Checkers and Chess

An ex-racer who followed me around at a track day said, "You are playing checkers with these guys when you should be playing chess."  He was referring to my inability to pass riders on faster machines, despite being quite a bit quicker than them in the corners.  In my frustration I only half-listened, but eventually the wisdom sunk into my concrete cranium.

Now, not one day out of the 365 in each year doesn't involve racing in some aspect or another.  Be it hours spent in the garage prepping the machines and the van, or the hours in the gym preparing the body, even weekends are reserved riding dirt bikes for training.  Down time is spent searching the internet for parts, comparing lap times, planning the events.  And thinking.  All the damn time.  Even sleep offers no respite from racing brain.

Gone are the rose-tinted halcyon days of throwing a race bike and cooler in the back of a pickup truck, hauling ass to the track and trying to win some races.  This chess game begins months before a machine turns a wheel on the track.  Don't get me wrong, there are lots of guys at the track with a bike and a truck having an absolute blast, but in motorcycle racing at any level, be it road, dirt, vintage, flat track, if you want to win, to be at that pointy end, you've got to step up your game, or change it entirely.  It's the difference between chess and checkers.

Hoping to become the king, still looking like a roughed up pawn, the FZR has a long way to go.