[3] American Trip 2006
It was a great experience going over to the states to race, and I would like to go back there in the future if the opportunity came.
Dad and I booked our flights for Los angeles and it was a 12hour flight there, which felt like forever, however I met a few very interesting people on the plane on the way out there. As there was only Dad and I, there was a space left on the same row as us where we were sitting, which meant someone was going to be sitting next to us, I was very nervous about this and was hoping it was someone who Dad and I could get along well with as we were going to have to sit next to them over the next 12 hours or so!
It turned out to be a young lady of the age of roughly mid twenties early thirties, her name was Kate and she had a brilliant job in the BBC which she interviews people about things and makes documentries about who ever she is interviewing, she was flying out to America to interview a lady who can remember her previous life.
Kate lives near a track in England known as Thruxton, Hi Kate…it would be nice to see you there and good luck with your job in the television industry.
Later on in the flight Dad and I got invited to the 1st class area as a friend of ours knew the pilots which were flying the plane. We sat at the bar and that’s where we met a man called Tony, he was flying back to los Angeles where he lived , he had a similar job to Kate and was in the movie industry in America, he had met a lot of stars in his time and had some interesting stories to tell, he also took a good interest in my racing as well as Kate and it was very nice to meet you both.
When we finally arrived at the airport we grabbed our luggage and waited outside the airport for my new sponsors other riders Dad - Trent Ferris. It was lucky that I was wearing a dunlop hat which I won at a previous MRO meeting on my aprilia, he recognised this somehow and asked me if I was Jess? I replied yes, of course and so we set off to Trent’s house which was about an hour an a half away from the airport.
We finally arived there, had some pizza and got some sleep for the next day. When the next day came we loaded the truck up with all the food and other stuff and set off to Miller motorsports park in Utah, another 12hours! when we finally arrived it was about 1 o’clock in the morning, we parked up and got a bit of shut eye for the same day!, I woke up at about 8:30 and got changed into my freezing cold leathers. I then entered the track 30 mins later and found out that the track was enormous! It was four and a half miles long and had twenty four corners, usualy a track back in Britain won’t get any bigger than 2miles long but this one was double the size of our largest tracks back in Britain.
After a few sessions around the track I started to get the hang of it and my lap times began to drop, by the end of the day I was doing 2mins 19secs, and needed to knock off about 5 seconds, but although that is a lot of time to knock off it was also pretty easy as there were so many corners and the track is longer so it is easier to knock off seconds but also harder to keep consistant lap times.
The next day was qualifying and I was knackerd after the previous day of testing because I had done 7 20min sessions I had done roughly about 100miles in test day!
I was a bit worried about qualifying as I needed to knock off a lot of time, and also my team mate kyle (Trents younger son) had knocked a lot of time off in the warm up session and had done a 1min 16, I had done a 1min 21. Frank my new sponsor asked me if I wanted to put the new flash fairings on but I said no as I was going out in qualifying to try and set a good lap time and I thought I might crash so I left my old ones on for qualifying. My bikes suspension was set up totally wrong and we couldnt adjust it any more, I had serious chatter problems around near enough every corner from the front end and also the rear, I pushed as hard as I possibly could and the chatter just got more and more aggressive and violent, sometimes the chatter would get so bad that my rear wheel would chatter, loose grip, spin up and spin side ways, a bit like moto gp style! I did not like this, it wasn’t my way of riding, as I like to be as smooth as possible and keep the bike as stable and under control as possible, but I had no choice but to ride like this for a good lap time.
I came into the pit lane expecting about a 1min 17 or so, but then I found out I had done a 1min 13! I was amazed, I couldnt believe it, I had also managed to qualify in 7th place which I was very happy about as well.
Race day came, and my team mate Kyle made a mistake in the warm up sessIon before the racing started due to the very cold track and weather, believe it or not but it was actualy really cold there in Utah, but everywhere else it was warm.
Our race eventualy came and I got a good start but was then cut up by a rider in front of me, a few people passed me and I thought I was back in about 12th place, some one fell off and another broke down and towards the end of the race I had made up a few positions and was in 5th position. Someone had been pulled into the pit lane for a penalty because they got away before the red lights went out this rider caught me and my little group up and made a gap on us. I had a great race with the other two riders I was racing with and beat them both and finished in 6th place.
I was very happy with where I had finished and thought I could have done better if my suspension was set up better, there was nothing else my team and Frank could do as there was no adjustment left on the front and rear suspension so I just had to make do, I am glad of this because I think it actually helped me and made me know how much you can get away with even if your suspension isn’t properly set up.
