Quote:
Originally Posted by sharky nrk
Assfault Junkies??? Started posting over there a bit before having to move for work. Haven't really been back on there since moving back to the midwest. Seemed like a pretty cool group of people though.
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Yea, those junkies. They are a good group people and there are quite a few really really talented riders with a sprinkle of racers. Some go really really fast on public streets though. But you won't find a better bunch to invade a track with. lol
Anyway here is a rundown of the two days;
Planning - Hints of things to come
The group AFJ rents Putnam Park, hosting their first ever track day. I buy my spot at the very last minute to get the discounted pricing. I have a 16ft flat trailer and start to get pm's asking for a haul up. So I plan on hauling 6 bikes behind my 98 Dodge Durango. 2 of the bikes being 250's!
I also find out that another group "LSB" has the track the very next day. So I snag up an A spot on their day with intentions of making some new friends.
Loading & On the way to Putnam - The trouble begins.....
I load my bike on the trailer and gear in the truck and wait for my wife to get home from work so we can leave. She arrives right on time and I finish loading her stuff.
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A bit of back story on the wife. She has never been to a track day and has no clue what to expect or the amount of "busyness" that is about to happen. Earlier in the week she had twisted up her ankle pretty good and was limping pretty good and couldn't walk very far without her ankle swelling up and experiencing pain. She has only seen races and is totally worried about seeing me ride for the first time. She has seen it through my pictures and videos.
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1st stop is the AFJ race show to load 3 more bikes and misc. gear. That stop put me 20 mins behind schedule again but was within my "planned" buffer so fine enough.
2nd stop was at a friends how to pick of 2 more bikes. This is where spending so much time working on my bikes instead of my cages come back to bit me a bit. While making the 30 min drive to her house my Durango decides to overheat but I limp it to my stop just as the temp goes into the red. I open the hood and begin to load bikes while it cools.
Finally loaded, I put my focus back on the truck. Check the water and don't see any.
So we grab a gallon of antifreeze and put it in. Still not full.
Another gallon and still not full.
Another 3/4 gallon and she is finally full and running cool again. It was 91 degrees, muggy and with a gimp foot my wife was not very happy with my handling of vehicle maintenance... errr I mean lack there of. She goes like this
and I feel a bit
in front of all my track friends. A quick check of every thing else and off we go. After loading all the bikes (1.5 hours of work and 3 broken straps) the only real issue with hauling was my trailer hates anything strapped to it. Needless to say, one of the straps broke while in route causing a bike to fall. 1 of 2 extra straps used.
Saturday Sept 1.
A good night of parking lot pimpin at the local Econolodge 10 or so miles from the track. Stayed up to late but didn't drink to much so aside of having to shake off the tired the morning started uneventful but rushed. Being rushed is my #1 pet peeve about doing a track day. So I elected to skip a sit down breakfast and just grab a bunch of breakfast bars and Little Debbie snake cakes to eat on the go to help get me back on schedule.
I arrive at the track in enough time to easily register and tech without rushing and begin to prep gear as they call out the I group. Over in the distance was a dark mass of clouds, a band of rain from hurricane Isaac. I ignore that as it wasn't raining and the I group was out there draggin some knee and putting down good lap times for the 1st session on a green and cold track. I couldn't hardly wait for my session to start. I heard the 5 min call, finish putting on my gear and start the bike. No sooner as pull out of the garage, it starts to rain.
WTF... common it's like the gods did this to me on purpose. 1 wheel out of the garage and already getting wet, meh I say and hit the track anyway along with about 15 other riders.
The more we ride the more it rains and eventually the track is very slippery. This particular track seems to be more slippery than the street when wet so I take about 3 turns out of my front preload and 2lbs out of the rear and 1lb out of the front. This really helped in the braking zones but my r6 felt like a 250 nosediving but in the end, I thought it was a good choice seeing how I could outbrake just about everyone on DOT's going into turn 1. After a session or two I checked my zip tie on my front fork. about 4mm left of fork travel. hmmmm.... The bike felt good so I left it and tried to get the rear to hook up in the wet the rest of the morning sessions. I learned a lot about my tires, suspension adjustments for the wet and improved my own riding while slipping and sliding around just about every corner of the track. FYI - Power Cups suck in the wet. The tire guy had rains for $300 but jezzzz and out of my budget. Also the wife was nervous enough for the both of us watching me out there.
3 riders go down in front of me. I was able to adjust line to miss 2 but the one had me in the grass. I am so glad seeing these don't mess with my head and add +3 to my non target fixating skill.
12 more crashes later .... the morning sessions were over and time for lunch. We eat, relax and look at the radar as the rain is easing up.
After lunch the rain was over but track was still wet. The racers were all out on rains and mix in the DOT riders for a bit of added fun. This is what you will end up with. About 5 or 6 guys riding really fast and everyone else putting around at 45-50mph. I ended up getting passed REALLY close 2 times but held my ground easily. I have no issues bumpin' and rubbin' in the dry but in the wet is a little more spooky.
After all that riding the track was finally dry around 3pm. I pull out the pits and think, IT's GO FAST TIME! The rest of the day was like this;
Hellz yea!
My buddy riding a pregen (first time track rider) went down in the wet but after a bit of work, he got back out there and did great.
Sunday Sept 2.
Easy update here... it was a complete wash. Never even made it out on track. Rain sucks... and I missed my chance to buy a set of rain take offs for $50.
The ride home
The ride home was restful aside of an unplanned stop to restrap a bike because another strap broke. 2 of 2 extra straps used. The ratchet also broke so now my tail car had to go fetch another to get us going again.
We stopped to eat and that was a great 1.5 hour meal with friends chatting about the weekends events and planning for next time.
Unloading the bikes was easier than loading them but the monsoon of rain made it suck really bad. I hate wet feet and I had wet feet for about 6-7 hours.
All in all it was a great time despite the weather and 19 crashes (track record! lol). So many new track riders got a good does of skills those days and good friends made this trip awesome in spite of what was left of hurricane Isaac. And now we all can say we rode track in a hurricane. hahahahahahha