OT: 13 year old girl fastest on track

[Fenring]

This just made my day :
http://kawiforums.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=83309

[YellowRacer]

If you look a couple months back in the CycleWorld magazine, they did an interview with her. Its putty interesting.


I remember they said she raced a 125 against the 250's and she got 3rd fastest.

[Bob Hancock]

As you can tell by her leathers, John U. has "found another one." He has another young woman writing for the mag....as others like Melissa Berkoff move along in their careers. Girls like this will be nothing but good for the sport....glad to see a great publication like RW World take an interest.

[roger albert]

Ditto what Bob says.

Kids, both boys and girls, are pretty humbling.
They have little fear, lot's of untapped talent,
and learn way faster than I do. One of the classes I"m racing in this year has seen a big demographic shift. Last year mostly adults, but a few in the 13-17 range. This year, mostly the young ones. Easy to beat right now, but I bet by year end, a couple of them will be giving me fits. One of them in another class already is. And a young girl back in the first class, while still slow, is super enthusiastic and getting more aggressive.

The ladies are getting fast in general. An all female endurance team that I've started tuning for this year just got their first podium (2nd vs previous best of 5th). I can't personally keep up with any of them. Fun, but humbling.

[signit98]

...you've got to love it though, Roger.

I don't know how old you are, but I know for sure that my days of trying to be the "bestest and fastest" are long gone... I can move safely in the middle of the pack on any track and have a blast while doing so... but being really fast? Nope, to many thought in my head... my kid, my company, my health...

Argh, the beauty of being young, unbiased and innocent... I hope the girl stays with it and will one day be the one who mixes up the "big boy competitions"! Would be nice to watch...

LOVE IT!

[roger albert]

> I hope the girl stays with it and will one day be the one who mixes up the "big boy competitions"! Would be nice to watch...

Agreed (I'm pushing 44 btw -- too young to complain about being old, but too old to ever become truly fast -- The truly fast are on that trajectory by age 10, give or take. I remember seeing some very young Haydens and Master Spies not so many years ago (back when I was just a spectator) and thinking -- Jeez, those kids are fast. One of my first trackdays saw me majorly scared by Ryan Andrews, who now runs around 5th-ish in FX with little more than privateer infrastructure. Must be nice.

And the girls are already mixing it up. Last year saw one of the D-class (can't recall SB or SS) come down to the last round between two women, who did eventually go on to take 1st and 2nd. Had a 3rd gal not crunched her hand at Hallett, it very probably would have been a 3 way at the end, especially given that the final round was at the 3rd lady's strong/home track.

None of them are super young though. E.M. is the first one I've seen that is not only fast, but on the right trajectory, age-vs-speed wise. Will be interesting to watch. The two wheeled Danica?

[throttlemeister]

Originally posted by roger albert
Kids, both boys and girls, are pretty humbling.
They have little fear, lot's of untapped talent,

This also a bit of the 'problem', which makes it tough to justify too much $$ investments by sponsors. Because they are so young and have no fear, it is very hard to judge what will happen when they crash hard one day, break their bones and get their portion of fear installed in them the hard way. Some will continue like nothing ever happened, others will have lost the edge the moment they hit the floor and never get it back. And it will happen. As they say: you will never know the limit until you cross it.

[signit98]

...the problem with Danica Patrick is - as I see it - that she was fast and on the fast track... then came the distractions, something's gotta give, I guess...

I think she certainly has the talent to be a front runner, but not the time anymore... she's everybody's darlin' because she broke into the male phalanx with a venegance, she is beautiful, well spoken, funny and all around EVERYTHING the ad-instustry has been looking for... the racing unfortunately seems to have taken a step back... going by her performances... but, of course that is only my humbled opinion on that topic...

Unfortunately, that seems to all to common, nowaddays...

I hear you on that age thingy, roger... I am going to be 46 next months... and the sins of my youth are catching up with me... left knee last year, right knee has to be fixed next month... broke my left collarbone a few years ago, racing dirtbikes... never been the same after that (3 surgeries, 2 plates)... all in all, it has been time to tone down and accept the course of nature, I guess...

Yet, I still like to go out on the track and let it fly (as good as I can) and move swiflty on the roads, if traffic allows for it... just not pushing the limit anymore... ANYWHERE!

LIFE IS GOOD THOUGH!

[Fenring]

The road to greatness is long and hard. Shear talent is only a prerequisite. But whenever I hear about an extraordinary talent such as this, it gives me hope that there is a small chance for human race not to repeat itself over and over. I'm not sure if this makes any sense, that's just how I feel about it.

I'd love nothing more than to see her, and others like her, one day competing with the best. The old Chineese (i think) curse goes: may you live in interesting times. I say, bring it.

[Tirebiter]

Originally posted by roger albert
Ditto what Bob says.

Kids, both boys and girls, are pretty humbling.
They have little fear, lot's of untapped talent,
and learn way faster than I do. One of the classes I"m racing in this year has seen a big demographic shift. Last year mostly adults, but a few in the 13-17 range. This year, mostly the young ones. Easy to beat right now, but I bet by year end, a couple of them will be giving me fits.

At last weekend's WERA race here in LV there were a number of kids that were running with the big boys and basically blew them away......this kid was particularly good.

[Tirebiter]

And how about this little dude??



Brock

[repoe3]

it gives me great pride to see the US developing such young riders on the racetrack. The greater the pool of candidates, the greater the chance to have more motoGP and WSBK champions.

repoe3

[5axis]

For kids too small and young for 125's
http://www.metrakit.ca/
I checked them out at the indy dealer show and they are very nice.