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grrrrrreat track. Holy crap. So smooth, wide, long, and challenging.
Saturday was very cold and kinda damp. Only missed one session due to rain, but I found the cold/damp track a little sketchy. The track is so long, every turn is blind, and everything looks the same. The first day I felt lost - come up to a blind corner at speed and brake too much because I have no idea what is around the corner. Because everything looks the same, it is hard to find the line. Anyway, it took me a full day to find halfway decent lines and get up to speed.
Second day was great. Once you learn the track, it is amazing. It is only the second track I've been to, but wow. The smooth long turns - lean over and go, go, go. Some seriously challenging corners (decreasing radius turn (turn 8) catches a lot of people), high speed sets of turns and straights.
Kind of a weird set up -
Inspection
the folks running the track are serious about noise (they measure you in the morning and on the track), back protectors (they check you every session), and tech inspection is very thorogh. But, after that, there are almost no rules.
Flags
They give a two minute rider's meeting in which they mention flags, but no one can hear the speaker. A waving red means stop on the track (no kidding), a standing red means pit in. Guess what, no one has any idea what is go on (even the corner workers (the 24 of them), don't seem to know the rules). Flash a red flag and there is mayham. Seriously dangerous.
Instruction
There is basically no instruction (no track maps, white X, etc). There are control riders/instructors, but they don't do any coaching. The instructors just race around the track even in the slow group (when they pass you, you know there is another instructor about to pass you because they race each other around the track). Not bad guys, just wish I could follow them though a set of turns to check out there lines.
Other riders
Everyone up there is pretty cool. Mostly Canadian riders - friendly folks and most are pretty good riders. However, a lot of folks don't know the lines or the track. The passing is a little sketchy (actually a lot sketchy).
The folks pitting next to me the second day were there for the first time ever. Nice guys and we were BS in the morning. I mentioned how difficult I found the track the first day. They thought I was overstating the track. Well, one of them crashed their first session. He was fine. Later he ran into the grass in the same corner. When they were leaving, he noted that the track will teach you to respect her. True enough.
Thanks to Burnham and crew.Great folks and they put on a great dinner. They helped me out with a locking nut that got me through tech spec and onto the track. Oh, and those dudes can ride!
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Originally Posted by Ericthejet
