The most important first lesson about racing is that it is not about going fast around a track on a motorcycle. It is about the sacrifice of all your earnings, your equanimity, all your sleep, and your relations with your loved ones and the rest of the world in pursuit of a higher-placed finish.

It is about pushing your bike to the pits on a dead run so you can hammer it back into shape and get it re- teched, and then borrow another helmet in time for the next race. It is about healing at 100 mph in order to finish the season on the track.

It is about lapping a full second better than your previous best-ever, while abandoning the proper lines in every turn trying to get past someone with more motor than you.

It is about passing shaky Novices or over-their-head squids regardless of the hazard, because you belong in front of them.

It is about blowing by four bikes on the brakes, passing another on the exit of the turn and taking off after another bike that is barely in your sight because you sacrificed and sweated and stressed and risked and you aren't about to waste it all.

It is about putting together the fastest four laps of your life and racing neck-and-neck with someone else who is also putting together the fastest four laps of his/her life, taking it to the max, trusting the other rider to do the right thing, just as they are trusting you not to take them out. All to finish mid-pack one more time.

It is about giving up on making anyone who is not a racer, understand what it's all about.