Jocelin's Joy Continued....

When she's not racing, Jocelin runs Tri-Signs, her full-service sign company, in Waterville.

  Jocelin, born Jocelin Veilleux ("Why not?" she says when asked about her decision to legally drop her middle and last names),  has always been interested in motorcycles.  When she was in the third grade, her teacher had the students write a list of their goals in life.  Jocelin listed several things, one of which was, "to be a famous motorcycle racer."

  As a third grader, Jocelin was likely unaware that the sport was almost exclusively male.  Now, she gets several reminders.  Her helmet and boots are too big, because they were designed for men.  Her racing suit was clearly not made for someone with her small frame.  Her curly brown hair pokes out of the back of her helmet.  At some tracks, it is impossible for her to feel like just another racer.

  "One time a racer said to me, 'You know, the guys are all complaining.  They've all been talking about what a distraction you are at the race track because you're a female,'" recalled Jocelin.  "I said, 'Oh, you're telling me that having a girl at a racetrack is a distraction for the guys?' and he said. 'Yeah,  It makes it hard for them to concentrate.' And I said, 'Well, then just imagine how hard it is for me to concentrate, being one girl with 200 guys at the racetrack.'"

  While that racer laughed and told Jocelin she had a pretty good point, others have initially dismissed her because she is female.

  "It's really a male sport." said Jocelin, "(and) it's difficult being a female in a male sport.  When I go to another track where they don't know me, then they're at first like, 'Oh brother, who's this?' or 'Who's the chick?' You really don't get a lot of respect and you get kind of mocked and laughed at, at first."

  But most of Jocelin's experiences at the tracks are positive.  Much of this is of her own doing, as she has an outgoing, at times infectious personality.  Jimmy Fassino, writing in The Motorcyclist's Post, called Jocelin a "little bundle of dynamite."

  "Jocelin is always smiling, always hugging," said Larry Hussey, a fellow racer from Durham, NH "She's cute as a button, and she's got a personality to match."

  In addition to her friendliness, Jocelin's adrenaline is always pumping or wanting to, so much so that she hasn't watched television in about three years, because she doesn't want to sit still long enough to pay attention.

  That adrenaline finds several outlets at the racetrack.  There, she is surrounded by people who share her fearlessness and love of racing.  For most of the weekend, Jocelin is laughing and relaxing.

  "It's like a separate home." said Jocelin.  "You forget about the rest of your world and now you're with your racing family and your racing buddies and you're doing the racing thing.  Drinking iced teas around the candles at night and talking about racing.  Most everyone feels the same when it's over and it's time to go back to work.  Everyone gets kind of down, depressed, because nothing can compete with the high that you're at all weekend."

  Jocelin also experiences nerves over a racing weekend.  As race time gets closer and closer, she becomes a quiet charge of intensity, al likely to be pacing nervously as she is to be sitting on a fuel can, pensive and motionless.

  When the race begins, Jocelin is ready to feel the rush that comes with meeting danger head-on.  To some, it's crazy.  But Jocelin is enjoying life, and she is doing something that she truly loves.

  "I've been in situations in my life where I wasn't happy, or I was stagnant, I guess is the word," said Jocelin.  "You gotta just wake up and say, 'Wait a minute! I can do anything I want.' I'm entitled to a happy life, so I need to do what I need to do to make it happy.  People who don't live that way, I think it's a shame."