First off, had a great day at the track. LAPS puts on a hell of a day, I have to say I've never had such an opportunity to get out there and work on my lines with so much open track at any track day before. Even without riding through lunch, the number of laps I got without feeling like anyone was crowding me or holding me up...definitely a great value for the money.
I will echo what others have said about the rider meetings. It wasn't so much that they were long, as I felt that less was said in more time than at any other trackday I've been to. For me this was boring, but I feel like if I was a new rider to the track it would have been dangerous. There are a few basic things that need to be covered before anyone hits the track, and I didn't hear them covered and that worried me a bit...
First off, what to do when you see a flag, be it red yellow black or checkered? Nothing! Don't get off your line, don't look around, and for god's sake don't chop the throttle (did I hear an instructor say to do this? I hope I was dreaming)! Give a second for others to notice the flag before you put your hand up, slow down, get off line, etc...Things happen very quickly on the track and just because you saw the flag doesn't mean everyone else has. This needs to be drilled in.
Secondly, pit out and pit in. Maybe it was covered after the A group had already left, but this is one of the things that everyone seems to need a refresher on, as I saw plenty of awful pit-outs in the A group. Tight tight tight to the edge of the track on pit out, then *gradually* merge onto the line once you round turn two. For pit in, the hand should go up as soon as possible after you round turn ten and again, coming around 11 it's tight to the edge of the track to avoid intersections. This needs to be covered again and again, as it seems to be the first thing people forget on a hot track.
Finally, I didn't think enough attention was paid to the black flag. If you've got a black flag pointed at you, you need to safely but quickly get off the race line, and there needs to be a way for the cornerworkers to let you know if you need to get off the track immediately without circling into pit-in. It seems like every trackday there's *someone* who ends up leaking fluids out of their bike and has no clue what's going on, if there isn't a clear way for them to know that they need to get the hell of the track they'll end up oiling the whole thing before they end up back in the pits.
With that said, I watched the organizers walking around the pits and spoke to them a few times during the day, and it's pretty clear that despite the minor kinks in the day, they're good guys and are working their asses off trying to make the day run smoothly. Every new venture has kinks to work out, and I'd bet that the things that didn't run so smoothly at the riders meetings have been or will be addressed before the next day. I wouldn't hesitate to do another LAPS day and look forward to having a large number and variety of track dates to pick from in the future
