Round 1 - Buttonwillow

Going into the first race of the season, I was totally unprepared. My lack of preparation for this race began a year ago. Last year I got my bike only a short time before the first round of the season, also Buttonwillow, and had yet to learn the bike and set it up. This was a new track and bike to me and my performance showed it. After the race last year, I said I would go back a couple times during the summer to get better at the track for next season.

Fast forward to the night before leaving for the season opener in 2011. I had yet to be back to buttonwillow since last year, my bike was torn apart, I have no brake system installed, I have to load the trailer. It was 4:30 am when I finally went to bed, only to wake up shortly thereafter to go to work, leave from work and get an incomplete bike to the track in order to race. I have been so busy with work and being a full time student, I have not even ridden my bike at full click since last September at a thunderhill trackday


- A complete and total lack of preparation -

With a little help from my friends...

Lennon and McCartney finished writing the song With a little help from my friends in mid-March 1967, written specifically as Starr's track for the album. It was briefly called Bad Finger Boogie, supposedly because Lennon composed the melody on a piano using his middle finger after having hurt his forefinger; but in his 1980 Playboy interview Lennon said: "This is Paul, with a little help from me."

Now, while I personally like the Joe Cocker version better than the Beatles' version, the point of the story is that success in music is much like success in racing; it can not happen without some help from others.