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Finished my rookie season on Sat. by doing races 1, 3, and 10... I waited to pre-reg until the last minute because I had a few obstacles to get thru to be able to race. That seems to be the theme of my roadracing adventure because basically I've wanted to do this since I was a kid but for one reason or another I've never had it all come together until now. Over a year ago I realized I could make this happen, and set about putting things in place. With only a couple of years of street riding and zero track experience, most of you nesrians thought this was a joke or a bad idea, but I knew I had to go for it, and I'm so glad I did. Not only have I had the time of my life riding my bike at the track, I was able to conquer some huge obstacles and make a dream of mine happen which was always out of reach. Thanks to everyone who showed some support this year and offered help and advice especially, Chip, James, Peter, Paul, Heath, Bill, Joel, Adam, Pigman, Brett, Jimmy, Brian, Tyler, and anyone else I'm forgetting. I know I had some differences with some of you but I really feel like we're all family at the track...
Sat. Practice: I missed the first practice because I got to the track around 7:30am and had to do the usual reg./tech, but also I had to find Eric Wood because he had my tire warmer which had a new switch put on it. After I got the warmer, I threw them on the shagged Michelins I kept from my first 3 rounds as a novice... I definitely got thru this season spending the least possible... Anyway, the temp. was chilly, the wind was howling, and I knew traction was going to be an issue, but I was feeling very relaxed for the first time this season. I went out for the second session, and having so much time off in between rounds, I was feeling rusty and not very fast at all. I tried to focus on some things I wanted to work on, and managed to make some progress with that, but kind of forgot where I was going so on the very first lap, I came up out of the bowl, got around 7, and went straight off the edge of the track at 8 going pretty fast and basically jumped my bike over the broken asphalt at the edge... pretty scary, but that woke me up and I started to pay attention to where I was going and what the hell I was actually doing out there. At the end of that practice, I may have had the biggest epiphany all season about my riding. I realized that out of everything any fast or more experience racer has told me, I was doing none of them! I was basically just doing my own thing and riding to the edge and sometimes beyong my ability trying to go "fast". I quickly realized that that was not going to cut it anymore as an amateur, and I slowed my brain down enough to actually think about what everyone was saying to me and tried to put into action in the races...
Race 1 AM MWSB:
Race 3 AM HWSS:
Race 10 AM MWGP:
All 3 races I rode the same so I'll save all the details... I was focused on a few things... namely finding and using markers, body position, taking good lines, and trailbraking w/a smooth transition from off the brakes to on the throttle. It was a little weird actually mentally focusing on these things in the middle of a race, but I was actually fairly successful picking up some markers, watching the experts' lines(and following them), looking thru the corner and getting my head over more, and my braking technique. The latter of which was challenging and cost me some time because while I was holding the brakes with one finger all the way to the apex and rolling on the throttle as I let out the last of the brakes, I never actually needed to do this because I was still getting on the brakes way to early(which I realized by practicing this) and was going way too slow for this technique to be of any use. It was good to get out of the habit of just letting go of the brakes before I tipped it in though, which was probably my biggest problem all season especially heading into t3.
I did have some traction issues out there, and could feel my rear tire squirming alittle, so I lost alot of confidence as far as trying to carry more corner speed, so that basically kept me in the slower range of my lap times
(1:26/27ish) for all my races, and consequently toward the back of the pack despite the fact that I had way more stamina this round thanks to my brutally hard new job. The highlight of the weekend was my 2nd start to the MWGP. I just nailed it and was probably in 4th or 5th going into t1 but the race was red flagged a 2nd time... I had some scary moments too, w/some dude trying to pass me up the inside going into 12... his line was ridiculous because he turned in way too early so he forced me into the grass and I had to kind of wheelie over the sink hole. I don't know who that was but it almost caused a 3 bike pile up heading onto the straight. Luckily I made it through the day with no crashes, and I actually had alot of fun racing and felt really laid back all day knowing that the season was over and I was just out there to have fun.
I will be back next season if everything works out, and hope to have some upgrades to my R6's stock suspension and exhaust. I want to do some trackdays, some penguin schools and friday practices... and I would also like to hit New Jersey sometime next season to try a different track. I think next year will be a good season as long as I continue to make progress.
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Originally Posted by tsorfas
