Riding Solo

hello everyone-

so I've been down in Georgia for about 2 weeks now, and its great! I love waking up in the morning and wanting nothing more then to go riding! It's absolutely a great feeling, I'm very grateful that i have this opportunity to come down and train with Terry Woods. She runs a great program, and likes to see women succeed in this sport! Hopefully i get the opportunity to come back down here after new years, and finish out the rest of the winter and train. I feel that I'm getting faster everyday, and just trying to hone my skills. I hope that when i go to Texas over new years, I'm able to show off the skills that I've acquired over the month that I've been down here riding!

This whole facility is amazing, the members and the Wood's family are great! I got the opportunity to ride next door at Millsaps Training Facility and i would rather spend the money to stay here, because just the track and the area are great! But i would just like to sign off and thank everyone that made this possible for me to come down here! I'll talk to everyone soon!

Danielle #73

Going Down South

Hello Everyone-

Today is my last day in Michigan, and I'm very excited :) I'll be living in Georgia for a month at a practice facility to ride everyday, and train. I'm very happy that i have this opportunity to go down there and ride. My parents dropped me off last night at my friend Jerry's house and my mom was very emotional, she started crying and then i did. my sister was trying not to, but i knew she was. It's very hard to leave my family, because they travel with me to all these tracks and now I'm taking an adventure by myself and stepping out into the world. I'm definitely ready for the challenge and I'm excited to head down to Texas a totally different rider, and when the gate drops come out swinging. I'll be updating this all everyday so keep checking back :)

Well Hello Everyone!

It's definitely been awhile since I've been able to update this thing. so I'm very sorry if you've been checking and I haven't wrote anything since May. So I'll give you a wrap up of my summer and all the great places I've traveled with my family. I've finally made the jump up to the pro rank. In August i made my last amature appearance in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee at Loretta Lynn's my expectations were alot higher then my finishes lets just put it that way. so i really didn't end the amature career with a bang but it sure was a memorable one that's for sure! A few weeks later my dad and i loaded up the van and headed out east to Massachusetts for my first pro women's race ever. Southwick, MA it had been the first women's race at this track and it was my type of track deep rough sand so i made high expectations for myself. First moto i had a great hole shot and was running in about 6Th and on the last couple of laps i stalled my bike in this corner so that bumped me back to about 15Th which wasn't bad but just enough to make me mad ha ha. so the second moto rolled around the next morning and had an okay start i fell in the first corner and then i came all the way back from last to about 10Th and i fell really really hard going up hill. so that pretty much put a stop to that good finish again. but at the end of the weekend i made my first pro debut with no broken bones or parts on my bike and ended up 19Th overall which wasn't bad. just not what i was hoping for.

So on Sunday we loaded up the van, and started traveling with Sarah Whitmore and her dad Terry, and as well Ashely Fiolek and her family to Pennsylvania where we would get to ride Jeff Cernic's track Pleasure Valley just the three of us for a private session which was awesome. We spent three days just hanging out doing some riding. We then loaded up all of our stuff again and headed to Delmont, Pennsylvania where we would race the last round of the WMA series at Steel City which would turn out as a repeat of the previous weekend, sad a disappointing ha ha. but a great learning experience for myself and my dad. Doing those last three national races were amazing I'm so thankful that my parents spent the time and money for me to go try my hand at these races. I'm looking forward to a great next season! I just wanted to give a shout out to all my sponsors for helping me out through the way, and most of all my family because without them i would definitely wouldn't be doing this. and also i wanted to say thanks to my sister Richelle for taking the time to help with getting resumes ready for the upcoming season i really appreciate it !!

Well until next time keep checkin back i'll be doing alot more updating now things have kind of slowed down!!

Danielle-

Breaking it Down.

Hi Everyone!

Today I'm going all fitness on this blog. I spend alot of time at the gym doing cardio, lifting weights, etc. I really do enjoy it takes a load off and I can just put my music in and just get to work! Alot of people say well you know your just sitting there on the bike why the heck do you need to work out! Well in my response is when its a 100 + degrees outside lets see how long you can last. I work out to better than the next person. Working me out helps me get the job done pain free! Being well fit helps me ride longer and helps performance while I'm riding. I can be in the attack position the whole moto, and most of the time at these big nationals they make you go 20 mins plus 2 laps so really your out there about 25-26 mins. So being in shape definitely helps with that! My parents never have to force me to go to the gym its always because i want to! I recently purchased an stationary exercise bike for when I'm at the races and I'm bored i just put my ipod in and just start biking ha ha! At Loretta Lynn's regional last year i tried biking before i rode and it helped tremendously. when i got to the line i was all pumped got my blood flowing at little bit and was ready to come out swinging ha ha! so I'm going to leave on a good note and say that being in shape definitely helps with riding my bike! Until next time have a good one!

