Video and pics from my practice day at Road Atlanta yesterday. We missed the morning sessions due to some issues but rode the 3 afternoon sessions. The video starts with me being pushed to pit out and the first time ever back on a motorcycle one day prior to my 6 year crash anniversary. I'm pretty sketchy the first session out. At 6:41 the video flips to the third session and I'm already much more comfortable. I took about 30 seconds off my lap times from just the first to third sessions. Got down to a 2:11 in the third session which is slow but I was still being conservative since it's all still new to me. Before my crash I think I turned 1:44's at Road Atlanta on my Aprilia/RZ 396cc 2T hybrid. Huge props to Doug McCracken. I wouldn't have been out there if it weren't for him. More mods to the bike are coming. Also have to thank Sue, Dustin Ducote, Pops, Richie, Edwin, Stick, all of WERA and many more who helped me along the way to get me where I am today. I decided to not race today because I would have to start from pit lane and I know I'd get lapped. Some racers have traveled far and are spending hard earned money to race and I don't want to get in their way if fighting for a win or position. We had a great day and much to build upon. Dustin made a great video and was my track guide.
Super cool! In all seriousness. We’re you nervous, excited, jittery, calm or what right after the bike fired up once you were on it again? What were the emotions? I can’t even think about what must’ve been going through your head! This would be a great story to share with some mainstream media. Unbelievable willpower, determination and comeback story!
You're the coolest, dude! You were always nice to me when I asked stupid rookie questions and if I was even close to you in a race I felt like I accomplished something. I'm busting right now at what you've accomplished. Got a damn tear in my eye. Bastard!
I didn't know what to expect and to be honest I thought I was going to get very emotional but the engineer brain kicked in and I went into problem solving mode and relearning how to ride. I had 100% concentration on figuring out what inputs to give the bike, the electronic shifting, braking technique, etc. I never raced using hardly any upper body effort and now it is 100% upper body so it's totally different. I figured out I could actually help steer the bike by using my chest against the tank and leaning against it along with countersteering. Doesn't work in all turns but really helped in T5, T12 and T1. The T3 chicane was hardest as it's a quick flip flop and that's really hard without body weight shifting. I was really slow through there. The esses weren't too bad because I had enough time to get good countersteering input in. The full gravity of the day still hasn't hit. I keep thinking about what we can improve on the bike and what new techniques I can try next time on the bike. The gears are still spinning in my head. I also learned some things that I feel could help able bodied riders but I'm not so sure they could understand them unless they too had non-working muscles in a lower part of their body. It's pretty interesting how the human mind will overcome and adapt if you are willing to let it and also push past some boundaries.