Well, I had a great time! I spent most of the day practicing on being smooooooth as possible, but I also found myself hauling ass alot too. I found out that with 6 piston calipers, ebcHH pads, and straight rotors (that's a first since I got the TL, and I never realized how bad they were!) that it's quite easy to do a stoppie at 130mph! I was screamin' down the straight...having been behind a pack of slower riders (it was in the slow group, so I was limited in my passing opportunities)...and the pack sorta split up into two smaller packs. I passed the first pack, and then realized that the front half had slowed dramatically! I was probably doing 60mph faster than they were, and I gave the front brake a nice firm squeeze. I remember thinking about how nice straight rotors feel, and how well they stop, and all that jive, when I realized my back tire was about a foot in the air! Fortunately, that scrubbed off alot of speed so I just let off the brake a bit and put it back down before turn 1 (still behind half the pack).

There were a handful of accidents, some more controversial than others (don't worry, I'm sure this will turn into a big bitch session here soon enough), and one guy (Tim Moore) went to the hospital. I haven't heard of his condition yet.

I had ordered a set of 208gp's for yesterday, but they didn't come until yesterday. I was running 207zr's, and I was sliding them all day long! I love the way the twin puts the power down though...even with the back end starting to get loose, I always had plenty of notice that I shouldn't keep rolling the throttle open for a second. The edges of my tires look fuckin' sweet tho...all shredded and balled up. I love that!

Next time I'll have those 208's, AND knee pucks, so I can go out and really see what I can do. Someone made a comment to me about 'so did you win the race?' Err...fortunately he was leading up to suggesting that he would be racing if he were me, and that he thought I would be competitive if I did. I thought that was kewl. Oh ya, back to the subject...I DID haul ass on a few occasions, but only when I had some open track. To the dissatisfaction of Jay, I was pretty well behaved when in the presence of other riders.

Anyway, thanks to everyone that was there, and I can't wait to do that again! I even chickened out of doing a wheelie down the straight, so I'll still be welcome at future SRN.E/Samnet events.

I've got a few shots on my camera, but they're all of me for the most part. Ken Mitchell took LOTS of pictures though, and I'll be getting some of me from him as well. If anyone else has pics from him, feel free to send them along, and I'll put up a 'trackday' page in the rides/events section of this site. I won't post much if I only have pics of me. : )

Oh, the best shot of the day....Jay was working turn...uh....the bowl (hehe), and we were under a red flag, I think. He ran up to the edge of the track as I was coming down the hill, and pulled up his shirt. As I went through the apex I reached across with my left hand and flipped him off. Ken got a SWEET pic of it! HAHAH!! I can't fuckin' wait to see that!

Special thanks to Jay and Scott and all the other cornerworkers...you guyz make it possible for assholes like me to go out there and endanger ourselves.

Here's a pic of me in the bowl. This is now my wallpaper on my home pc, only to soon be replaced by the 'finger' shot.

[eug]

Way to rub it in. I knew I could count on you.

Ken takes awesome pictures with that astronomic lense of his. Can't wait to see the rest of them.

I hope the guy who fucked up R7 straghtens it out with Mark if that in fact was his fault. There are rules that should be followed and if you break them and fuck up you gotta accept responsibility.

[Chuck]

Oh ya, I can see that. Get real dude. The guy isn't going to come out of pocket with nearly $5K. There have been other similar crashes and the person who got hit didn't even get as much as a "sorry" from the other person. Personally I'd handle it as an insurance claim.

Really though, anybody that didn't see it with their own eyes, or that didn't review video footage (which I don't believe exists, which is the point) shouldn't be saying anything or speculating about anything right now. I only know of 3 people for sure that can really have anything to say on this matter without it being 100% he-said-she-said-I-heard-this-and-that bullshit.

So, let's have this one remain between the two involved in the accident and the cornerworker that witnessed it first hand.

[eug]

I said I hoped.

[Edited on 9/21/01 by eug]

I know Eug, but THAT is very suggestive, and practically implies that it happened a certain way. I just don't want this to turn into a big cluster fuck with people jumping in and making their nasty comments based on their assumptions. That's how all the BS controversy gets started, and we've had our share of that this year.

By all means, if Mark and the other guy talk about it and they both agree that one of them was directly responsible for the crash...than we're all free to say whatever we want. I heard the witness's story direct from the witness within 20 minutes of it happening, but I'm not jumping in and saying anything! And that's second hand info, one step away from the witness himself.

I just really don't want to see this get out of hand unless everyone has all the facts.

Like Tony said, we all signed waivers at the gate, and whatever happens to us or our bikes is our problem. He was serious!

[eug]

No prob. JC. If it was unintentional (as in target fixation/blown brake point vs. vicious pass) obviously that sentence does not apply. I will keep my mouth shut.

[RevHappy]

I cant wait to see the mid finger shoot that was pretty kewl! I had a great tiem just worked on being smooth connecting the cones and break markers. The R1 feels like tank compare to the R6 Great to see everyone! I hope Josh & Eric are not still waiting for those photo's I asked for mine 2 hours prior and I'm still waiting

No prob. JC. If it was unintentional (as in target fixation/blown brake point vs. vicious pass) obviously that sentence does not apply. I will keep my mouth shut.

Good idea...

A great quote to learn by, provided by ZOMBIE...

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ya know i got a curious habit if i wasn,t there at the time then i mind my own buisness...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Indeed.

Sort of cross-posting here....

Ok ok, but now if we've all read what's been said elsewhere, we're now free to say whatever we want. BUT, the initial statement has been posted elsewhere, and any flaming should be done there...not here.

And Mark, I just want to be sure you realize that by my requesting that people not assume the other party's guilt, I was not implying anything otherwise (like it being your fault, or whatever, etc). That wasn't the case...I just didn't want to sit here and watch everyone get all worked up when they didn't really know the facts. Really really sorry this happened, man.

[eug]

Anonymous, save it. It is getting old. I remember the quote quite well.

There was no doubt whose fault it was. Getting hit by a passing rider in the slow group is not something that you would be expecting. The only question was: was it intentional or not.

I have ridden with Mark before and know that he is good, very conservative rider and therefore extended my support. That was the extent of it. Sounds like I was right.

This was when the red flag was out and Jay ran out to the edge of the bowl to show me his tits.

[PB]

That's a great pic!

[Stoneman]

Yeah, it's a great pic. But he didn't get the money shot of me flashing my titties!!

Yeah, it's a great pic. But he didn't get the money shot of me flashing my titties!!

AHAHAHA!!!! What would have been sweet is if you could see the whole picture....me AND Jay's titties.

[Stoneman]

I knew you liked my titties!!

Oh ssthtop it!