no, cliff notes
I had a great time even though I’m fat, out of shape and slow lol….. I started off in B, did 2 follow the leader sessions then an open session. Only got 4 laps in on the session and it seemed like another follow the leader session, no one was passing or going very fast so I asked to move to A. Talked with Dan(legalspeed) and asked him to help me with some body form issues I was having. I feel like a monkey fucking a football when going right and wanted to sort that out. He followed me for 2 laps then I was to follow him for 2….first lap I was behind a motard taking it easy so the tires would heat up the next lap I turned it up a bit…. Pulled into the hot pit and dan to talk about it…he goes out and I follow…lol I did a good job keeping up for the first lap but by the second lap I was getting really fatigued. I took 2 a wider then I should have and both tires slid a decent amount, went into 3 just passed 4, got he bike upright and got on the gas…about when I crested the hill the rear spun then was all over the place when slowing to hit the bowl. I couldn’t settle the bike by the turn in point causing me to drift WAY wide and completely blow the turn…that sucked bad..thank god no one was trying to pass me.. The rear tire was really greasy…I promptly pitted in…..had a little discussion with a couple people including Mr. Kates and it seem it was probably a combo of too much pressure and hitting 3-4 the wrong way and the sudden burst of power on a liter bike is enough to spin it up. I dropped some pressure and back to the B group and was relatively fine the rest of the day except for the rear tire talking to me a little but in 2 and the bowl. After lunch I was getting fatigued really fast…I was drinking water all day but it didn’t seem to be enough or something. I brought a gallon and finished it b4 2…. The weather and the fact my leathers are not perf’d probably didn’t help.
Ok, now for my review of LAPS. The guys running it seem like very nice guys, approachable and genuinely want to make sure you have the best time as possible. That said, there are a couple things that I think should have gone a bit smoother or done differently.
The riders meeting in the morning was a bit long winded and confusing. The 2 leaders had a debate in front of the class about the flags. The was prompted from the incident at the last trackday. I feel any discussions with the management team should have been don before the meeting started. Then there was still some more confusion about the flags. They initially said 2 flags red and yellow, then 3 yellow, red, and black…then as soon as we walked out of the meeting someone said something about a checkered flag over the loud speaker.
I think 2 follow the leader sessions in B is overkill. If riders want to do the second one it should be optional IMO.
After the first open session the riders were called into the media center and the instructors to the tech booth. After sitting in the hot poorly vented room for awhile they started to go over inside passing rules, which was covered to death in the morning riders meeting. This seemed to go on forever…. +1 on Eugene’s comments, this meeting was painful to put it nicely. Between this meeting and not riding during lunch there was 2 hours during the day with no one on the track.
All in all I think everything went smoothly, no safety issues, minimal crashes...I had a great time.