Post up your race/trackday reports!

[Speeddog]

We want to share in your triumphs and defeats, hear about what worked and what didn't, what challenges you overcame and what just plain ole kicked your ass.  So post up your race or trackday report and share with the gang. 

[tufty]

TGPR last Saturday....

A very stable bike in a turn, although it does take a firm hand to get it started turning. It was geared way too high for a short twisty track, but should be just right for Road Atlanta in a couple of weeks. It has more than enough power for my sad skills.

I'm not sure about the Pirellis, they are fast to heat up but they are definitely a little squirrely off the race line on cold track. One nice thing though is they spin up in a nice almost casual way-very predictable. I think I prefer the turn in characteristics of Michelins better though.

I'd post a pic, but I can't figure out how yet.

[MotoPsycho]

I went to Putnam Park Raceway on 5/12/08 in Mount Meridian, Indiana. It was my first day, so I didn't really know what to expect. Towards the end of the day, I was catching bigger bikes with my M750 in the twisties, and hanging with them. But since the beginner class can only pass on the straight, they'd leave me behind a little bit only for me to catch them back up by turn 1 or 2. All in all, it was a blast and I can't wait to go back and do it again in early June. I managed to almost remove my chicken strips and scrape a footpeg, so I'm totally stoked about it.

[DucLeone]

GRUBBY you need to fix your signature

[desmoquattro]

14 May 2008 - Keigwins - Infineon Raceway - Sonoma, CA

I bought petemg's Keigwin's spot. It had been a while since I did a track day, and over a year since I rode Sears Point on my very first track day. I was excited, since I'd be riding with Michael Moore, Wendy, and Tigre, and BikerGoddess would be along for moral support. Tigre was prepping for his first-ever AMA appearance. The day was a B-, B+, A format, and there were enough fast guys that I didn't mind being in B-...even though I could have run in B+. It was a chance to ride mellow, get some empty track time, and ride with friends. We got the Supersport working well and bumble-beed-up, and we were ready to go.

The day started early....and I mean very early. The schedule was moved up by an hour because of AMA setup. We also had to pit in the hot pits instead of the paddocks. BikerGoddess and I rolled in at 5:45 and cordoned off enough pit space for our friends. At the riders' meeting, I found out that they'd be reversing the format: B- was going out first....I cellphoned ahead to BG and had her warm up the bike. Out onto the track at 8AM, then I found out the one drawback of riding B-...standing yellow flags through all of session 1. Argh

Session 2 was a little better. I went out the head of the pack, got the tires warmed up, and started passing people who got out later than I did. I also managed to pass a 1098 and a litrebike...I know, I know: it doesn't mean anything...but it still feels good  I had a few odd moments with front end chatter on hard braking, so I backed off in some of the turns for the rest of the session. No quirks at all since switching to GP shift, and I was grateful for it when passing in the Carousel. After rolling in, I had Dave Moss from Catalyst Reaction work on my suspension with me. H ementioned that I needed to respring the front, since it was likely bottoming. That got me paranoid. But Tigre told me to try weighting the tank in braking zones instead of weighting the bars, so I made that my goal for the next session.

Session 3 was a blast. Even without a lap timer, I know I got faster. And those pesky faster guys on 600 I4s were struggling more to pass me out of turns  Weighting the tank worked like a charm, and the front end chatter never returned.

Session 4 (after lunch) was a bit hot. But Tigre graciously volunteered to tow me around and show me some lines. I learned a bit, but had a couple of oh-shit moments passing people in the carousel and in turn 9. I managed to straighten things out, and I had some better lines by the end of the session.

Session 5 was uneventful. Our day was going to end at 3:30, so it was the penultimate chance to get faster or learn things. But the heat was starting to fatigue me, so I took it easy.

Lining up for session 6, we had to wait for a crash to be cleaned up in turn 2. Then I had the most heartbreaking sight of my year: Tigre's 749 GRRR being towed back to the paddock after high-siding on the paint. My concentration was nil at that point...I had to get back to the pits and check on him. So I stayed out for a lap then came in. It was time...I was tired.

