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Old September 25th, 2017, 10:51 PM   #21
Mechanikrazy
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Name: Al
Location: Orange County, CA
Join Date: Dec 2015

Motorcycle(s): Thruxton R, R6 450 triple, EX300 (sold)

Posts: 263
A long overdue post/posts. So 2017 is three quarters over, and I've been running around in the game of life.

I ended up changing jobs, and moving back to California after seven years on the east coast. The 300 has been sitting for a while, but it will be coming out to play at Laguna Seca in November. I've also got two other friends coming out on 300s, so it should be a hoot to be back. It'll also be my second time ever at Laguna (first time being my very first time on track back in 2007 on a 600), so I'll be intrigued to see how I compare.

But 2017 mid-season recap. I focused on running 6 trackdays at NJMP and did four CCS races there before the big move.

Mid-winter project
After finally getting a little bit of pace last year, I allowed myself to paint the bike over the winter. I spray canned in an alley next to my downtown DC condo. (I am glad to have a garage and backyard again). I think it is an okay 10 feet paint job. I would recommend brighter, more distinctive colors though. My friends' main comments were it was hard to pick out which bike I was (my leathers are black also).





Trackdays and Racing

VIR Patriot and North - EvolveGT
Absolutely love these guys. EvolveGT will be the trackday group I miss most by moving back to California. Ran the first ever Motogladiator race, and got 3rd in class. It was amazing to get a front row seat (a.k.a. getting lapped) to see Brandon Paasch getting his rear tire to spin up post-apex.

Day 2. Wet track in the morning. What do I do? Push like an idiot and "fix" my paint job after less than 48 hours from the start of the season. If you happen to still see this mark at 12B on VIR North, you're welcome for the reference point. Huge shout out to my friend for letting me strip parts off his back up, a.k.a. his wife's 300, to let me run the rest of the day.




NJMP
Takeaways: No matter how quick you think you are getting on the gas, odds are you can still twist it a little faster.
After deciding on going back to California, I focused on making it to the NJMP CCS round. I spent three of four weekends in April at NJMP. I absolutely love Thunderbolt. Also, as someone who favors right hand turns, I love clockwise courses.

It was truly amazing how much racing helped my lap times. From trackday to first race, I went from a 1:50 to a low 1:48. In my last race, I went down to a mid 1:47. Three seconds in one weekend after six days at the track was awesome for me. Of course, that was still only good enough for the back middle of the back. But it's a work in progress.

Onward to video.
This was the first race, but definitely the most interesting and entertaining race. I definitely need to work on my starts, but it did feel good to be able to pass a few people in the race. There was an incident at 2:40 with some other riders. Thankfully, everyone walked away. The back half from lap 4 onward was a lot of fun back and forth with the rider on the white and green. She beat me to the line yet again after the motogladiator race at VIR. 13th out of 24.

Link to original page on YouTube.


And a beauty shot of the bike.



Now that I'm back in California, I've realized I probably need to buy a MX bike and really learn to get faster. Just did SoCal Supermoto, and it was another refresher on just how much more I still have to learn about riding.


Last futzed with by Mechanikrazy; November 10th, 2017 at 03:51 PM.
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