New Jersey Motorsports Park's Lightening circuit video and such

[davemon]

A big thanks to Mike Gallery at Riverside Motorsports in Somerville for pushing a bunch of us and getting together a caravan to New Jersey Motorsports Park! Well… in speaking with the office guy for Team Pro-Motion there are rumors that it was actually his lovely wife Dana that did most of the organizing but Mike still gets some credit. I sort of lost count but I think there were 16 of us who were riding and 17 bikes on 3 vehicles. Duey hauled my SV and his 848 on his trailer setup, Ramana had 3 bikes on his trailer, and Mike had 11 in his trailer with 1 on the bed of the pickup that was towing it. Maybe that isn’t exact but it’s very close. Ducati machines ruled the day and while some of our group had incidents everyone was essentially fine even if the bikes weren’t.

Lightening is damn fast for a relatively short track and even with some wet sessions I was hitting an indicated 128-130 on the front straight and 122-124 on the long right hand sweeper under the bridge every lap. The guys on the liter bikes were seeing 160 indicated with ease. Yikes! There are a few very fast turns including the first and last turns on the track which are very fast. I was doing an indicated 105 around the banked 180+ degree last turn and my knee was only tapping here and there. When I signed up I thought it was one day on Thunderbolt and one on Lightening but it was still fine.

We all had and blast and while I can’t make the Tony’s Track Day down there I thought you might enjoy the video’s for learning the track. You will doubtlessly laugh at the careful riding, lack of skill turning right, losing the camera guy when I turn left, and my obvious nervousness in the light rain that fell during my session… I know there will be more but I figured I would hit those preemptively.

Thanks again to the folks at Riverside and Mike and Dana in particular! And of course thanks to Duey!

Pics:
davespragg : photos : 2008_09_27 New Jersey Motorsport Park Lightning- powered by SmugMug

Videos:
davespragg : photos : 2008_09_28 New Jersey Motorsports Park Videos- powered by SmugMug

I suddenly feel like I need a at least 1098, maybe an S!!

Dave

[JRide]

That track is just stupid fast. I did a trackday there on Labor Day. I liked the track but not so sure I'll do it too many more times. I like the smaller technical tracks.

I'm heading to Thunderbolt this Saturday, hoping its going to be a little more technical than Lightning.

[davemon]

I like a more technical track too... not that I have much experience on motorcycles but I have run a lot of tracks in cars and still like the more technical ones. Next year I will try to get in Calabogie and/or Tremblant and maybe Thunderbolt.

Dave

[FirstDuc-1098]

... lack of skill turning right, losing the camera guy when I turn left...

...I suddenly feel like I need a at least 1098, maybe an S!!

Dave

yea, quite different then riding NH

1098S is definitly fun at NJ. I've riden both Lightning and Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is a little more technical but still a liter bike track. I'll be using the 748 for NH and the 1098 for NJ.

[davemon]

It seemed there was only one big straight at Thunderbolt but then again it "looks" like there is only one big one at Lightening but there are 2... jsut one of them has a slow right hand bend in it that makes me not want to keep the throttle wound on.

Dave

[GixerJockey]

I'm heading to Thunderbolt this Saturday, hoping its going to be a little more technical than Lightning.

A little bit... But still only took two sessions to get the entire track figured out. Thunderbolt is still stupid fast. I was going through t14 (entering the straight) WFO in 4th.

[SVRACER01]

what kind of gearing did you run and how close to redline were you on the straight?