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John: I’m here with Annie Cloonan…
Annie: Hello!
John: …a rider with the Itty Bitty Racing team today, and we’re gonna talk about her first track day on the Ninja 300 after racing the Benelli 135 for a full season. So Annie, where was that track day?
Annie: That track day was at Jennings GP in Jennings, Florida.
John: What was it like getting there?
Annie: It was, it was fun, I mean, I don’t know…
John: It was a bit of a shit show.
Annie: Oh, yeah, well, there’s that. The Benelli fell over and the generator moved so we lost half our water, which is weird to lose
John: And we dropped the 300?
Annie: Oh! We did drop the 300!
John: And had to replace a clip on before we even left.
Annie: Yeah, because we were loading it up and got a little ballsy with our loading skills.
John: Truth. And we were in a hurry.
Annie: We were, yeah, my powerlifting competition was that day!
John: So you went powerlifting…
Annie: I did.
John: and then we hauled ass for Florida.
Annie: Yeah, because we thought that was a good idea to do in the same weekend.
John: Absolutely!
Annie: Do it while you’re there, I guess!
John: How’d that work out?
Annie: It made me tired. But it worked out quite nicely, I had a baller weekend so I can’t really complain that much.
John: Okay, so you were riding in what class?
Annie: Novice!
John: Yeah. So first impressions when you got on the bike for the first time on the track? You rode it a few times around the neighborhood to get used to the motorcycle.
Annie: It was a lot more work. That was kind of the first thing that I realized. It rides a lot nicer than the Benelli does. It is very obviously stupid shit with less inappropriate equipment, so it does actually do what you want it to do without fighting it a little more. It was also just bigger, and faster, and required more effort. And it just, it was much more comfortable. That was the first thing I noticed, that it was just much more comfortable to ride than the Benelli. You felt like you kind of belonged there a little bit more.
John: Well yeah, cause the Benelli is basically a three quarter scale bike, and you’re a nearly six-foot tall woman. Those things are kinda different.
Annie: Yeah, they don’t really go together, no.
John: So… your first impression was that it was much more comfortable, it was more work, but it was a little easier because it was… a real race bike. Like you said, stupid shit with less…
Together: …with more appropriate equipment.
John: So, talk about some of your sessions as you went through the day. What was your first session like?
Annie: My first session was slow. I ended up right behind the instructor because I think he… I don’t know. I don’t really know why. I guess I was the newest of the newbies so he wanted… he thought I’d be the slowest. And it was just, y’know, it was slow pacing, it was a lead-follow so the instructor was in front and we just kind of went around, did the thing.
We started getting up a little faster, but still not anything worth talking really about. It was just… it was nice to get some of the feeling down and really learn how to turn a motorcycle that’s bigger than the Benelli. And how it feels to go a little bit faster, right, cause even when you’re going slower on the 300…
John: You’re probably going faster than you would on the Benelli at top speed.
Annie: Exactly. Right, so there is a different feeling to taking corners because you’re taking corners at what is almost the top speed of the Benelli. Which obviously i wasn’t doing in the first couple of laps, but still, it’s just overall faster.
As the day went on, I definitely got faster, I focused more on body position because that is just a very different thing. Cause you can kinda get in some wonky positions on the Benelli and still put it where you wanted to put it.
Like you don’t really need to work as hard with the motorcycle, you can kinda just toss it. So it was kind of like, learning body position properly, learning cornering properly, cause like, you can’t just put it wherever you wanna put it if you’re actually going at a certain speed. Yeah, that was kinda the two big ones, body positions and turning. Turn the motorcycle, and don’t bus stop into corners because you’re going faster than you really think… you’re going faster than you’ve ever gone before and you’re kind of peeing your pants a little and you shouldn’t stop!
John: No! Do not stop. Do not stop on the racetrack.
Annie: Well, we had to learn that too, not me. Not me.
John: Well, talk about that!
Annie: It was a debris flag and somebody stopped. We were going down the front straight, and they saw a flag, and just pulled off of the racetrack and stopped. I was like, that is not what we do! No, it was the red flag, it was when that girl went over. Yeah, and they pulled off the racetrack and stopped! I was like, no! That is not what we do here!
John: Of course, you come at it with a little more experience because while you’re certainly a novice on the larger motorcycle, you’ve been racing a full season and you understand the flags.
Annie: Although I had never seen the debris flag before.
