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So I finally got a chance to ride the track, and get my certification to race. Here is how the day went:
After watching the weather all week, I was somewhat surprised to wake up at the Redroof Inn to no rain in the morning. I was starting to think we were going to get lucky! Definitely not the case! The day started cloudy and I was hoping the rain would hold off, but by the time our 1st classroom discussion ended, it was pouring. We headed out onto the track and I was a little dissappointed with the pace. I was expecting to be going as fast as we could, but instead it was like being stuck behind traffic on your favorite twisty road! We played follow the leader and I was hoping to God that we were going to do more than that during the day!
The classroom started off the same way. Very basic stuff that I've read a million times in Roadracing World and Sportrider. Then we headed out again. Same thing. Super boring. I was starting to lose hope in the day, but when we went out for the last 4 or 5 times it was all open type practice so I finally got to rip it up. I was so amped up that I lapped my group twice in one session. But still, we were going relatively slow. I started to work on the lines the instructors showed us, and that was pretty cool. I really made some good progress I think. Even Scott Greenwood himself said my positioning on the bike looked good when we looked at some pics. That made me happy, but I knew that there is a lot to learn.
So that was the jist of it for me. I learned a lot, especially toward the end of the day when things all started to come together and make sense. Racing is definitely more involved than I had imagined it to be. I enjoyed our instructor, Steve, who was pretty funny and infused his jokes with everything motorcycle! I went as fast as I could in the rain, and was definitely faster than most of the others in the class, but most importantly I can now see how much work is going to be involved if I want to do fast lap times. That track is definitely a tight and technical track! Now that I've learned the layout, I'll have to go back in the dry weather to work on the proper lines and mainly the "pre-turn" before turn 1. I have mixed feelings about racing next year. Part of me thinks I'll do just fine racing with the novices w/out more track time, but the other part is telling me to go do a "dry" practice session first. Maybe I'll do another Penguin class before the 1st race. Either way it was fun, and I have alot to think about for the winter!