Kyle Wyman Blog - March 2014 - "My Best Weekend, Ever." - Part 1

Kyle Wyman Blog - March 2014 - "My Best Weekend, Ever."


Well, the first round is in the books! Daytona has come and gone, and I have had the most successful weekend of my career now, right here in 2014.

I had a frustrating season in 2013, blotted with injuries and crashes, struggles both on and off the track. I spent the long winter getting my head back where it needed to be and preparing for the season ahead. It's a good thing I did, because in February a new opportunity presented itself to run in my first ever Daytona 200.

A good friend of mine had a bike available to race, which was a Yamaha YZF-R6. Millennium Technologies was back with their support of my team again. All I had to do was assemble a crew and piece together a testing schedule. Easy, right? Well, with my 4-rider XR1200 race team already up and running in New York, the challenge was managing two separate teams, adding the Daytona Sportbike effort which would be based in Southern California. I feel you cannot fully comprehend the size of the United States until you are forced to split your time between opposite coasts in a mad scramble to go race motorcycles!

February was a busy month. My Dad was in New York wrenching on Harleys while I was in California wrenching on our new Yamaha, and testing at great tracks like Fontana and Chuckwalla. At one point I had the 'pleasure' of swapping a Yamaha R6 motor all on my own. Not without a few mistakes here and there... but taking a day to learn about the new motorcycle, not just what it does when I twist the throttle, was a pretty interesting experience all on it's own.

From there it was on to booking flights for the crew, organizing meal catering for the race track, ordering crew shirts, the list just goes on and on. Oh yeah, and also training for my first ever Daytona 200. I was definitely feeling the stress, which was probably at it's peak when we were finally loading the Harley trailer during a snowstorm. Ah, the things you do for Daytona.

But time and time again, every bit of stress is worth it. All the time I get to spend with my Dad in the race shop, I know one day I'll look back and miss it terribly. I bet I'll even miss loading the trailer in a snowstorm one day. I know this because the result always far outweighs the workload in motorcycle racing. It is more addicting than any drug out there, I'm sure of it, and any of my fellow racers would probably attest to that. We would do unforgivable things just to have one more shot at victory.

I feel very grateful for the fact that the first race on our schedule every single year is Daytona. I have many great memories from the 'World Center of Racing,' but it wasn't always like that. Daytona used to scare me - it was and still is the site of my worst injury to date. In October of 2009 I had a brake failure there which caused me to t-bone another rider and tumble into the airfence at around 90mph. The result was 9 surgeries on my leg over the course of 3 years, the last procedure being in October 2012 to finally remove the last bit of titanium in my tibia.

But, it was my first time back at Daytona after that injury that I won my first ever AMA Pro race in 2011, and that's the real reason why it occupies such a special place in my heart. Daytona is a symbol of recovery, redemption and strength for me that I pull energy from on a regular basis to get me through life's other struggles. And now, today, I am a three-time winner at the track. Here's how my most recent weekend went:


Thursday

It's the first day of practice at Daytona, and I have a full plate. My first time pulling double duty (racing two classes) at that track, and my first time riding a 600cc sportbike at Daytona in five years. I was going to have to adapt quickly to my surroundings if we were going to have any success that weekend.

Luckily I had an early shot in the arm - I was able to come away P1 in the first XR1200 practice. After such a long winter of preparation, you always wonder how things will shake out in your first outing during the weekend, and finishing up in first place, even in practice, is a great confidence booster that can balance your mindset. It really set me up nicely to be relaxed as I took to the track on my new Yamaha YZF-R6.

Things went smoothly on the new bike, we were solidly in the top 10 of the first two practice sessions in AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike, which was very promising. I think before that weekend my best in-session final position in that class was 12th, whether practice or qualifying, or anything. A good night's sleep was all I needed to come out swinging on Friday for qualifying in both classes, and also the XR1200 race.


Click here for Part 2! - http://forums.13x.com/showthread.php?t=315046