Girl Meets World on a Yamaha FZ-07 Part 10: Austin for MotoGP!

Tiff and I met at the track, where she races her Ninja 250 with more enjoyment and positivity than anyone else on the grid. When Tiffani got word that she’d be getting laid off from her job in Los Angeles, she didn’t fret. In typical ultra-optimistic Tiff style, she saw it as an opportunity to hit the road on her newly acquired Yamaha FZ-07. What follows are Tiffani’s reports from the road, originally posted for her friends on Facebook but shared here with her permission for all to enjoy. — Ari Henning

When I last checked in I'd just gotten to Austin, Texas, for the MotoGP races. (I know what you're thinking, weren't those in April? Yeah, they were! But Ari is really slow to publish my posts!)

I knew a few friends would be in Austin so I was legitimately excited to see some familiar faces. First I met up with my friend Max and his dad and went out for dinner. I recapped some of my adventure, proved I was still alive, then headed down to 6th Street to meet a group of friends that had just ridden into town on a group of equally eclectic, not-quite-touring bikes. We partied most of the night, then grabbed some sleep.

Fridays before a MotoGP race offer a lot of exciting festivities for a race fan, so I got up early, loaded the bike, and headed to COTA. The last time I was at COTA on my way east I was pretty excited to arrive at such an impressive track. This time the parking lot was overflowing with bikes and walking through the gates really felt like I had just walked into a magical motorcycle theme park. Ari had managed to get me hooked up with some suite passes for the day, so after much ado trying to figure out how to navigate my way from Ducati Island to the paddock (my sense of direction has not improved during my travels!) I made my way up to the Bonnier suite and got to meet a bunch of people from the Bonnier Group.

From there, I explored the paddock a bit and bumped into my friend Adam, who I had met on Facebook and finally got to actually meet in person. Adam gave me a quick tour of the Aprilia garage and then I visited my MotoAmerica-racer friends at the Syndicate paddock again, who were in it to win it for real this time. Getting to retell much of my story to more and more people was pretty exciting, but really, being reunited with so many friends after an isolating three weeks on the road was everything. I guess I didn’t realize how lonely I was getting out there. I apologize if I hugged the crap out of everyone I saw!

Saturday, I once again got up bright and early and headed straight to the track. I met up with Richie who I had met the first time I stopped in Austin. (And by total coincidence ended up being a friend of another friend from racing in another state. The motorcycle world, especially the world of club racers, truly is very, very small). I had a great time getting to know new people, met up with some more friends from California, fought my way to getting Iannone's autograph at the Dainese booth, and settled in to watch the MotoAmerica race from the start-finish line.

The race started out strong, but after some mishaps, a red flag, some oil cleanup, and a short sprint race on restart, it didn’t go quite so well for my friends. I ended up hanging out in the paddock for the night, playing assistant in any way that I could to my favorite crew chief while he made a few changes before setting up camp in the parking lot at around 2am.

Despite getting to bed so late I still woke up bright and early the next morning (thanks internal clock!) and started packing up for the last day of racing. As I was rolling up my tent, another camper came up to me and asked what kind of adventure I was on. He was in town for the flattrack races and was also on a big tour. He ended up inviting me to breakfast and telling me all about his life and adventures. I’m not gonna lie—listening to people tell their stories has to be my absolute favorite thing, and it felt like talking to a kindred spirit. After talking for quite a bit, I headed back to the track a bit later than intended to watch the races.

First order of the day, I stopped by the Yamaha booth to chat with some people about my FZ-07. Much to my surprise, a few of the Yamaha reps had read my articles and actually took interest in the fact that I forced the FZ into the role of an adventure bike. But with a little over 7,500 miles covered so far, I have to say that what the FZ lacks in creature comforts, it makes up for in just being plain fun, so I maintain that this was a reasonable choice for a touring bike! Double points because it's small and lightweight enough that even I have been able to muscle it out of the situations I've gotten myself into.

I then met up with friends in Turn 1 to watch the Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP races for the day, which all were fairly unexciting, honestly. Not every round can be a barn burner I suppose.

The last race of the day was the MotoAmerica Superbike race again. The changes my friends at the Syndicate team made the day before were clearly an improvement and they did really well. I don’t think I could have conceivably been any happier for the whole Syndicate crew. Totally killed it. Great job, guys! After some well-deserved congratulations, I headed off to dinner for the last night in Austin with my SoCal racer buddies, and crashed on the floor of a hotel with Cody and crew. I’m planning to ride back with them from here, so now that I’m no longer on my own, it should be pretty smooth sailing. Great way to wrap up the weekend!