Christieland
cheesy rider
He didn't post these in his usual AFM R3 thread, so I decided to make my own post. Neener neener! Thanks for the awesome photos Joe, and let me thank the wonderful sponsors of Formula AFemme: Ponyrific.com, Viets Performance, Pacific Track Time, Race Ready Motorsports, Keigwins @ the Track...I think there might be more, but it was Zoe Rem and Joy Higa who were handling sponsorship - I'm sorry if I forgot anyone!
We had ten girls on the grid for Formula AFemme on Saturday. Thanks to Joe Salas of http://www.4theriders.com for providing the photos!
So Joy Higa has a new R6 and took the AFemme holeshot, with Zoe Rem and me doing what we could to keep her in our sights on our SVs...
Novice racer Shelina Moreda took five seconds off her personal best at Infineon this weekend and squeezed out several 53s. I made a shameful (shameful!) racing mistake and let Shelina by on the first lap going into Turn 4, thinking it was Deb Barton (even though Deb is three seconds a lap faster than me I shouldn't let ANYONE by - silly girl).
At first I didn't think Shelina was going to be a problem to pass back because I hadn't seen anything more than a 2:01 from her all day. Well, she was a BIG freaking problem and I spent the rest of the race trying in vain to pass her back. Congratulations Shelina on the awesome progress you made this weekend!
Here are Shelina and Deb heading up the hill:
Kristy Miller came out to play with us this weekend! Holy crap, this girl is tough! Apparently she threw her shoulder out of its socket from a nasty tank slapper in 3b. She was preparing to lay the smackdown on two chicks in front of her going into Turn 4.
So she put her shoulder back in and kept going...it came out again...put it in again...she just wanted to finish the race and ended up doing it one handed!
Kristy definitely has one of the coolest looking racer outfits I've seen:
Now this is one of my least favorite photos but I'll share it with you all. Zoe rocks my socks but I hate it when she's ahead of me!
We diced it up a little bit during the first few laps of AFemme, but then I managed to gap her and the rest of the girls as I honed in on that bratty Shelina! Zoe got me back by handing it to me in the "co-ed" races on Sunday. I watched with an odd mix of jealousy and amusement as she cutely just put herself way up on the inside of guys as she'd pass them into 7...and then 9...and then 11. It's like, "oh hai, I'm here, excuse me, kthxbai!"
Here we have Cassie Gaddy, Zoe, Jennifer Lauritzen and Kristy, nursing that sore shoulder:
Now for those of you who don't know Deb Barton, she is a Racer. She's legit. She has raced for several years, and this year has already won Formula III (a race for those little two stroke GP bikes) twice. She's also the service manager at Scuderia West, so stop by and congratulate her on another Formula III win! This weekend she took second in Formula AFemme. Here she is heading up the hill with Lisa Mazurkiewicz in tow:
Deb actually led for some of the race, but then a near highside coming out of 9 followed by her det meter (sp? not familiar with these little two strokes) going through the roof led her to worry that her engine might seize, so she slowed down a touch and Joy got her at the line:
So...embarrassing story. I was talking with Deb Barton earlier in the day about how I was really curious about the line between traction and no traction in the front, and how it all relates to trail braking at the end of long sections like the drive out of the carousel. Never having lowsided before, I'd been pushing myself a bit more and a bit more to brake later and deeper. I wondered curiously what a lowside must feel like, sliding along the ground, all to be capped off by a graceful spring to the feet like they do in MotoGP...
Well I tucked the front in Turn 7 in the girls' race, on the last lap, just as I was plotting big momentum through the esses and stuffing it under Shelina into Turn 9 to take 3rd. And I didn't glide, I rolled and destroyed yet another beautiful Arai replica helmet. And I still don't really feel any closer to sensing where my front is at in that slippery traction slope. Oh well. Deb says you really don't need to lowside in order to get that feel, I'll take her word for it...
I'm bummed I didn't get a chance to chat with Denise Howard about her race; I think she used to race several years back, and she came out to race AFemme this weekend. Glad you were racing Denise!
The semi-official results:
1. Joy Higa, 01:51.3, Yamaha R6
2. Deb Barton, 01:50.4, Honda RS125
3. Shelina Moreda, 01:53.5 Kawasaki ZX6R
4. Zoe Rem, 01:54.578, Suzuki SV650S
5. Jennifer Lauritzen, 01:54.5, Suzuki SV650S
6. Cassandra Gaddy, 01:55.085, Kawasaki 636
7. Kristy Miller, 01:55.6, Suzuki GSXR-600
8. Denise Howard, 02:07.0, some sort of older Honda I think
9. Lisa Mazurkiewicz, 02:07.409, Kawasaki Ninja 250R
DNF, Christie Cooley, 01:53.453, Suzuki SV650S
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the story and the photos. It was a good race, I wish I could have watched it, but I'd rather race it, duh!!! And congratulations also to Jennifer Lauritzen and Zoe Rem for their new personal best lap times!
