Quote:
Originally Posted by Misti
Thanks for answering the question  Curious to know how your track day went and how you found riding on the unfamiliar track! Are there things you do in order to help you learn an unfamiliar track quickly?
As for following faster riders, I usually find that when I'm following a faster rider, it is actually forcing me to look further ahead or further down the track, SOONER, which helps me feel like I'm not actually going as fast. There are other things you can learn as well, like the angle they approach the turn-in area, where they turn the bike, how much of the track they use etc. I'll never forget my second session riding at Aragon as part of Troy Corser's Racing School Europe and having Troy himself blast by me and tap the back of his bike- follow me! I barely knew if the corner went left or right but I was doing everything I could to tag along with him. He was giving me all sorts of hand signals, move this way, 2nd gear, look up the track, etc....it was too much at once, but the biggest take away were some of his lines, how much more of the track he was using than I was, and just getting my eyes up higher because I was watching him! |
Time for a report from Road Atlanta.
I signed up for the intremediate group as RA just runs 3 groups and I dont feel ready to play with the biggest dogs in the park just yet. I have to side step a little and explain the entire situation before before I get into what went down on track. Turns out that my gracious host had an issue with his regular track bike and his backups, backup was not running either. So here is my situation: New track I have never seen before, Borrowed bike, I ride a big V-twin and the borrowed bike is an R6 with totally different power delivery and just happened to have a NON FUNCTIONING tachometer! Lets add to that the fact that my host is a coach and also had another event 3 days after this one where he was traveling to coach at NOLA and we would have to share the bike for the 2 day event. Could I even ever be more worried about even the smallest crash? I dont think so!!!! Also, Road Atlanta is the fastest track I have ever been to, with 100mph into turn 1 as the norm. I dont mean you are running at 120 then brake, you are accelerating down the straight from turn 12 to turn 1 at 120 touch the brake to get the bike to turn and dive right in to the turn at 100ish. Never done that before. There was one guy that over shot turn 1, bike went thru the gravel, hit the air fence and flew into the air coming to rest between the air fence and jersey barrier. They needed to get a crane to lift his bike out, he was unhurt. Since Moto America was running the track 2 days later, we were instructed to slow enough for turn 12(last turn) to "put your kickstand down before proceeding". We were told that no one was to crash in turn 12 no matter what!!
Ok enough excuses for not being fast.
Overall I did well and my coach/host rated my performance as a solid A but I gave myself a B+. I spent the entire event riding at 75-80% of my ability which was good enough to keep the shiny side up and not annoy the other riders. The tires dont lie and they looked great after each session with plenty of rolled rubber and good wear. I did not have any scary moments (except once when I forgot which turn I was in and missed my mark but was able to correct and make the turn.
Most of the issues I did experience were because I would down shift 2 gears on corner entry and should have done 3. I am not used to 16,000 RPM redline and with no tach to reference, it took a little bit of learning to keep up momentum. At least there was a shift light 1000 rpm before red line. I knew when to up shift but had many roll ons that fell flat on lower than optimal RPM. I did learn that most track day riders that event were rolling off way early and braking much softer than I. They would blow by on the back straight-While I was at redline with the rev limiter/gearing holding me to 148mph--but I would catch or even pass them before I even rolled off for turn 10! I was rolling off just before the 200ft marker and dropping 3 gears while braking into the turn. I was advised by my coach to move this back to the 300 ft marker and do things a little slower. I would still catch and pass some riders but things were smoother and I felt a little less rushed. After turn 10(left turn) there is a 3rd gear right turn then up the hill. You cannot see what is past the top of the hill, you have to wait till you crest the hill at 80-90 mph-totally blind and as you crest that hill you see the track drops down 40-50 ft or more in the next 150 yards. Total nose dive down to the manditory parking lot turn 12 at 110 mph! No worries, whats the worst that could happen?
I did much better at holding the throttle wide open for the entire straights, which was an issue I had been experiencing earlier. I did well learning the track fairly quickly--learning the lines was much quicker than learning the bike for me. Turn 6 is a fast left uphill and most bigger cc bikes wheelie at the top, the R6 was no exception, I was riding out a 6-7" wheelie when I heard a bike overtaking me. I look right and there is a ZX10 in a full stand up wheelie but the electronics put the front down just for it to raise skyward again and drop and rise as he passed me and accelerated away-I miss my Ducati!!!!!
Could not have been a better trip, No crashing and I learned a whole lot. I cannot thank my host enough for this experience!