Turns out Tigre was fine, and we got the bike back together in time to qualify for and race in AMA FX.

All in all a very good track day!

[easydeluxe]

sorrie,
I moved my post to new topic.

[fasterblkduc]

I am campaigning a Monster 620 in the CRA for the '08 season. I've raced part time here and there when funds were available but for this season I decided to go all out and start a team. The plan is to attack the season full time and go for my expert plate.
I have a team website that is up and running now. My race report for the first weekend is posted. Instead of posting it here, I'll just invite you all to go check it out.

Let me know what you guys think! 

www.teamatomicracing.com

[NuTTs]

My first race this year. Desfio Twin by Radical Ducati in Almeria, Spain:

As some of you may know I´m racing in a amateur Ducati series in Spain called "Desafio Twin" (Twin Challenge) by Radical Ducati (www.radicalducati.com). The races are endurace and usually 4 hours long. We had our first race on sunday and finished 3rd!!! That´s after being off a race track since august last year (on my 17 y/o gixxer) and only done 15-20 laps with the 749 on the race track on sunday 6th for suspension setup and a general tune up.

It´s been a hectic two weeks prior to the race on sunday 13th April. We had a wonderful weekend with my team mate Ricardo his wife, sister and my sister. The gals were in charge of the box, work area, timing, pit board etc. I started the day off quite slow, 10 seconds off my pace last year on the same track with the Rs, and was quite nervous as I still had the crash from Jarama fresh in my head. I´d never ridden slicks before, never raced this bike before, never tried a 190 rear on this bike before etc. A great combo to give myself a head start with I guess.

The race was wicked, I started off on a constant 2´03" but then started working on the times as the laps went past and got down to a 1´56" as my best for the day but it was constant over the 4 hours with Ricardo putting in the same times as me.

I was hoping for a podium finish but the wankers penalized us 3 laps for using 2 bikes so we couldn´t really celebrate the finish but in my mind I´m still 3rd. Organizers, up yours!

The time sheet for the race finish. We are number 69 "Chiki Chiki Traca Traca" - I´m rider 1.




My sis, a friend, her dog and I spent the day previous at the beach to relax a bit. Here are some pics. The guy in yellow-black leathers is me, the guy in the black leathers is Ricardo.
















Race 2 on June 22nd from Cartagena, Murcia (Spain)

[Uncle Mofo]

I just compled my second track day ever I love it.  My first one a month ago was OK but this one I was very pleased with myself.
I pushed myself A little too hard at one point and ran off the track on turn 7 at Putnam Park road course 1 hour West of Indianapolis .  I managed not to crash and returned on the track.
The day was very hot 90 + and the track was nice and sticky.  I started running faster and faster. By the end of the last seesion for the day I was the 3rd fastest guy on the track for my novice group.   
Spanking guys with more track experience and bigger bikes than mine was priceless.  I can't wait to go back again 
After the last lap I was granted a one on one on the track with Matt Carr, he was on a friend's S4Rs. He kicked my ass of course, but not without a good fight on my part.  At the end it was nice hearing from a professional racer that he had hard time trying to pass me for a while, and that I looked real good, in form and corner speed.










         

[MotoPsycho]

I did the same day as Grifo, we hung out in the compound together.

[Grio]

This track report provided upon request of Nexus Roy, the replicant sock drawer troll:

Recently had a chance to do a few days at T-Hill in Willows.  Things are changing for me at the track...I’m definitely in a transition point and although I ran lap times just about as fast as my best, I feel overall that my most recent track days have been a humbling and somewhat frustrating experience.
Scenario:

I’ve changed out the front sprocket to one tooth down from stock, and although I came to the track with the intension of focusing on trail braking; unfortunatley, all my energy was focused on getting accustomed to the change I had made to the bike.  A small change, but what a difference!  So much easier to keep the bike in the power band...it’s got a lot more squirt for making passes, driving out of corners, etc. Nevertheless it consumed a large amount of focus to accommodate and find where track/sprocket required changes in my riding.  There were a couple of spots where I just wrung the bike out and had to wait to up shift between corners when I actually wanted just a little more gear to run through.  Opps!...would that make you nervous to hear someone next to you hit the rev limiter through a corner?

