Originally Posted by
Woodcraft
My opinion for what it's worth - is that the bumps are not a safety concern in and of themselves, they are part of a track. Most tracks have bumps on them, and the ones that don't - just wait a few years. You have to adjust what you do to deal with all types of things on a track - camber, elevation, pavement types, seams....it's all part of the game. Bumps certainly play into the strategy of how you attack a given corner and make for interesting challenges when riding. Now, with that said, some bumps get irritating and make it less fun to ride. For me, the bumps in 1, 2, 3, 8,12....they're just part of what you do. I've worked on perfecting my form there so that those bumps don't bother my motorcycle at all. Honestly they do not slow you down when you attack them properly. Turn 10-11, nothing I have tried can make those go away completely. I change what I do in proportion to the extent that I want to deal with those bumps, and I honestly don't like it except on a big bore bike the lets me wheelie over the later bumps after 10 (front wheel in the air fixes lots of them).
I can tell you that the track has considered some changes that add length to the track, adds a very cool road course section and addresses some areas that could use help. This is not a done deal by any means, but I'd love to see it. Even they make those changes, I'm sure that in 5-10 years some transitions will get a little bigger and we'll have to patch things up again - that's just how it goes. However, most of the current pavement has lasted since 1990, so it's not all that bad as far as track life goes. This would be a big project that involves serious time and money. In the interim, the track has invested a lot of money in safety improvements....more in the past few years than in the entire decade that came before it. I'm thankful for that. We have even more airfence coming to LRRS in 2014, which is great - we will be able to add padding in more places that we need it.
As always, don't hesitate to let me know if there is an improvement that you'd like to see. More information is always better. My interest is making NHMS the best it possibly can be for motorcycles, and I think we've made some good strides in recent years. It's a process, and when we work together with the track, things will continue to get better for us. I'm optimistic!