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First off a huge thanks to all those who helped out and answered my numerous noob questions about getting into racing at Loudon over the past few months. I managed to pass Penguin basic on Friday without doing anything too foolish. Huge props to the Penguin staff. That’s a first class school they run.
I had struggled with turns 3-4, 10, and 11a-12 during a previous motormarket track day so I focused in those corners first. Turn 10 I was able to pick a better line through and have more faith in the tires. 11a and 12 I was still slow and very inconsistent with my line. 3.. well 3 was just a mess. Having raced cars on the road course for 10+ years, I kept using those turn in points which are much earlier and apex farther in than the turn in points for the bikes. Not to mention I was literally coasting for extended periods instead of following up braking with throttle. In the car, I’m pretty comfortable overcooking an off ramp, dropping down two gears while heel toe’ing and applying some trailing break all without nary a pause in conversation on the cell phone. Rev match the SV smoothly while hard on the brakes? No chance in hell. Lap times were pretty slow; in the 1:43ish arena. Alex (a13x) had me follow him for a few laps which was immensely helpful in showing me that I can go through these corners much faster than I think I could. We got out of penguin around 7:00 after registration had closed. I did some prep on the paperwork, showered, had some dinner and a few brews and tried to sleep.
Woke up at 4:45 on Saturday and went for a quick run. Did the whole license, medical release(s), registration, numbers, transponder, number plates, number deals, transponder mount, get through tech dance before my first practice (Session 3). The session felt ok albeit slow. With only two days on the track on two wheels and only ~12 laps of which were “dry” I was still pretty conservative in the corners even though there was no reason to be. Best lap was a 1:41. Improvement. Excellent.
Second practice session went out and promptly pooched the first lap. Came into 3 with nice hot tires and third gear bouncing off the limiter. Realized I was going a bit quicker than usual. Missed my braking point. Missed my turn in point. Still managed to get the bike turned but went very, very wide… cracked maintenance throttle and stood the bike up - weighted the pegs as the bike hopped the curb… leaned her back over and commenced acceleration. Certainly not the best way through 3 but happy that I kept her out of the dirt. Hoped no one saw it but sure enough the whole crew was lined up on the fence. Guess I should have bought a motard. The rest of the session felt much better. Nailed my braking/turn in during 3 each time and managed to feed much more throttle through the bowl. No lap times though since control was having issues with the timing equipment.
Rookie race was uneventful. Gridded in 7b in the “3rd” wave, dead flippin last. Managed to pass a few people during the start and a few others at the entrance to and exiting 4. Focused on trying to be smooth and not red misting after anyone. Definitely need a tach for the SV. It launches very differently than my ’07 zx6r for the street. Best lap was a 1:38. Down 3 seconds from practice and 5 seconds from Friday. Still inconsistent.
Gridded in 3c for LWSS. Got a decent launch. Wow. These guys ride a bit faster than the kids in Penguin. I had a quick rabbit in front of me for the first and second lap which always helps me pick up the pace. Sometime in the third lap I was passed coming out of 12. I returned the favor under braking coming into 1 (thanks again Alex) but he squirted by in 12 again. I bobbled a shift coming down the front straight and didn’t feel like sampling the lawn in 1a so I didn’t take him. 2 was uneventful. Coming into three things got a bit sketch. I’m not sure if he grabbed too much brake or if he physically ran into the guy in front of him which caused the front brake to grab. Either way all I saw was him go way up in the air over the bars… then the bike went way up in the air and landed on him. At that point I was at my turn in point. Downshifted to second and was fully leaned over before I realized that I hadn’t touched the brakes and was going much faster than usual. Nailed the apex, nailed 4 and for the first time ever had to shift into third at four while leaned over instead of just before the crest. This wouldn’t be an issue if I was smooth with my shifts but I’m not so the bike stepped out what felt like a flippin mile and then settled. They red flagged the race when I hit the front straight - 4 laps. Best lap was a 1:35. Another 3 seconds off rookie race times and 8 seconds off Friday. Still inconsistent.
I’m not sure how the rookie rider that went down was doing. I couldn’t find out much. Anyone know? Looked pretty hurt on my pit in lap. I’ve never seen an endo that violent before.
I won’t be able to make the next race weekend as I’ll be at a wedding in Boston but will be sure to be there for the last weekend of the season. Bergs was right. This is going to be damn addictive. Thanks again to all for your help. I would have been much more sloppy without it.
Fitz
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Originally Posted by Fitz
Come on up Friday for the Sept weekend, do the Penguin Afternoon Practice, and we'll rip some more laps now that you've done a race weekend. Find a few more seconds!
I need to talk to that doctor. Those balls they gave me just don't seem to be large enough. 