John: Yeah, that’s not one that a lot of places use. Like, WERA doesn’t use it.
Annie: Yeah, so I had not seen the debris flag before so that one kinda tripped me up a little bit, I was like, what the hell is that? And then I was like, oh, debris, that’s what that is.
John: Right. You also know that no matter what the flag, you don’t stop on the racetrack!
Annie: You don’t! Yeah, it was kind of interesting because like, that is something that I don’t think I would have ever experienced with WERA…
John: No!
Annie: because nobody, like, you don’t do that.
John: Once you get as far as you’re getting a race license, you already know this.
Annie: Well even in minis I don’t think anybody would do that.
John: God no.
Annie: So that was kind of just a new track day experience, was going, people are not going to understand that every single time. I was also the only one that showed up for the classroom after the first session. They were like, well you don’t have to be here because this is basically just going over the rules that you already know, because you’ve been racing. And I was like, yeah, so like, talk me through some of these corners and how that works.
John: Mmkay, so you got a little one-on-one coaching.
Annie: Yeah! Cause like, if I’m gonna show up, I’m gonna ask questions!
John: Yeah, that’s kinda why you’re there.
Annie: But yeah, no, that was weird. Also, the track day versus race experience was a new thing.
John: How do you feel like they were different? Beyond the obvious somebody was a dumbass and stopped on the track.
Annie: So, you know, people were dumbasses and stopped in the track. Obviously you just get a shit ton more track time. You are just out there a lot more. And there’s also people who are watching you and telling you that you’re doing right and wrong things, in novice, and so that was an interesting experience, cause you have a coach, and they’re telling you, hey, stop being a chickenshit and actually turn the corner fast!
John: Though that wasn’t much of a problem for you. Your problem was twisting it open on the straight.
Annie: No, I mean, like that was the thing, was in order to avoid bus stopping into turn one, I wasn’t going as fast as I could have been.
John: Fair, okay.
Annie: No, there’s actually logic there, which is I don’t wanna go fast into that corner, so I’m not gonna go that fast.
John: Into the corner.
Annie: Which I think tracks just based on the fact that it was my first time.
John: Oh absolutely!
Annie: Going fast is actually kind of wild when you do it for the first time.
John: Oh yeah, absolutely it is.
Annie: And thank god the speedometer is taped over. Because otherwise I might have shit myself going fast.
John: Yeah, because, you know, the top speed on the 300 is about 110.
Annie: That was kind of the main track day experience difference, was just like more track time. People aren’t racing, so you’re kind of focused more on yourself than what the other people are doing because you’re not supposed to catch them. You’re not supposed to be racing them.
John: Did you find at any time that you felt like you got behind somebody and you felt like, I need to go get past this guy?
Annie: I found that actually more in the corners. So turns like 7, 8, 9, 10, I was just generally faster through. I talk a lot about corner speed, but I was also generally faster through there than most of the novices were, but because I was more tentative on the throttle than some of the novices were as well, I ended up, like I would think about passing them through there and then they would… nyoom
John: Blitz you in the straights.
Annie: Yeah, that word. So they’d get me in the straights because I was either slower than them because I was more tentative or because they were on a bigger bike, and, y’know, it’s hard to argue with the 600 when you’re…
Together: When you’re on a 300.
Annie: But I would catch people pretty frequently through the corners back there.
John: Nice! So, let’s just talk about Jennings a little bit so that people understand the turn layout. So, walk me through Jennings. Starting on the front straight.
Annie: So, let’s see, we start off on the front straight, and then turn one is a big left. And then, you’ve got what is really kind of just a straight, there’s a little kink in it but it’s not really anything worth talking about. But I think it is actually turn two. Then you’ve got three, which is a little bit of a right…
John: Three…
Annie: Oh, three, four, right? Yeah, it’s left, right, left.
John: Three left…
Annie: Three left, four right, five and six are left. Cause it’s one big…
John: Because it’s one big corner, it just changes radius
Annie: Yes. That right and that left are not super tight, so three and four are very tight and then five and six are really one corner. And then seven is a right, which goes into eight, which is a left. They swap back and forth. Then you have nine which is a right, and then ten is a left. And eleven and twelve are both lefts. And then thirteen is the right and fourteen is the right going into the front straight.
John: I always forget that 13, that the last corner into the straight is actually two turns because it changes radius.