We had ten girls on the grid for Formula AFemme on Saturday. Thanks to Joe Salas of http://www.4theriders.com for providing the photos!
So Joy Higa has a new R6 and took the AFemme holeshot, with Zoe Rem and me doing what we could to keep her in our sights on our SVs...
Novice racer Shelina Moreda took five seconds off her personal best at Infineon this weekend and squeezed out several 53s. I made a shameful (shameful!) racing mistake and let Shelina by on the first lap going into Turn 4, thinking it was Deb Barton (even though Deb is three seconds a lap faster than me I shouldn't let ANYONE by - silly girl).
At first I didn't think Shelina was going to be a problem to pass back because I hadn't seen anything more than a 2:01 from her all day. Well, she was a BIG freaking problem and I spent the rest of the race trying in vain to pass her back. Congratulations Shelina on the awesome progress you made this weekend!
Here are Shelina and Deb heading up the hill:
Kristy Miller came out to play with us this weekend! Holy crap, this girl is tough! Apparently she threw her shoulder out of its socket from a nasty tank slapper in 3b. She was preparing to lay the smackdown on two chicks in front of her going into Turn 4.
So she put her shoulder back in and kept going...it came out again...put it in again...she just wanted to finish the race and ended up doing it one handed!
Kristy definitely has one of the coolest looking racer outfits I've seen:
Now this is one of my least favorite photos but I'll share it with you all. Zoe rocks my socks but I hate it when she's ahead of me!
We diced it up a little bit during the first few laps of AFemme, but then I managed to gap her and the rest of the girls as I honed in on that bratty Shelina! Zoe got me back by handing it to me in the "co-ed" races on Sunday. I watched with an odd mix of jealousy and amusement as she cutely just put herself way up on the inside of guys as she'd pass them into 7...and then 9...and then 11. It's like, "oh hai, I'm here, excuse me, kthxbai!"
Here we have Cassie Gaddy, Zoe, Jennifer Lauritzen and Kristy, nursing that sore shoulder:
Now for those of you who don't know Deb Barton, she is a Racer. She's legit. She has raced for several years, and this year has already won Formula III (a race for those little two stroke GP bikes) twice. She's also the service manager at Scuderia West, so stop by and congratulate her on another Formula III win! This weekend she took second in Formula AFemme. Here she is heading up the hill with Lisa Mazurkiewicz in tow:
Deb actually led for some of the race, but then a near highside coming out of 9 followed by her det meter (sp? not familiar with these little two strokes) going through the roof led her to worry that her engine might seize, so she slowed down a touch and Joy got her at the line:
So...embarrassing story. I was talking with Deb Barton earlier in the day about how I was really curious about the line between traction and no traction in the front, and how it all relates to trail braking at the end of long sections like the drive out of the carousel. Never having lowsided before, I'd been pushing myself a bit more and a bit more to brake later and deeper. I wondered curiously what a lowside must feel like, sliding along the ground, all to be capped off by a graceful spring to the feet like they do in MotoGP...
Well I tucked the front in Turn 7 in the girls' race, on the last lap, just as I was plotting big momentum through the esses and stuffing it under Shelina into Turn 9 to take 3rd. And I didn't glide, I rolled and destroyed yet another beautiful Arai replica helmet. And I still don't really feel any closer to sensing where my front is at in that slippery traction slope. Oh well. Deb says you really don't need to lowside in order to get that feel, I'll take her word for it...
I'm bummed I didn't get a chance to chat with Denise Howard about her race; I think she used to race several years back, and she came out to race AFemme this weekend. Glad you were racing Denise!
The semi-official results:
1. Joy Higa, 01:51.3, Yamaha R6
2. Deb Barton, 01:50.4, Honda RS125
3. Shelina Moreda, 01:53.5 Kawasaki ZX6R
4. Zoe Rem, 01:54.578, Suzuki SV650S
5. Jennifer Lauritzen, 01:54.5, Suzuki SV650S
6. Cassandra Gaddy, 01:55.085, Kawasaki 636
7. Kristy Miller, 01:55.6, Suzuki GSXR-600
8. Denise Howard, 02:07.0, some sort of older Honda I think
9. Lisa Mazurkiewicz, 02:07.409, Kawasaki Ninja 250R
DNF, Christie Cooley, 01:53.453, Suzuki SV650S
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the story and the photos. It was a good race, I wish I could have watched it, but I'd rather race it, duh!!! And congratulations also to Jennifer Lauritzen and Zoe Rem for their new personal best lap times!
Great write-up Christie! Ever consider race reporting for City Bike? 
stuff Christie. That looks like fun.
