Important Thompson Information + 5/16 NHMS Last Call

[Woodcraft]

May 16th- NHMS
First - the easy stuff. Today is the last call for discounted rates on next Friday's event at NHMS (both school and racer practice).
Registration form CLICK HERE. We are looking forward to a great day.

Racers: Last Chance for Discounted Practice for the Season! If you participated in the Open Practice last Friday, there is one week left for the window to get your discounted season pass for only $575 (get a $125 credit from last weekend)
If you did not participate last weekend, there is a one week window to sign up for the final 6 events for only $625 and still get all the Learn to Fly benefits (including the sponsor package)
For more information CLICK HERE

Thompson Update
We have spent several days down at Thompson in recent weeks. The paving of the course is now all done and they are making the final preparations for the racetrack to open in June. Thompson has a lot of history as one of the oldest road courses in the US. I actually remember being there when I was very young and the AAMRR (the predecessor to LRRS) was racing there. The road course there is essentially a repave of the old road course with a new section that leads into the infield. I spent time at the racetrack with a lot of people from both the car and the motorcycle industry, and I feel like we have a good plan. The track has a couple sections that look like they will be really fun - including a front straight with a kink that will be quite fast (for those of you who have traveled, think VIR). The Penguin days at Thompson will be Track Experience schools - not race licensing or race oriented events.

July 4th - Canceled (no airfence) see below
August 4th - Registration Open
September 1st - Registration Open

Layout Thompson, like Loudon, is going to be a really fun course, but is one that needed input in several key areas in order to be safe. It's like a little jog through history. When we first came to Loudon 25 years ago, the layout as presented was not going to work for motorcycles. Penguin, together with Dale Quarterley (our advanced instructor at the time) came up with the chicane in turn 12 that allowed us to safely re-enter the speedway. We still use a version of that today. Imagine coming out of Turn 11 straight and using the end of the pit wall as the apex - that was what we were originally looking at! Thompson is similar....there are two places where we will set up chicanes to take areas that would be crazy on a bike and reduce the entry speeds in order to make them safer. Penguin, together with other motorcycle providers, will collaborate on a setup for these chicanes several weeks before any events at the facility to help make Thompson a viable motorcycle course. My personal goal is to work with all motorcycle groups so that we have a consistent layout that is the same no matter who you ride with. Penguin rider or not, we want you to be safe!

Penguin has Airfence! Thompson, like Loudon, has several areas that are mandatory to protect with airfence. Just like Loudon, I am happy to ride Thompson with airfence, but I will not ride there without it. We feel it's just too risky and this applies to both track day riders (who will be the focus of our events there) and racers. The ways that racers and track day riders crash may be different, but the exposure to risk is the same in these critical areas. Through some considerable effort and expense, Penguin has managed to source airfence from our partners at Team Pro Motion just for these dates. This was not an easy thing to pull off, and at present we believe that we are the only track day provider with access to airfence at Thompson. We'll be trucking it back and forth to them between events (as they need it for one of their tracks down south), and it is only available for our August 4th and September 1st dates. As a result, we are canceling our event at Thompson on July 4th - Penguin will not run at Thompson without air fence!

With everything now in place, we are opening our registration dates for both August 4th and September 1st at Thompson. We look forward to seeing you there!

[maxim_X]

Wow. That's interesting news. During the 'track walk' there a few months ago with another company there were assurances that Thompson would have their own airfence, which is absolutely needed as I see it. Beyond the lack of run-off in some areas there is one huge safety issue I saw at the track. The front straight has a kink like VIR, but unlike VIR the kink flows towards the oncoming pit traffic. Where VIR kinks right and the pits are on the right, Thompson kinks left and the pits are on the right. It seems like a perfect place for someone to be riding 130mph right at a person entering the track at 60mph. It was implied that you would be slowing down and merging nicely at that point but I personally think people will still have the throttle WOT until after the point where the oncoming riders have no merge room. The smart solution would be to bring the track entrance around to the inside of the end of turn 1 and have everyone accelerating together down that short back straight similar to Loudon.

[GingahNinjah]

gotta agree I am not exactly a fan of the current pit in/out layout. Pit in should be at the entrance to the last turn before the front straight and Pit out should come out at the exit of T1. dont see why that configuration wouldnt work in both directions either. I had also been of the impression that the speedway was going to have their own airfence.

[Woodcraft]

The pit out thing is something that we are going to look at specifically when we test ride there before the event. After looking at it for a while, I think that the natural line is going to have riders on the track at about mid track after the kink. We will see what the reality is when we ride it and will make a call with respect to what needs to be done at that point. Obviously education of all participants of staying to the right edge all the way to turn one will be important. I feel that this can all be worked out.

The track will not have it's own airfence in 2014. After many weeks of looking we were able to get some from our friends at Team Pro Motion (thanks) that we've got to truck back and forth. However, from my perspective it was the only option if we were going to ride this track....and we are not doing race schools here - these are all Track Experience events. If we could not get air fence, we simply were not going to come because I was not ready to put our guys at risk. Loudon, as much as I like it, is the same way....with air fence, it's good. Without it, having learned what I have in my years of riding, I would not ride there either. I'm hopeful that Thompson will be able to make the investment in their own air fence in the future. Until that point, we will need to borrow our own.

