Photos by Wayne Lederer
Corning, CA. - When we finally arrived in Sonoma on Wednesday night I was ecstatic. We had been preparing for the Autolight Nationals since the day I left the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. I grew up watching the NHRA pros run in Sonoma since I was a little girl and that was the place where I really fell in love with Pro Stock Motorcycle. To be back there again, but with our own team and our own bike was a pretty spectacular feeling.
The boys and I spent all of Thursday getting our bike ready to go down the track at its first national event since we have owned it. We had a lot of work to do to finish up putting in our fast motor, and when we ran into some problems that made for a lot more work. We worked until right before our first round of qualifying. We finally got things right, or so we assumed, and headed up to the line to run our zebra themed motorcycle.
With our mild tune up we ran an ET of around 7.50 in our first qualifying pass. Obviously it wasn’t a great number, but we had made it straight down the track and that is step one. We were happy to have a starting point. The next pass we made a couple of changes and made it down the track running an ET of around 7.30. This wasn’t bad at all for our first day out and we all had high expectations for Saturday’s qualifying sessions.
People always ask me if I get nervous when I ride. I have to be honest and say that when I am back in the staging lanes I am a wreck. The way I deal with nerves comes from the time I spent playing basketball in high school. I played on the varsity team as a sophomore, because I was the only sophomore on the team I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform well. Before games I was always a nervous wreck. There was one girl on the team that I am good friends with, and she was a senior on the team. She asked me before my first varsity game if I was nervous. I told her I was so nervous I could throw up. Then she looked at me and said “good, now don’t ever let anyone see it.” I will never forget that, and I really took it to heart. Being at my home track, with our own bike I was so nervous. When it came time for Saturday’s qualifying this was especially true. However, I don’t let anyone see it. Then, when I get to the burn out box, those nerves always melt away. At this point it is just time to do what I love to do.
I had been riding pretty well and according to the computer I had been hitting my shifts really well. When I came off the line the bike jerked me pretty violently. One problem that I have sometimes is if the front dampener on my handle bars isn’t tight, I will let the handlebars get away from me. What I mean by that is when my front wheel is in the air the front wheel gets turned to the side. I can’t really correct it until my front wheel touches back down on the ground down the track. Between the bike jerking violently and the handle bars getting away from me, I had to pull the clutch in. Since we are on such a low budget and I am still searching for a sponsor I couldn’t risk hurting our motor, plus the run was already lost.
We took the bike back and were a little baffled. We made some bar adjustments, because the move that the bike made it seemed like the bars were too high. Since it was our last attempt at making the show and according to the computer I had been good on the shift points we turned up the shift points and the rev limiter. When I pulled up to the line on the final qualifying pass I was ready to rock. I felt good about this pass and I wanted to be racing on Sunday so bad. This was my chance, and it was my turn to do my job. Going down the track I could hear the rev limiter. It was like I couldn’t hit any shift when I was supposed too. When I got to the other end I felt heart broken.
When I ride it isn’t just about me. The crew, my family and friends, and others had all helped me get to the track. When I don’t do my job, I feel like I let them down. Of course I know that they don’t feel that way, but it’s hard not to feel that way sometimes. While I was at the top end of the track I was baffled at my pass. When the boys came down to get me, they asked me what happened. Usually I am pretty good at being able to tell them about the pass, but I really didn’t understand what had gone wrong on that pass. We came to the conclusion that I had just got behind the bike. What we mean by that is once you miss one shift, sometimes it is hard to catch up on the shifts.
I was feeling pretty bad, but I know that everyone makes mistakes. I am totally aware that I am only human and sometimes I just simply mess up. However, I still had a hard time understanding what happened on that pass. When we downloaded the run on the computer, I was surprised to see that I had actually hit every shift right on the money. It turns out that a wire had been crossed up on the bike, and when we turned up the shift RPM the rev limiter was coming on before my shift light was ever coming on. I was so relieved to see that on the computer, plus it is an easy fix. I could tell the crew felt a lot better about things too.
Racing pro stock motorcycle is a big challenge, one that I am completely addicted to and in love with. Once when I was struggling with my riding, Shawn Gann had a talk with me and put things into perspective. He told me that every one struggles. Even the best riders make mistakes. At the track when we struggle, I always remind myself of this. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be the spectacular sport that it is.
We were at the Fram Autolight nationals, running our own pro stock bike. That has been my dream since I was 12 years old. Struggling or not, I had an amazing weekend. I got to spend time with friends and family. I met some great new fans and friends. With the great memories, knowledge, and experience we gained last weekend, we are on the road to the Mile High Nationals in Denver, Colorado. All I have to say is look out Denver, the Sullivan Family Race team is headed your direction!