Anyway...giggles to passing the poor yami guy here.  I am a good little bunny and limit myself to wide outside passing on off camber corners...the patrol rider (in yellow) just shot inside on the race line.



For the first time, I’m looking to tweak things on the bike.  I think I may want to raise my rear sets up.  When I changed to aftermarket rearsets, I left them in the stock position.  But after the last session a patrol rider came up to me.  His eyes were squinted up and he was letting loose with a big belly laugh.  “Girl, you are laying down blackies and rubber all over this track!  Hahahhaha!”  Me: “Wha?  Jeez...”   I guess it’s time to really start weighting the pegs the way I’m supposed to, but the bike’s current configuration doesn’t afford me much opportunity to dig in to the outside peg at the apex.  More like the upper thigh on the outside leg is hooked into the tank and the lower limb flaps free...just another little challenge for the freakishly small rider.  So, I’ll try moving the pegs up a spot or two, and see what that does in terms of helping leverage as I work around the bike.



And now has come the onset of the great tire debate.  I’ve been running Pirelli Diablo SuperCorsas (old compound) and for the most part have been satisfied but I’m beginning to wonder if it is time to try another tire and see if it is a better fit for me.  I’ve been getting a lot of squirminess under heavy braking, and I had always just assumed it was due to some deficiency in technique.   I learned this weekend that evidentially a lot of people don’t care for the Pirelli’s because of this type of  “movement”.  I also ran across some folks who confirmed a few things I was feeling under hard acceleration as well...the front end lightens and there is a little wobble/head shake feedback.  And with the new sprocket, the front end can get light a lot.  Time for new tires, so do I venture out and try a tire with a harder carcass or stick to what I know?   Everyone has a strong opinion, and I certainly get a lot of advice I never ask for...that tire stuff is all so black and mysterious if you haven’t found your perfect set-up yet. Input? Advice? Anyone, anyone?



With all this going on the pictures showed some SERIOUS lapses in body position.  A few look like a low side waiting to happen.
Ugggh!  not really proud of these:



 I feel like there is a lot on my plate right now; my trailbraking exercises seem so far off in the future until I get a few of these issues resolved.  And yet....I MUST RETURN...SOON...

 

[Grio]

I know with all the excitement of Moto GP that you all have been anxiously awaiting an update. 
So hear it is: an update on those pesky track problems I was having.

First off, raising the pegs really helped get me back on track with body position.  I took it in baby steps. Slowly moving them up on space at a time until I had them in the highest location.  Nothing to do now, but to try to get my shifter in a good location, because now that the peg is so high, the shifter arm is at a very steep angle and that doesn’t afford a lot of leverage for a quick shift – it’s also a bit hard to locate.  I hit a false neutral three times at the entrance to the same corner until I realized I had to make a very “authoritative” shift inputs.  Looks like I will have to fabricate a little something to get things squared away.  But ahhhhhhh....the peg adjustment really helped with getting the weight off the inside peg at apex and powering out without laying down a big trail of rubber.  Two birds, one stone


Now the tires:  I returned to the Pirelli Diablo Corsas, but consulted an AMA technician regarding pressures.  He suggested some (ahem) “surprising” pressures, but it seemed to work, and I didn’t spend much mental energy worrying about what the tires were doing.  Although, I haven’t returned to any really aggressive braking drills either.  And so I have to ask, not a one of you made any kid of suggestion on tires...no comments about one’s own struggles?   What’s up with that?  You all have the perfect tires??



