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Now that the butterflies have settled, and I'm home from the track I can say I definitely fell in with the wrong crowd joining NESR last year.
A year ago I was crusing around on my first bike/dinosaur age Katana in converse sneakers, too scared to take my hands off the bars to wave at other bikes, spewing oil, and having to adjust my idle at every stop light so the damn thing didn't stall. A little over a year later, writing my first race report.Thanks to the NESR crowd, I got geared up properly, and turned 12,000 street miles last season. After finding out about track days, I was hopelessly addicted, and after my first race weekend, addicted even more. All is can say is sheesh, thanks guys...
It truly is worse than crack, and my bank account will never be the same...
We got to the track around 7 Friday night and after rattle can-ing the yellow number plates white, got started drilling for safety wire. Thanks a million Eric for the use of your drill press, Chuck for bringing it to the track, and a big giant thank you to Mike/Rambunctious for taking me under his wing this weekend. Getting me a garage space, drilling and safety wiring my entire bike, getting me where I needed to be on time, keeping me calm and focused, giving me countless invaluable pointers, and being my "rock" this weekend. Also, willing me a pair of tire warmers was beyond awesome!Mike, I swear I won't be a pigeon
Your Mom's little dog was also really cute.
Thanks Greg for helping me with my stands, warmers, and being the "go to" guy. I know you had a dissapointing first day, but you perservered and were a huge help to me.
I was really nervous my first practice session, but stoked to be back at Loudon to apply some more "flow" after riding Thunderbolt. I just cruised, got warmed up, worked on being smooth and accurate, and came in relaxed. Second practice I bumped up the pace but still rode well within my abilities, didn't feel like was working too hard and was doing comfortable 1:40's. Huh, so this was the first time having any clue as to my average "relaxed pace" track times. Lots of work to do. On a side note, I dragged knee for the very fist time in the bowl during practice. It totally freaked me out, my knee went "bump'bump'bump" and I thought I was crashing, lol. Continued out of the bowl and realized I touched my knee down for the very first time
I knew I didn't have the times to be in the running for any race I entered, but my goal was to get through the weekend, and ride smoothly and predictably, stay relaxed, focus on lines, body position, and flow. I was happy to work on all of the above.
Rookie Race:
I hadn't had an oppurtunity to practice starts at all so I was a bit nervous for the rookie race. Once figuring out the grid and the process, warm up lap, etc. I was less confused. I was creeping a bit at the start but at least I didn't wheelie. I dropped in behind the riders in HW, and followed them around the track. It felt so slow, and I was frustrated having to brake in the corners so I didn't run into anyone but i had to force myself to chill out, and just finish the race. In the efforts of finishing without pushing myself at all I decided not to pass anyone, and just rode it to finish. Guess it wasn't the best time for any hero antics even though I was chomping at the bit. Once on track, the butterflies were gone, and after figuring out registration, tech, the order of the day it just got easier.
Race #12 HW Superbike, LW Gran Prix
I decided to avoid the 600 races for Saturday, and figured since I wasn't doing the times anyways I would bump to HW with smaller fields, to get the experience but be a little safer out there. I didn't creep this time, but the start was so-so, and I basically held back so everyone would pass me before T1I was pushing my pace, and in the bowl my whole rear end started wagging around. That was not a good feeling, and up until this point in time I had 100% confidence in my tires and suspension. Unfortunately, it was this weekend that I realized the limitation of running street/track tires (DCIII's) and stock suspension. That lap I turned my fastest lap time all weekend which was 1:39:6 but after getting sketched out with my rear tire sliding around had a more conservative pace, and just didn't trust the bike as much.
Sunday Practice:
Practice #1
After 2 laps the first practice session got red flagged, so I had just enough time on track to screw up T1, and then kick myself until the next practice session.
Practice #2
I decided I needed to relax, the faster I tried to go the slower I got so I worked on getting my upper body more off the bike, a smooth transition between T9 and 10, and getting up off the seat out of T10. The practice felt awesome, and I finally was able to be aware of the help my outside arm over the tank could provide. ( I had just finally gotten my outside knee locked in to tha tank after riding thunderbolt.) So with this extra help, I felt really stable and smooth in the corners. Riding is funny, I feel like you start out like being paralyzed after a stroke. You are nervous, and you brain is way too focused on riding, and everything else swirling around that you lose all awareness of what your body is doing. After a time, you start relaxing, and have enough mental capacity left over to gradually start being aware of what each body part is doing. Slowy but surely, feeling returns to one part, then the next. Now I have an outside knee, and my outside arm on the tank. It feeles so much better. I was somewhat dissapointed with my times because the session felt so good, I was still running 1:41's. At least I was able to add another building block to my riding foundation, which will hopefully let me get faster in the future.
Race #1 Ms. Match
Sadly, there were only 4 of us, I knew going into it that everyone else was a hell of a lot faster. I got a good launch and was pulling away from Kerry when I missed a shift and dropped back. I tagged along behind her for the first lap and half when I had the biggest "oh shit" moment of the weekend. Driving out of T 10 I spun up my rear wheel and the whole bike started sliding from side to side. Life flashed before my eyes, and I 110% thought I was going down. I don't know how the hell I saved it, but it scaredthe bejeezus out of me, and my times suffered for the entire rest of the race. The minute I was off track, several people came up to me including Mike who was right behind me when it happend, and said "holy shit, nice save." I guess even the ambulance radio'ed in that I almost ate it. What sucks, is that now I am at that point where I am running into tire and suspension problems, which is right about where things get expensive. I am hoping to get a built track bike over the winter with suspension already on it, but will definitely be getting some better tires for the next race weekend. I am definitely no meat fist with the throttle, but my drive out of corners had my rear tire spinning all weekend, especially T3, now T10, and T12... I almost think I need to take them in a gear higher so I'm in the less meaty RPM range where it won't have the torque to spin the rear wheel...
Race #8 HW Supersport
I was a bit bummed I hadn't entered Race #3, thinking I wanted to stay out of "the meat grinder" after seeing the small field. I was running this race with a guy I had done my Rookie Race with, and after keeping an eye on his times knew I was faster in the corners so at least I would have someone to race against. He was gridded to my inside, and my plan was to take him in the launch because I knew he wouldn't be able to pass me. I had a wicked strong launch and had him, when the bike directly in front of me stalled dead.I had to grab brake and veer so as not to take him out but unfortunatley gave him a heavy knee smack as I got by by the skin of my teeth. The guy I wanted to pass had the lead, and I spent the next 2 laps braking behing him in the corners looking for a way to pass. His line was all over the place, which made me too scared to pass him. I missed a shift out of T 12, so he pulled away on the straight, and then I was too far behind him to take advantage of him landing on the beach in T3. I wish i'd been there to take the pass, but oh well. The rest of the race i just relaxed, worked on my corners, and got through it a bit frustrated.
Conclusion:
Overall, I had a blast this weekend. I learned the ropes, didn't crash, avoided some really hairy situations, and came out unscathed. I was happy with some things, others needing miles of improvements. But, I am hopelessly addicted, and will be there for October
Originally Posted by Pittenger5
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Q). That's Freddy on the Repsol behind me at a BoMo day last Sept. Check out what tires are on there. He was smoking me like always and I was doing 1:28s at the time. but yeah that much mileage and that many track days I'd swap them for sure.
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