My first crash

Aside from crashing my share of dirt bikes over time, I've ridden for 15 years on the street and now have 3 years of track riding experience....all without crashing....until Gingerman on Sunday, Sept 30 while participating in Intermediate. The suspense of going all of these years without crashing finally ended, and as a rider who's been gaining some experience on the track I always thought the first crash would be big.....a low side at 100 mph or a high side (at any speed!). But no, it was a stupid novice-like crash that would lead one to believe that I just took the training wheels off the day prior. Thought I would write about it as we all can learn from each other. Would love to see more people do a post-crash writeup....it would serve everyone's morbid curiosity to learn what actually happened, but most of all it may help someone else from having to learn the hard way. So here's my recap....there were three unique events that happened, each of which was an opportunity to avoid the crash, but I totally blew all three one right after the other:

1. Warm up laps ARE important
Warm up laps are great for warming up your tires.....and your brain. In my case I was third in the grid and the first two riders were released, but for some reason the rest of us were delayed a bit. For some reason I played catchup after being released onto the track and started riding too hot right out of the gate. Came out of turn 2 and rolled too much throttle and the back end broke loose. I saved it just fine and the story should have ended there.

2. Target fixation is REAL
After saving myself from mishap #1, I got right to work on creating mishap #2. I came out of mishap #1 angled slightly towards the grass instead of towards the short straight down to turn 3. Instead of simply looking down the track and moving on, I fixated on the grass (as Chris would say....I was looking for the plastic monster....and I eventually found him) and drove right into it as if my body was completely frozen.

3. While on grass the front brake IS the ejection button
Even with boobing two stupid mishaps in a row I still could have easily saved it. The challenge is that I headed into the grass at the slightest of angles to the pavement, which is a bit unnerving to say the least. Traveling approx 60 mph and forgetting every useful piece of information I ever learned I tugged on the front brake....from the time I touched the brake to the time I impacted the pavement (somehow my bike graciously slid into the grass and I ungraciously hit the pavement) was about a 1/100th of a second. Looking back I remember thinking that I just wasn't going that fast, but I was. And I could have easily saved it by just riding it out with a little rear brake......after all this was Gingerman which has acres of open grass.

My learnings:
- Do not get complacent. Have an intentional plan for every session and follow the plan to a t. I'm also a pilot and the key to safe flying is that you do everything with a check list....you never skip a step or resequence the steps....being on the track is no different.

- After saving yourself from incident #1 don't forget everything you know because incident #2 will soon be upon you.

- Know your equipment. I had some engine problems with my dedicated trackbike at Grattan the week before, so I came to Gingerman on my street bike. While my street and track bikes are both 748's....they are radically different with how their setup and being on the streetbike probably contributed to the problem.

- Crashing sucks.

Hope to see more people posting their experiences. Still healing from mine (no broken bones.....just a very sore shoulder and a wife that continues to say "I told you so") and look forward to seeing everyone next season.