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I'm going Sep. 1st and 2nd, anyone else going?
EDIT:
Alright, got back to work, so now I can write my thoughts about it if anyone cares..
Day 1:
Since I was on class A, which is beginners for those of you who don't know, we started the day with classroom, Steve Nogueira was my instructor/teacher, awesome guy who later on I found out fast as hell as well, covered mainly track safety, flags, pit-in and pit-out, which are very important since there is a possibility for a very ugly incident.
Once we covered all the safety lessons it was time to hop on the track, I personally took one of their bikes, which was a Ducati 750, even though they have 900 the 750 was beautiful around the track, and if you ask most of the instructors they actually rather have the 750 instead of the 900 mainly because it is a hell of a lot easier to turn it, also lighter and not much power difference. First section was 2 riders per instructor, which is follow the leader, the instructor is ahead and the 2 riders switch every lap on the main straightaway, to learn the racing line, I didn't have the original Steve then, however another Steve, who was an older guy,but very fast and also, the only person I've seen today that can go around a track very fast and doesn't touch his knee on pavement at all.
After the first session, we were back in the classroom, now we're talking a little deeper about the track, questions and answers session.
After that we went for session 2, which you could choose to go on 1-on-1 with an instructor or open session, I chose to go on my own,first to get a better feel of the bike and second to get to know the track a little better.
After that it was classroom time again, I asked a few questions about braking before the turn and a few more about turn 3, which for those of of you who have never been to the NHMS it is the first turn once you're outof the back straightaway of the NASCAR oval, also the sharpest turn. After that it was time for the lunch break.
The following session I choose to go with the 1-on-1 with the second Steve, I started following him around the track and what we do it, I follow him for a lap, and then he follows me for a lap. We started going pretty quick, started passing everyone around, and suddenly when I was following I got into turn 3 too hot and mistakenly applied the front brake in the middle of the turn...learned my lessons there alright, low-sided the bike into the tires...but let me tell you guys something, until that happened, I didn't really care much for a full suit, thinking that my jeans and jacket were, and with that crash I see the importance of the suit, I stood up without a scratch after low-siding a motorcycle at about 30-40mph, when I take my bike tomorrow with my jacket and jeans I am 100% positive I am going to feel naked without the suit. Once I picked the bike up I followed an instructor back to the pit with the front brake lever broken, gas tank bent and a windscreen broken as well.
While the bike was getting fixed I started talking to Steve and figuring out what had happened, and he constantly pushed the same button to just trust the bike, it will turn, don't be scared, and the way I saw it was, if I brake I fall so let's try not braking next time.
Last session of the day, I'm a little nervous since I had fallen on the previous session, but bike is all fixed and I'm on the way on my own again, to regain confidence, I'm the second person to go on the track, still on the warm-up lap as I'm coming on turn 11, which is the second to last turn before the main straightaway, the front brakes lock up on me, luckily I had the bike upright, because between turn 11 and 11a you come around leaning already and it happened to be my warm up lap, so I stopped the bike on the side of the track and went with a flag worker, they had to red flag the track to tow me out. Once the bike was in the pit, they saw that the aftermarket lever they had installed had a little imperfection on it and once the brake fluid warmed up and swell it expanded along with the imperfection the brake had no play therefore it was being applied at full force on its own. Once the bike is fixed, I go around on a warm up lap again and as soon as I cross the main straightaway I got the checkered flag.
I thought in my head, "eh, plenty of new adventures for 1 day already."
We go back to the classroom and discuss the day some more. We also watch the track video, which shows you a professional rider going around NHMS while pausing the video highlighting all the apexes and reference points you can use to guide yourself around the track. Also one of the things Steve had told me was that if you wake up the following day and your thighs don't hurt, you're doing it wrong.
So a few of the other students and I go get some dinner after the day was over and have some good laughs of the day.
Day 2:
I get up, realize I can barely walk, my legs are burning hotter than a 3rd degree burn. Head to the track, along with about 7 other students who happened to stay at the same hotel as me.
When we get there, first thing we do is the track walk, this was very helpful because we then saw all the reference points and apexes and talked about them. This was also the only time the A group passed the B and C group on the track .
When we get back to the pits, it's time to suit up and hop on the bike.
I'm still a little nervous since I had fallen the second to last session and had the brakes lock on me on the last session of the previous day, but like I used to do on car racing, you have to face it again in order to keep going, and that's exactly what I did, hopped on the track on my own, warmed up the tires and started doing some laps, always mentalizing to trust the bike, it could do a lot more than I could, it was a much better piece of machine that I would ever be, at least that day for sure..and to think that all it is a 750cc motor 2 cyl with roughly 65hp, I can't even imagine now what a 1000cc 4cyl is capable of.
Second session, I ask Steve to go out with me again, still constantly saying in my head to not touch the brakes at all after turning, do all the braking before. I was able to follow him through every turn, however he was on a Honda 929 so I couldn't keep up on a straightaway so he slowed down then. I'm positive he could go a little faster through the turns still. Once that session was over he came to me and we talked to me how my speed was very good however my body position wasn't quite there yet.
On the following session the 2 of us go out again, same deal, I lead a lap, he leads a lap, unfortunately we had a red flag due to one of the riders falling hard, not fast, a little awkward, he low sided the bike at low speed and the bike caught traction with front tire after it was down, not enough to flip the bike over, but enough to through him over. He got taken to the hospital, and last I heard he had 2 broken ribs, dislocated shoulder and an air pocket on his chest somewhere.
Lunch break. After lunch, group A had a 40 minute break, so I went over to the parking lot on the side where I found out I would have a blast with a little Yamaha TTR125 doing the figure 8 around the cones, and damn did I have some fun with that thing, knee down the whole figure 8, it was awesome. So I hear the call for group A to go back on the track, so I leave the little fun bike to get ready. I must say they should make that drill mandatory, it helped me so much on the track, once I hopped on the Ducati I was finally riding loose, moving my body around and letting the bike do all the work, it was unbelievable how it all came through after riding a simple TTR125.
On the second to last session I asked Steve to come out with me again so we could do the 1-on-1 again. We went a much faster pace and it started coming to me, I started touching my knee on corners, started trusting the bike, it was all coming together, even though my arms were exhaust already, I was able to go even faster then I was earlier that day, due to the fact that I started learning how to relax on the bike.
Once we got back on the pit he told me that I was looking a hell of a lot better out on the track, I still needed a little work on the body position but he could see it coming together.
On the last session I went out to have a little fun ride, didn't push hard, or did anything crazy, I just wanted to go around the track and remember the good times I had on the past 2 days.
Overall, it was an amazing experience, I highly recommend it to anyone that is interested in learning about there motorcycle, because if you think you know what you're doing and you have never been on the track, I'm sorry but you're definitely wrong.
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Originally Posted by legalspeed
I knew it was too good to be true, but it was worth a shot lol