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Copyright ©2002 Super Sarah. Web site design by Kosmonaut.
GETTIN' DIRTY Super Sarah Style...
I started dirt riding by enrolling in a dirtbike school. The program provided me with a new XR200 to learn the basics I needed to survive a week of dual-sporting in Nevada. What a blast! I was hooked right from the start - bought an XR250L as soon as I got home.
The XRL was a great motorcycle, but shortly after I moved to CA, a friend introduced me to 2-strokes and I traded the XRL for a '91 CR250. It was a great desert bike and I put in a ton of miles on it - it was on this bike that I started desert racing. There was too much wasted space in my garage with just the CR and VFR so I eventually added a '99 KTM 250SX motocrosser and started racing motocross as well. What dirtbike collection is complete without a dual sport bike?? I wanted to go on multi-day rides and picked up a 2000 Yam WR400 and put a Baja Designs kit on it. I was set!
My racing career started when the Women's Motocross League invited me to travel to Radium, British Columbia for the 1997 Women's World Cup MX championship. I was totally scared, but went ahead and did it. Walt Healey provided a '97 Suz RM125 to race and some mechanical support as well. It was my first race ever. Not only my first race, but the first time I'd ever ridden a 125, the first time I'd ever been on a motocross track, the first time I'd ever even been at a motocross track for that matter!
Everyone has to start somewhere, and I'm sure it was obvious to everyone there that I was just starting. But being in the World Cup race with the top women racers from the US and Canada was so exciting I didn't care how I did, or how stupid I looked doing it. (and hey, after a couple laps no one could keep track of how many times I was getting lapped!) I came home with a 4th place (out of 5) trophy in the Canadian Women's Amateur, which I polished almost every day for at least a month. I knew I was a long way away from a successful racing career of my own, but I came home with bitten with the excitement of racing.
About a year after that I was spectating at a Southern California desert race. I met Deanne O'dor, a woman racer who rode with me a few times and then showed me the ropes of desert racing. For the next couple years I didn't do any more motocross racing after, but weekends found me begging anyone I could find to go trail riding with me. So desert racing seemed to be in my blood.
My first desert race was almost worse than the first MX race! I was so excited all I could think was faster faster faster. I finished ok, but the entire race I would pass my competition and then fall and get passed back and then pass again and then fall again.... over and over. It only took one race to understand what they mean by "You have to go slow in order to go fast!" or as my road racing friend put it, "First finish, then finish first!"
After that I changed the tune of my racing. My main goal was to finish and then to finish without crashing. Note to beginners: these two goals are instrumental in succeeding at the final goal: WINNING!!
Since then I've competed in events all over California and in Mexico. I was totally hooked on desert racing and spent several years competing regularly in District 37 events (Southern Cal). After a couple years I won my division in the Desert and Grand Prix series, and finally received my Red Bar (expert).
After that I went nuts, racing all the desert races I could possibly get to and in the off season (summer) I focused my attention on motocross. At first I thought I hated MX because I felt out of my element on the track. After some pracitce sessions, MX schools, and a lot of racing I was totally addicted. I spent weekends scouring the race listings to find a MX race for every weekend! If there wasn't one I would just go to the track and ride my brains out.
The craziest part of that chapter was that I was also in Grad School! So I hauled my books out to the tracks with me and spent the 'pit time' hunkered down in my truck writing flashcards and reading books on business law, advertising, finance and (yawn....). It was tough, I still can't believe I made it through grad school! What a lesson that was - hey moto kids, stay in school!
These days I've eased out of the racing scene. After a bad motocross crash , well a couple stitches in my tongue and concussion was the reality check I needed to 'retire' from MX racing, but who knows, I do miss it. The travelling got to be too much to keep up with desert racing and now I'm only out there now and then. I'm trying to do more dual sport rides and just get out into the dirt whenever I'm in the states. My goal is to be out there dez racing til I'm an official "Super Senior", so this temporary lag is just that - temporary...