. As usual, I have to thank Squidboy for encouraging me to do it, Judy M and Wendy H for everything they did, to Russ and Jane M for all their continued encouragement, as well as my fellow racers -- meeting some of the women who race was definately awesome. Gayathri >-------------------------------------------------------------- gayathri@world.std.com Calamari Club #002, WSMC #98 '88 FZR400 ('gurlzbike') '98 T595 Daytona, "huckleberry" "The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure. " - Joseph Campbell