All in all, it was a good return to the track.   It was very hot and muggy, the energy was low.  I got a little heat sick and faded in the afternoon, but was productive nonetheless.  I did finally get to those trail braking drills... I use the technique on the street, I don’t know why it should become so intimidating on the track...if I could just muster up the big lady balls I need, it really does settle the bike right into the turn.  Oh, yeah, I finally graduated to A group...  “woot!”

[Triple J]

So a friend and I went to Miller last week for 2 track days through Adrenaline Freaks...which is a local (Seattle) trackday organization.

We left Seattle at about 6:30 am Sunday morning expecting a nice and refreshing 12-hour drive to SLC.  Well, turns out it is more like 14 hours when towing a trailer and having to stop for food.    That's a LONG ass drive!

The 848 is mine...the '04 GSXR 1000 is his brothers. He has a 916, but with it's current gearing it tops out at about 130, which he thought would suck at Miller, so he borrowed his brothers bike.

Leaving Seattle:


We spent Sunday night at a hotel by the SLC airport, with the bikes chained to the trailer, and the trailer locked to the truck. I probably won't ever do that again. Neither of us slept that well as we were worrying about the bikes.  But they, along with all their bits and pieces, were intact when we awoke. 

Here's a shot of the track entrance Monday morning. This is the first "big time" track I've been to and it was friggin' awesome!


We had brought EZ-Ups, but when we arrived there were two guys from Calgary looking for a couple people with which to share a GP.  There are 2 types of garages, day and GP.  Day go for $75/day and consist of a garage door to basically a large warehouse.  They're located in the parking lot behing the GP garages. The GP garages go for $175/day, but are located right on pit lane and have private bathrooms, a TV, power, etc.  We figured we drove 830 miles...might as well splurge for the GP garage.  Miller will allow up to 5 people per garage (either type), so it cost us about $90 each for both days.  Not bad as we could leave the bikes overnight, and we watched the Brands Hatch WSBK race in our garage during our Tuesday session.  If you get to the track early enough the day before they'll also let you drop the bikes off at your garage so you don't have to sweat them getting stolen overnight. We didn't know that. 
Garage backside (#21)


Garage Front



The guys from Calgary were riding a Daytona 675 (Gerald) and a trick '07 GSXR 1000 (Kevin).  Gerald was about the same speed as Tom and I, but Kevin was FAST.  He should have been riding in the Advance (Race) group, but since he doesn't have a racer license he wasn't allowed. 

His GSXR was pretty trick...and sounded great!


So Monday we got to ride the East Course.  Someone said this is the AMA course, but I don't know for sure.  It was nice...about 2.5 miles.  The front straight was pretty short and I was hitting about 115-120 mph before I had to brake into Turn 1.  I basically did the whole course in 3rd gear, with a couple short stints in 4th. Gotta love V-Twin torque. Keep in mind this is my 4th ever trackday, and only second on a SBK (other 2 were on my Monster 900).

The East Course is pretty technical and includes the Attitudes.  Lots of people had a problem with the Attitudes...one guy ran off First Attitude in front of me (but kept it up)...and another lowsided later in the day, resulting in 5 broken ribs, a broken scapula, and a broken pinkie!  The Entrance into the First Attitude is blind as the 2nd and 3rd drop away and you can't see them.  The following corner (Tooele) is also blind. Interestingly, I was faster through this section of the course during both days, than a lot of other riders who were faster than me most everywhere else.  Weird...the Attitudes just didn't bother me.  I usually just hung back if I knew they were faster everywhere else though.
http://www.millermotorsportspark.com/images/maps/MMPEastCourse.jpg

Tuesday we got to ride the full course!  This course was awesome...about 4.5 miles, 23 turns, and a mile long straight away. I definitely used my gears a lot more on this course...partially because I had learned a lot on Monday, and also because the course is so different. Top speed was 155-160 (indicated), with about 1K rpms to go before the rev limiter in 6th gear.