Danielle!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it's taken me awhile to update everything. I've been busy training and racing.Well my parents and I loaded up the van and are making our way to Sunset Ridge MX in Walnut,IL for an area qualifier for Loretta Lynn's. Tho I'm already qualified in this region I thought it would be good practice for my regional and for Hangtown in two weeks =] I'm very excited that I get test my new race bike that i have been patiently waiting for about a month now. It should be done by this next week and then I'll be able to test that sucker and then get off of it until practice at Hangtown :(! We still haven't decided if we're going to ship my bike or drive out there! my dad wants to drive, and my mom wants to fly so we're trying to find some happy medium and cheap shipping rates. ha ha if you've got any ideas please let me know ha ha! but I just wanted to give everyone an update on where I've been and what I'm doing now so until probably tomorrow I'll chat later!

Danielle

My Family & Support!

Today's post I'm giving a big thanks to my family, friends, and my industry sponsors! I've been riding for about 15 years now, and I can remember racing in Traverse City, Michigan when I was 6 and having a ball. Gaylord's local newspaper " The Herald Times" have done a few articles over the years about my progress in the sport and here in town, I have alot of people that like to know how things are going and where I raced the previous weekend. It's like I'm a local celebrity ha ha. That is the reason I started this blog was for everyone to get updated on where I've been, and what's going on with my career. My family are my biggest supporters of my racing. When I turned 16 my dad made a deal with me, he asked if " I wanted a car or a new bike" and being the racer that I am i choose the bike hands down ha ha. I even put the deposit on the bike that's how bad i wanted it! Ever since then my racing has gotten better and better each year. Now having my pro license my training and riding habits are different I'm tying to better my skills, and things that I'm not good at. My trainer Dave preaches this quote to me " You practice your skills, to show them off on race day"! He's a motivational speaker. If I had a tape I'd listen to it all the time! I'm 20 years old and people still ask me if my parents still support my racing, and I always say yes because they put in 110% and if i didn't do the same then they wouldn't. Kids my age are doing alot worse things and I choose to race because its my passion, and I love everything about it! All the people that I've met through racing are life long friends! You Definitely meet the nicest people weather you're parked next to them in the pits are just walking around the track! So ending this again I want to say thank you to everyone for helping me out, and supporting my racing and keeping in touch with how things are going with everything!

THANKS SO MUCH!!

Danielle!!

Start of the New Season.

Hi Everyone!

I'm starting this blog with how things have started out for my 2008 season. Lets just say coming back from an injury is very difficult and isn't easy. I had knee surgery in January and I was back riding a bike by April! I get very frustrated because I'd like to pick up from where i left off when i stopped riding after the WMA cup over thanksgiving last year. Lets just say I'm not there yet I'm dealing with a few issues that are making me jump through a few hoops to overcome it. Last weekend I went to my first race of the year, it was an area qualifier for Loretta Lynn's. So my dad and I packed up our van and made the 11 hour journey to " The Farm Mx " in Indianola, Iowa. We drove all the way Thursday and made it there about 10 p.m.. When i had been checking the weather it was looking quite decent for the weekend. Thursday with a few showers and Friday it said their were to be a few spotty showers so i would maybe have to deal with some rain on Friday for practice. That certainly wasn't the case, over night it rained over 6 inches, and had 5 Tornado's touch down around the area. So when we pulled into the track after leaving hour hotel they had told us practice had been cancelled. My dad and I threw our mud boots on and decided to check things out. For getting that much rain the track wasn't in all that bad of condition. When you scraped off some of the mud it was dry underneath so things would be looking up for tomorrow's race day. When I woke up Friday morning i decided to do another track walk to refresh myself, and things looked amazing, i was quite excited to go practice and start racing. So rolling up the gate for my first moto, i picked a perfect gate the rut was straight and heading straight for the first corner. and when the starting guy held that 30 sec. card sideways i was wide open, and pulled off a holshot! I made a few mistakes and got passed by two girls and all three of us checked out from the rest of the pack. their wasn't 4 sec. between us the whole moto i had stayed on 2ND place all of the moto and just tried to out smart her, but her 250 two stroke just pulled away from me up the hills, and that's what i was lacking. But all in all it was a good weekend. I ended up 3rd overall for Saturday, and that was good in my books. After my 2ND moto on Saturday, we packed up the van and started making our way back east to Michigan. My dad is quite the trooper, he drove the whole way home accept stopping twice to take a couple of cat naps. My dad is a great mechanic and i appreciate all the things my family do for me! They make alot of sacrifices just to step up my program and you won't find anything like that around here! I love my family very much, we have a great bond with eachother!



P.S. it's my sister's birthday today, so I'd like to give a shout out to her! Love You Sis!



Danielle!

My First Blog Post!

Hello everyone!

This is my first blog of many to come. I just thought since i don't have the time to keep updating a website for my local fans and people that like to keep track on how I'm doing I used Sarah Whitmore's idea and thought i would start my own blog! Let just start out with the basics, I just recently turned 20, and racing motocross professionally is my passion. I just turned pro over thanksgiving last year, and my career is just blossoming! I'm not all that well known, but I'm trying to make a name for myself in the industry! I've been working with a trainer for about a year now, and things are starting to turn around. In January i had re-constructive knee surgery for the second time so that kind of set me back a few months, and its taking me a bit to get back up to speed and keep moving forward, but it all comes with time on the bike and the amount of effort you put in! I'm very dedicated to this sport, i eat, sleep and breath motocross! This is how i want to spend my life! So Keep checking back I'll keep this updated daily!