Annie: Yes. And the only reason I know that is because they label them on the racetrack. And you kind of aim for that 14 sign. Although it was funny, I was talking to, I was talking about lines with one of the instructors, and they have… So Jennings puts out these little red dots. Right. And he basically just told me, connect the dots. And I was like, okay, thank you! That’s actually rather helpful. He was like, yeah, Jennings, all you gotta do is play connect the dots. And I was like, that’s pretty good advice for lines…
John: Especially for a novice.
Annie: Right, because you’re not thinking that hard about lines because you’re not really going fast enough. But he was like, yeah, play connect the dots and you’re fine, and I was like, okay, thank you!
John: So, what did you take away? By the end, you’ve done however many sessions by the end of the day, cause you were tired.
Annie: I was tired!
John: Between powerlifting and not being used to the track day pace.
Annie: Yeah, not being used to track day pace and not being used to the 300 either, because it just takes more work to move that big bike around.
John: Sure does.
Annie: It’s new things. What did I take away? That I was going to have a shit ton of fun. I realized that it would, was gonna take me a minute to switch over. I was not, I’m not god at racing. Oh no. I’m not some prodigy or whatever, like I did get a knee down which is pretty cool.
John: For your first track day, absolutely it’s cool.
Annie: Well, it’s just in general, it’s pretty cool, cause, you know, what a weird ass feeling. But it was gonna take me a while to get used to, but I knew I was gonna enjoy it. I didn’t, like there was never a point in time, there were points in time where I thought I was tired and therefore was not enjoying it, but it was more of a: “I am not going to be safe out here,” rather than “I don’t like this. “
John: Right, it’s not that I’m not having fun, it’s that I’m too tired to be safe.
Annie: Yeah, I’m too tired to be safe, and I’m thinking about it too hard because I’m too tired and that’s just not fun. And I guess I did not expect the big bike to be as different from the Benelli as it was going to be. I thought, but then again, I’m also I hadn’t ridden a bike over 135 ccs in a minute.
John: That’s true because the last time was your street bike right?
Annie: Yep. So it was… I kind of had forgotten how much of a different experience that was. I think that… I realized that track days and race days are very different as well because I had to kind of think back to when I first started riding the Benelli, and how like, I liked it, going out to practice and going and doing that. But like, actually racing was just so much more fun. And so I kind of had to put that in perspective of like, yes, this was a lot of fun, but you’re also gonna get to do something else, which is also even more fun. You just have to practice to get to do that, you know
John: This is the gateway to doing the thing that you really want to do with this bike.
Annie: So as much as track days are fun, racing is just as much more fun, and I get in my head sometimes and like, maybe I’m thinking about it too much, y’know, and then I’m like, oh, wait, no, I’m gonna go race and that’s gonna cancel all of that out, you know?
John: Uh huh! There are parts of the brain that kind of shut off.
Annie: It’s basically like the on switch for racing is like the off switch for overthinking. And that made me feel a little bit better because it’s kind of like starting over, right? Like you’re basically starting over with something completely new, and I kind of had to think, and I’m glad I had the experience on the Benelli to think back and go, yes, you had the same experience the first time where you were overthinking and you were worried that maybe you weren’t going to enjoy this. But no actually, you just have to go race it and get out of your head.
John: So, and then I mean, after that, you know, we went home, nothing was really crazy on the way home.
Annie: No, we just went home. We unpacked, and then yeah, went to bed pretty much.
John: We were both tired. I was tired from being pit bitch.
Annie: Oh, yeah, cause it’s exhausting.
John: It is exhausting! You don’t even know.
Annie: Uh huh! Oh I don’t.
John: You don’t know my life!
Annie: I’ve been pit bitch before, I know your life quite well!
John: Oh well that is true you have been pit bitch before. Yeah. Okay! Well last thing is, what’s the next step this season?
Annie: Do it again!
John: Okay, so what is that? So we’re on the way to do it again.
Annie: We are!
John: So what’s gonna be different this weekend?
Annie: I mean, obviously I’ve done it before, so there’s a little bit of experience there. I’m not learning a new track as much.
John: Right, cause we’re going to the same track.
Annie: So I know what’s coming this time, which is nice. Hopefully I’ll be faster. Oh, and I have one-on-one coaching! That’s the other thing. I knew there was something important there.
John: And what are your goals for this upcoming day?
Annie: Be less timid going in the straights. Be a little bit faster, maybe get my knee down again. And have fun!