The West Course is much more wide open than the East, with the exception of 2 hairpins.  Almost every corner is a double or even triple apex which makes it very interesting. It was a very nice and fun layout going from the West to East courses, since they are both quite a bit different. 
http://www.millermotorsportspark.com/images/maps/MMPFullCourse.jpg

Observations about the course:

1) It is really wide.  Much wider than Pacific Raceways here near Seattle, which is the only other course I've ridden. It took Tom and I a couple sessions to get use to using more and more of the track. We never really used it all, but neither of us are racers.

2) The surface is pristine.  There aren't any patches or bumps to speak of, and you can't even feel the seams. On Pacific there's the race line, then there's the smooth line without bumps.  Here...any line is fine. Awesome! 

Both of us got a new set of Dunlop Qualifiers for the 2 days...figuring it would be hot and we'd probably go through them.  All said, we rode about 250 miles on the track, in 85-95 F heat, as hard as we're capable of, and the tires still look great!  They look 10X better than my Pirelli Supercorsa Pros looked after 2 - 20-minute sessions at the local track.  I think i could easily get another 2 days out of them.  Kevin was easily in the top 5 for speed, and even his Dunlop slicks looked good after the day on the full course (he had them mounted at the end of Day 1). Had to be the smooth surface.

3) The track is huge!! Even with 25 or so people with varying skill levels on the same track, traffic wasn't an issue.  The length (full track) combined with the width made passes easy and you could usually remain at or very near your pace.  This was great as it allowed me to learn a lot during the two days as almost every lap was uninterupted. 

4) The track layout is really nice.  Every corner is a bit different and challenging in a different way...and there is tons of run-out everywhere.  For instance, Turn 1 (full course) at the end of the straight is wide, plus there is an additional 25' of asphalt outside of the fog line...THEN the gravel trap starts. Very comforting.

4) Riding to your full ability in 85-95 F heat is draining! They were running 25 minute sessions (2 groups only), and by the end of each day I was beat and couldn't make it the full 25 minutes.  Most people only lasted 20 minutes or so. 

5) The 848 was faster than the 675 down the straight, but not in a dominating fashion.  I could catch Gerald, but it took a while.  Similarly, Tom reported that his '04 GSXR1000 was only a bit faster than the 848 on the straights.  He could catch me, but he wasn't blowing the doos off by any means.

None of that really means anything...just an observation.  I was very happy with the 848...as I'm sure I would have been on the 675.

So that's my 2 days at Miller. It was friggin' great.  I think this is going to become a yearly trip for me.  The time and $$ is very worth it compared to my local track.

Here's a couple picture Tom took of me after lunch on Day 2.  Both are coming out of the last turn onto the straight. They're not all that great, and I'm obviously still learning.  There was a photographer there (Brandon Bones - Studio 819), so I'll update the post when I get his pics so you can all gently critique my body position! 

[One Jay]

hey i thought i'd share my latest trackday experience with you all here. it was my 3rd trackday, but the first on this bike ('00 m750), my previous two were on a ninja 250 and gsxr600. i had a lot of fun, and i believe i did fairly well, but it really seemed to take an excessive amount of effort to get the bike around the track quickly. at the end of each 15min session my wrists were sore, and i had to get pretty far off the seat to get it to turn. i'm wondering what are the most common mods done to improve trackability with the monsters. i was thinking of changing the front tire to a rounder profile (120/70 vs 120/60) would help some, but please let me know. and here's a few of my more favorite pictures from the day. the last one is of me testing out the hypermotard demo 

[CMDRDAVE]

6-7 APRIL 2009

The MAD DOC/Cornerspeed track day was awesome!  Realize that this was my first track day and I have nothing else to compare it to, but I’m in one piece, the bike is in one piece, had a tone of fun and I kept it on the track.  So overall I consider it a huge success.  It is one of the few things I have done where I have been scared to death and grinning fron ear to ear at the same time.

