she had lost. Valerie told me “I heard the
crowd’s “AWWWWW” and yet my mom
was cheering me on telling everyone that I
was her daughter.” She does have to hide
her passion from her grandmother, she
tried to tell her that she went over 200 miles
per hour and her grandmother responded
with “I don’t want to hear about it” but then
again, she is also the woman who refers to
motorcycles as a “murdercycles”.
I asked her what her goals are this year,
she responded with “This year I want to go
220+” When I asked her why she wanted
220+ she responded with “Because I want
to go faster each time, I have the greed for
speed”.
One of Valerie’s newest accomplishments
is being the first woman to be inducted into
the Colorado Mile 200 MPH club, which is
how we found her. She had a top speed
pass of 201.2 MPH on her Quicksilver
Powersports Lubricants/CTEK sponsored
BMW. Valerie started road racing a year
ago after attending Keith Code’s weekend
road racing school. Before learning road
racing she said she only knew going one way. “Now I know
it’s side by side and lean, lean, lean.” She told us that she
never thought she could do it, but wound up learning very
quickly. “You are using your mind and your motorcycle talent.
I never learned how good my throttle control was until I started
road racing.” She received a certificate and a trophy stating
that she is the first female in the 200 Mile per Hour Club in
Colorado. You road racers out there can breathe a sigh of
relief because Valerie told me that she wouldn’t take it up as
a new career.
She has two Maltese dogs, Recon and Speedy that go
everywhere with her. “Recon was my first and he went with
me to all of the drag racing events.” She felt that he would
take the attention off of her so she could concentrate on what
she was doing. She told us that she has a love for animals
and her two dogs are like her best friends. She also has a
love for shoes and of course shopping for “Valerie attire”. I
asked what that was and she told me “Something girlie”. She
admitted to me that “Shoes and bling are my weakness”.
She loves to hang out by water and read her girlie magazines
(that’s girlie, not girlie) where she can decompress and
www.thunderroadscolorado.com
forget about everything. Her busy schedule
keeps her on the road two weeks out of
most months and she lives in her “house on
wheels” with her two dogs. She does ride for
pleasure still, but not as often as she would
like, she told me that she wishes that she
could take her Fat Boy with her to some of
the places she travels.
Her sponsors are what make all this
possible and maintaining and getting
sponsors is hard work that takes up a lot of
non-racing time. She must be working hard,
because to date she has more than nineteen
sponsors.
Valerie also manages all of her own social
media. She is on Facebook, Instagram and
Twitter along with having a YouTube channel.
She is very active on all of them and loves
watching her following grow. She does get the
occasional negative comment like “All you do
is ride straight, I can do that on the highway”.
She takes the time to explain what she does
and has the ability to turn people who have
negative comments into fans. Her YouTube
channel
(https://www.youtube.com/user/
ValerieThompson20) has several videos, one of which has the
ride along experience and her receiving the 212 MPH slip at
the end during the Texas Mile in 2013. A favorite video is one
of her land speed records at Bonneville, the motorcycle moves
so fast the camera has a difficult time keeping up with her. The
quote that graces her Facebook and Web page is “The best
protection any woman can have … is courage.” In my short
conversation with her, she definitely proved to me that she does
have an abundance of courage.
In 2016 Valerie will continue to pursue land speed records
with her team’s BMW S 1000 RR, but has announced that
she will be returning to drag racing and the NHRA. She
has a new motorcycle built by George Bryce’s Star Racing
team, one of most successful NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle
teams. Her crew will be led by Chris Rivas, a former Pro
Stock motorcycle racer and four time NHRA event wins and
six land speed records. The NHRA drag racing circuit will
be in Colorado on July 22nd – 24th, mark your calendars
and come out and enjoy the races, we will certainly be in the
stands cheering her on.
Carrie McCauley
January 2016
Thunder Roads Magazine® Colorado 25