[union]

Thats too bad about July4th. I was looking forward to that since its a day off from work. Not sure I can make either of the other ones but I hope so. Glad youre looking out for us.

[Woodcraft]

I wish we could have ridden that day as well - it was looking to be a potential sellout. However, we had to do what we felt was the right thing. I'm thankful that we were able to procure the air fence for the events on August 4th and September 1st.

The school has a number of other good things in the pipeline - announcements coming soon.

[maxim_X]

See you guys on the 16th. I think this is the weekend I take the plunge and get the license. Which garages do the first timers get this year?

[cdovego]

If Penguin wants to own air fence, we can pull a fundraiser together pretty easily. That would make for one helluva Saturday night party - raffles, food, music and airfence.

[Woodcraft]

See you guys on the 16th. I think this is the weekend I take the plunge and get the license. Which garages do the first timers get this year?

That moves as a result of the garages being fully rented this year - so you'll have to talk to Steve Nogueira when you get to the track on Friday on that one.

[Woodcraft]

If Penguin wants to own air fence, we can pull a fundraiser together pretty easily. That would make for one helluva Saturday night party - raffles, food, music and airfence.

We have considered it....but that would need to be one heck of a fundraiser to get the amount we need. It's our hope that the track will follow through as they indicated at the end of last season and purchase some for 2015.

[GixerJockey]

If Penguin wants to own air fence, we can pull a fundraiser together pretty easily. That would make for one helluva Saturday night party - raffles, food, music and airfence.

No thanks... It sounds like a good idea to get us out riding, but I have an issue with donating to a fundraiser for a "for profit" company. I'm not taking a swing at Penguin, especially since this wasn't their idea, just making a general statement.

I'd be offended by any company who asked me to donate so that they could "deliver" their product and make a profit.

While I respect Penguin for canceling dates due to the track not delivering on their safety promise, there's plenty of track day orgs that are running at Thompson this season. I'll likely just run with one of them. Even without the air fence in certain areas... it's still a hell of a lot safer than dealing with the dangers of riding aggressively on the street.

[cdovego]

Industry big names always come to the table for airfence. If you decide to go that route, I'd be happy to help organize.

[Woodcraft]

No thanks... It sounds like a good idea to get us out riding, but I have an issue with donating to a fundraiser for a "for profit" company. I'm not taking a swing at Penguin, especially since this wasn't their idea, just making a general statement.

I'd be offended by any company who asked me to donate so that they could "deliver" their product and make a profit.

While I respect Penguin for canceling dates due to the track not delivering on their safety promise, there's plenty of track day orgs that are running at Thompson this season. I'll likely just run with one of them. Even without the air fence in certain areas... it's still a hell of a lot safer than dealing with the dangers of riding aggressively on the street.

Just so we are 100% clear, we only canceled one date (July 4th). Our other two dates (August 4th and September 1st) we are running because there will be air fence at those dates. While I agree that riding at the track is safer than riding on the street - the speeds on the track are always higher (I have yet to see a case in my 25+ years at the track where it was not). The ability to ride faster and explore what you and your bike can do is a big part of the fun! The idea behind the airfence is to make the consequences for a mistake as low as possible (and ideally much lower than the street). In my opinion, this lower risk is the other big attraction for riding track days. Our assessment of Thompson was that without air fence and the layout changes we mentioned, you were right back to the same danger level (in a few areas) as the street....and that doesn't work for us. However, everyone needs to make their own call. What's an excessive risk for one person is OK by another, and there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to opinions - they are personal decisions.

[cdovego]

Raising money for airfence is extremely basic racer activity - no need for anyone's panties to be bunched.

I don't care who owns it, I only care that it's in front of painful objects.

[Boston Moto]

We want to say a big thanks to Woodcraft and Penguin Racing School for welcoming us to the August 4th and September 1st dates at Thompson, as well as their June 23RD NHMS day. Eric tells us that we will have a dedicated area in the paddock for our customers/friends to congregate and garage our bikes for the events. If you want to go to either of these dates and hang with your friends from Bomo trackdays, just check the "Boston Moto" box when you sign up for the event through penguin's usual channels (website). As we decided to not run our own events this year, this is a great opportunity for us to get together and ride the track. We know many of you have mentioned how disappointed you were that we decided not to run this year.

Hope to see many of you at Thompson on August 4th and September 1st, as well as Loudon on June 23rd.

[SVRACER01]

i walked that track a few months ago. i can only assume that the areas of concern (that air fence would be wanted/needed) would be under the bridge, the armco on the outside of the first right hander after you leave the oval and maybe the wall where you leave the oval. am i correct in this assumption? and are there any other areas that maybe i didnt notice?
im also curious about your chicane talk. not sure what/where youre talking about putting them. could you elaborate?

[Woodcraft]

There are 4 spots that we think airfence is really needed....I'll fill in details later. The chicanes are in the left coming out of the oval, and on the stretch between the two RH turns out back. We'll publish all the details after we ride there in early June to test and lay everything out. I want to put out accurate data and we'll have it in a few weeks.

[SVRACER01]

Wirelessly posted (GS3)

Ill assume you mean the 2 rights after that left you just mentioned. If so then I can understand that. Without those chicanes youre on the gas from that left all the way to turn 1. I estimated that id be in 6th gear by the time I crested the hill going onto the straight.