Katie’s Blog 9/23/11

My life is still just as chaotic as ever, but the weekends that I watch what’s going on in the race world without me, slows everything down. It kills me to not be at the track. I am working so hard to change that though, and I am going to have a very exciting end to my season. My dad and I made the decision to run the national events in Phoenix, AZ, Las Vegas, CA and Pomona, CA for the end of our season. We will also be running the Division 7 race in Las Vegas in between the national events in Las Vegas and Pomona. There are butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.

My dad and I had made the decision to pull out of some races we were going to attempt this season, in order to go testing. I was able to make 8 passes on our pro stock bike 2 weeks ago in Medford, OR. Now I know compared to some teams, this is not a big deal. For us it was huge. That is the most runs I have ever been able to make on a pro stock bike in one weekend. It was great for me to be able to just ride my bike under absolutely no pressure. I had a complete blast, and it really got us pumped up for Phoenix.

It is really tough for me as a rider to be off a bike for a month or more at a time, and then hop back on one at a national event. I believe it has caused my riding to suffer a little bit. That is why testing was so big for me, and then for us to be able to hit so many consecutive races at the end of the year. I feel like this is really our chance to shine. As much as I hated to miss out on some races, I really believe we made the right decision.

Along with dreaming about racing all day and all night, I manage to find some time to work and go to school. Both are really going amazing. Tough Girl Designs is really in a pre mature stage of where I want the business to go, but it has still been great for me. I am in the process of trying to sell some things to come up with some money so I can get into screen printing. I am working really hard at pushing this business, and I have to admit it really is because of racing. As most of you know we are really on a shoe string budget for racing. Even with all of the sponsor searching I do, it has been really tough to come up with the money to go racing. The more I thought about it, I decided that instead of sitting back and just trying to find a sponsor, that I would work on my own way to help pay for the racing. Also, I have such a huge spot in my heart for the non-profit organization I work with called Girls For A Change, so I would love someday to be able to generate money for them as well. I know I am a big dreamer, but everything starts with a dream right?

Unfortunately I have some sad news to share, we recently lost our big track dog “Boo.” He had been one of our family members for quite a few years. If the family was headed to the race track, Boo wanted to be headed there too. He will be greatly missed. I guess we better win some races in his honor!