VIR is about 4 hours straight out rt 58.  Drove out there Sunday night.  The facilities were great.  I got a room right above the garages on pit row and overlooking the front straight.  I also split a garage with 3 other guys which worked out very well between the rain on Monday morning and the cold on Tuesday.  I walked the track Sunday evening.  The turns proved to be a lot more interesting than I was expecting based on looking at the course map.

Monday morning started with thunderstorms.  I completed tech inspection, riders meeting and beginner classroom training/chalk talk while it was still raining  Due to the rain we didn’t get out on the track until about 10:30.  It was on and off light rain for that first session.  We started off slow following an instructor to learn the track and follow his lines.  We slowly picked up the pace through the session but stayed reasonable considering the rain and learning the track.  For the second session the rain had stopped and portions of the track were wet and some were dry.  Again the pace increased but I was still focused on learning the track and various lines through the turns.  The sun came out and the afternoon was incredible.  My comfort level with the track really improved and so did my speed.  By the last session of the day, working to get the correct body position really started to click, I was really starting to get it. 

Tuesday was COLD, all day.  The temp in my truck said 44 degrees at the beginning of the first session.  Due to the temperature I backed off a little on the speed, especially in the morning, but this allowed me to work more on body position and lines.  Starting off my body position felt really good.  I found that when I though I was getting off the seat on Monday I really wasn’t but Tuesday morning I did, and I could feel it immediately when I did it right.  By the end of a 20 minute session my legs were shot.  Unfortunately as I worked on body position my lines degraded.  I followed an instructor for the first half of the last morning session and found that I was turning in and hitting the apex of turns way too early.  This set me up for 2 of the best sessions of the event in the afternoon.  On my last session of the day I had a couple of great turns followed by some really dumb mistakes.  I was done, there was one session left but my head just wasn’t 100% in it any more.  Time to pack up.

I found that the Monster really couldn’t keep up with the sportbikes on the straights, not that I expected it to.  Usually I would get passed on the front straight then be right back up on their tail by turn 3 through the “esses”.  They would pull away again and I would right back on their tail by turn 9 through 17 then they were gone.  That was fine with me.  I really don’t think I am a straight line speed guy anyway.  I loved the turns a lot more.  If turn 17 linked straight into turn 1, that would be fine with me.

I can’t say enough good things about the instructors and MAD members at the event.  This was not the full Corner Speed school but they were there to provide instruction to beginners or anyone who asked.  There were 3 classroom training sessions for beginners.  One before each of the first 3 sessions.  They mostly covered information on the track, lines, strategies, etc.  Turn dynamics, braking, turn in, throttle use, turn exit, etc.  Body position, body position and body position.  Out on the track the instructors were also great at giving real time feedback through signals and demonstrations.  Though it was weird to follow an instructor through turns at what felt like the edge of my ability while he was turned around watching me the whole time.  In between sessions instructors were more than happy to discuss technique with you or volunteer to help during future session.  Some would even ride through the paddock area to find riders and give feedback on things that they had noticed on the track.  Definitely two thumbs up to Aaron and his crew at Cornerspeed.  I am already trying to find a way to get back to VIR and take the full Cornerspeed course.  On a similar note, all of the MAD members were great also.  Everyone was helpful with any questions I had and many offered to assist with anything that I needed.  Overall a great groups of riders, not a single person ignored me because I was a beginner.

My camera broke as soon as I arrived.  No I am not even kidding.  I did buy a CD from the photographers on site, so pictures will follow shortly.  During some of the off time I drove around to key points on the track (turn 4/5, turn 7, turn 17) to watch the advanced group.  That was eye opening.  There was a Desmosedici there also.  Very distinct sound, I could tell when it passed even with my eyes closed.  Definitely interesting to watch.

Now I’m looking forward to the July event.  I’m trying to decide which bike to take.  If I bring the Monster back I definitely need a stiffer rear spring.  If I bring the 748 I need new tires.  Decisions, descisions.