Summit Point Shenandoah, Team Pro-Motion Track School (ART Basic)/Track Day, July 4, 2008
I took the 5 hour drive down from Jersey thursday night and stayed overnight in Winchester, VA. The next morning I woke up with a splitting headache and thought, well shit, this ain't good. So I sucked it up, got in the car and drove to the track. Lo and behold, my headache didn't bother me so much anymore. It was still there, but most of the time I didn't notice.
When I got there, I was a bit lost, so after a bit of wandering I ended up being personally helped by a guy who introduced himself as Mark (a.k.a. dad on ex-500.com). Shortly thereafter I got my rental R6 and school started.
My first track session was in the wet. The track staff tried to dry it out by sending the cars out first but suffice it to say there was still a lot of water out there. It must have been my fourth lap when I started feeling pretty good, even in the wet, and went to crack the throttle open a bit more coming out of a left onto a straight. BAM, the back wheel spun up and slid out and I just thought, "sh!t, I've had it." Somehow I stayed fairly calm, though, and quickly yet smoothly rolled off the throttle. It fishtailed a bit more but finally came back in line. Nothing like having "smooth" hammered into your brain quite like that.
The second session was much like the first: very wet, with a couple riders going down. By the third it started drying out, and I tried picking up the pace. It didn't take long for me to be outside my comfort zone and I found I was constantly missing apexes and even running wide in one spot. Then for my fourth session I started hanging off the bike a bit and everything really came together. I could sense I was going a bit quicker and leaning harder than I had in previous sessions and was having a blast doing it, constantly nailing my apexes.
That was abruptly ended when another rider came flying by as I was braking for the karousel. I knew there was no way he was making the corner and sure enough, he locked the front brake and slammed down hard on his left side. The bike slid off into the barrier on the outside of the karousel. Meanwhile, the rider slid into the back wheel of the rider in front of me, causing him to fishtail a bit as he entered the corner. The downed rider then slid off the track onto the grass without hitting anything else. From what I heard, he was merely knocked unconscious, perhaps from the moment he hit the ground. Then it started pouring.
At that point, I decided I'd already had my fun (and close call) in the rain and stuck around in the paddock talking to the other riders (great advice from Mark, bench racing with my ART Basic classmates).
Overall, an incredibly fun day, despite the close calls and the rain. I can't thank the staff at Team Pro-Motion enough for running the class and track day (on the 4th of July no less), and a special thanks to Mark Graulty and Bill Sink for helping me out and giving me great advice all day long.
If you've never attended a track school before (cars or bikes), do it!
I took the 5 hour drive down from Jersey thursday night and stayed overnight in Winchester, VA. The next morning I woke up with a splitting headache and thought, well shit, this ain't good. So I sucked it up, got in the car and drove to the track. Lo and behold, my headache didn't bother me so much anymore. It was still there, but most of the time I didn't notice.
When I got there, I was a bit lost, so after a bit of wandering I ended up being personally helped by a guy who introduced himself as Mark (a.k.a. dad on ex-500.com). Shortly thereafter I got my rental R6 and school started.
My first track session was in the wet. The track staff tried to dry it out by sending the cars out first but suffice it to say there was still a lot of water out there. It must have been my fourth lap when I started feeling pretty good, even in the wet, and went to crack the throttle open a bit more coming out of a left onto a straight. BAM, the back wheel spun up and slid out and I just thought, "sh!t, I've had it." Somehow I stayed fairly calm, though, and quickly yet smoothly rolled off the throttle. It fishtailed a bit more but finally came back in line. Nothing like having "smooth" hammered into your brain quite like that.
The second session was much like the first: very wet, with a couple riders going down. By the third it started drying out, and I tried picking up the pace. It didn't take long for me to be outside my comfort zone and I found I was constantly missing apexes and even running wide in one spot. Then for my fourth session I started hanging off the bike a bit and everything really came together. I could sense I was going a bit quicker and leaning harder than I had in previous sessions and was having a blast doing it, constantly nailing my apexes.
That was abruptly ended when another rider came flying by as I was braking for the karousel. I knew there was no way he was making the corner and sure enough, he locked the front brake and slammed down hard on his left side. The bike slid off into the barrier on the outside of the karousel. Meanwhile, the rider slid into the back wheel of the rider in front of me, causing him to fishtail a bit as he entered the corner. The downed rider then slid off the track onto the grass without hitting anything else. From what I heard, he was merely knocked unconscious, perhaps from the moment he hit the ground. Then it started pouring.
At that point, I decided I'd already had my fun (and close call) in the rain and stuck around in the paddock talking to the other riders (great advice from Mark, bench racing with my ART Basic classmates).
Overall, an incredibly fun day, despite the close calls and the rain. I can't thank the staff at Team Pro-Motion enough for running the class and track day (on the 4th of July no less), and a special thanks to Mark Graulty and Bill Sink for helping me out and giving me great advice all day long.
If you've never attended a track school before (cars or bikes), do it!
We should have an Northeast track day for LFS'ers. I'm like 10 minutes from Jersey. (As long as it's cars and you guys don't wreck my daily driver in T1)