Early Symptoms of The Racing Virus
Racing is not your thing, racing is dangerous, racing costs alot of money, racing is a waste of time, and yes we have heard all that already and we don’t buy that idea. Most if not all of us already had the speed virus inside us the moment we bought our ego wanking vehicle. We know exactly what we got ourselves into and sometimes fantasise being that hero on that superbike blasting through the traffic and imagined overload sexiness oozing out of your suit and helmet the moment you come to a stop in nearby “Bistro”. So do we stop this foolish fantasy or do we wait for the inevitable conclusion that racing will dawn us one day or it has already happened without us knowing it. Here are some of the examples of the highly transmittable virus called SPEED that’s been spreading ever since the beginning of your purchase.
1. Riding/Driving in a slightly increased pace vs other road users
Speedaholics won’t settle for the speed limit, heck they won’t even want to be the slower guy amongst other traffic offenders. If you are doing a Sunday ride and has the urge to be slightly faster than the group. You are infected. If you are driving to work in your daddy mobile, pussy dryer, hybrid Toyota and still has the urge to drive slightly faster than the rest of the common road users. You are infected.
2. No one is racing, just YOU
Seeing others driver/rider drove pass in higher speed gives you a dose of adrenaline and heighten sense of competition. You had the urge to gain acknowledgement from that “guy” for overtaking you. You want to know the outcome of this unofficial “race”. You want to measure your skills that you have honed thus far. The split road, traffic lights or toll booth often become your chequered flag. Then, you are infected
3. Craving for more adrenaline.
Your body will adapt to the adrenaline rush. You will notice that every time you took that corner you had an adrenaline rush but soon it becomes dull and you will increase the lean angle or speed to achieve the same adrenaline feeling it gave you the last time. Thus higher dosage of adrenaline every next time you ride and keep doing it till a satisfaction has been achieved as a closure of a good ride at the end of the day. The more we do it the more likely we are going to do it over and over again and every time we repeat it, we usually add a little bit more “Fun” (risk) to it. Then, you are infected
4. It is wrong and we know it.
Its not even deep down inside, we all know its wrong to rocket through the highway doing 180kmh. We know other road users will curse us for riding that fast but at some point we let our ego get the best out of us and tell ourself,” i know what am i doing and its better than those guys playing WhatsApp while driving. In fact studies shows that riders are bla bla bla percent more alert than drivers”. Well most of the time, we kinda know how well our vehicle performs as we are constantly assessing our vehicle stability every single feet we covered. We are confident with our riding skills on road. Maybe not so much on track. BUT STILL!!!! I AM FAST!!!! its not the most popular view but just stop for a minute. lets rethink this over again ya. “You are not participating in a street race or competing against other road users, You are just racing your own vehicle”. Just admit you are infected ALREADY!
5. Risk Tailoring
Speedaholics knows exactly the amount of risk they are getting into and constantly increasing it as how much they wanted it to be. It is silly to say that us Speedaholics dont care for our life. Just so happen we crave for the risks and we know how and when (just sometimes) to increase/decrease the risk. You get into a mountain road, seeing the coast is clear and you drop your knee on the tarmac, with a trail of black lines laid by your knee sliders and you smiled. You don’t just plant a knee right on the inside of an 18 wheeler because you adjusted your risk just before you commit to that action. You are already aware of the risk you are going to take and you are tailoring it whenever opportunity shows itself. Just admit you yearn for the feeling of going all out.
6. Trackday.
You frequent the trackday so much because you could go all out. You used to enjoy it so much and lately it has become more of a work than fun. Like how to get faster in that turn, where to seek for that elusive few seconds that is hidden around the circuit. Then perhaps, you are finding for a sparring partner, a like-timing riders to practice all of the abovementioned but you are having difficulty finding people at your own pace. Most are too slow for you. Some are just too fast to catch up. Now that you are in a no mans land timing. You wonder what and how did those guys got so fast in the first place. Look no further, they all have something in common. Most of them raced before (maybe not full time but at least once or twice in their lifetime). Then the thought of you deciding half heartedly if you should get into a race or not, somehow the fuzzy feeling, butterflies in you tum tum came when you fantasise yourself getting in a race than not.
The antidote
Those guys only got faster because racing gives them full motivation to practice all the feelings and emotions that you have been suppressing all this while on road and sometimes on trackday. The true feeling of going all out is when you are able to just have a single track mind dead set on the apex without thinking what’s for dinner or which sex position to practice before Valentines day. Seriously, there are countless racers that i’ve met told me that they’re just gonna race once to strike off the bucket list but are still racing till today. So, are we already on it or are we waiting for the inevitable outcome for the path that is already running its course.
Photo Credit to: ZZ Racing