My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California, driving on Highway 65 Southbound.
Early afternoon under good visibility conditions, straight stretch of highway going uphill with only 2 cars ahead of me, driving toward the same direction i decided to pass the first car as it pulled to the right on a portion of highway with 2 lanes. Then i noted the lanes merging again into one and slowed down as i could not have passed the second car ahead of me...only to realize this car was a CHP and to my dismay it slowed down and started pulling on the side of the road ... i slowed down even more as i didn’t know what to do and why was the CHP pulling off the highway, when the CHP car was completely off the road i passed it only to notice in my rear mirror that CHP car pulled back on the road and had it’s swirling lights on. At this point i immediately signaled and pulled off the road and waited in the car. The officer came, knocked on passenger window and stated that i was pulled over for speeding and requested my dl, registration and proof of insurance. I provided the requested documentation no questions asked as this was my first ever time to be pulled over by law enforcement in my 20 years of driving and was in a bit of shock ... when he came back to the car he presented me with a citation and asked me to sign it ... by this time my initial anxiety of being pulled over had passed and asked him what did i do wrong as i have never ever been pulled over before. Officer stated i was driving 77 mph on a 55 mph highway ... i confess i do not know exactly at what speed i was cruising, it felt as i was going with the flow ... i had never been on that highway before, mostly drove around LA County freeways my whole life before this outing to the North.
Anyhow my question is what can i do as i do not want this ticket to mess up my driving record or impact my insurance rates and the court where i have to present myself is about 170 miles away from my home ?
Thank you for any suggestions in helping out a first offender !

