0
Before setting foot out West, I managed to snag a free spot for The Track Club's October 29th Buttonwillow track day. I set my alarm for 3:30 am, and hit the road at 4:30 with about 170 miles to cover to get to the track. I found my garage, which I was sharing with some Socal Moto forum members, and realized after offloading the bike that I had forgotten my kickstand which I had planned on putting back on. Fortunately with a full pit crew, I had more than enough help with my rearstand the whole day. Also, it was nice to see Alex and Jro! I walked by an air tank plastered with Street and Comp stickers, and figured they had arrived.
The Track Club was pretty mellow, the day still had some spots open so there was plenty of room in all of the groups, and with the full 3 mile race configuration being run (clockwise, #13) there was tons of room on the track. I started out in C group for a full session of follow the leader to get familiar with the track, and was glad I did. With over 20 turns, tons of transitions, patches, cracks, and bumps there was a lot to absorb with this track. The track was pretty cold throughout the morning, and felt very slippery until midday. My 2nd session I sought out a control rider, to follow to learn the lines more but we got stuck in a lot of traffic. We made some passes, and finally got in a couple faster laps when oops! I had a small dirt excursion. It was pretty much like "Oh crap, there's T1, overshot it, gotta take the NASCAR oval" scenario at Loudon... I wasn't tight enough coming into the sweeper before the esses, went over the slippery apron, thought "oh crap" looked at the dirt and that's where I went. I rode through and back on track, gave the control rider a thumbs up, then away we went, lol. Didn't happen again, that's for sure...
After that session I bumped to B group, which was pretty darn fast. I picked up the pace, and finished the day running a 2:20 which I was happy with. Visually, the track is really busy with all the pavement patches, so it makes more work for your brain to process all the information, leaving you feeling like you have less in reserve regardless of pace. It was a fun and challenging track, much more technical than I anticipated, but by the 4th session I was starting to get the flow of things. I had the most fun in Cotton Corners, and the Grapevine, which is a nice little right, left, right with an uphill section followed by a right sweeper. I disliked turn 2 the most, which was a slippery, off camber hair pin that just felt really slick all day. I was working on learning the lines, and dropping my inside shoulder all day, which paid off.
My 7th session the bike wouldn't start, wouldn't even turn on and after fiddling with connections figured the battery wires had come a little loose from the 3,200 cross country haul.Fortunately, got the bike sorted in time for the last session of the day. I met some great people, had a blast, and look forward to the next one! I may try to do Chuckwalla next weekend...
Originally Posted by Pittenger5
Reply With Quote
Just signed up for Chuckwalla on the 27th/28th with TrackXperience, and Big Willow this coming Monday the 5th... 