First trackday impressions: Reno-Fernley Raceway, Precision Trackdays, Sept 15th/16th

[AlanDog]

Overall, I had a great time, it was super-fun, but... the trackday organizer is not really setup for first-timers and talking with four other first-timers (who knew how to ride well) we all agreed that the first few sessions were just chaos. Four crashes in three sessions with only about 25 people? It was scary. By the afternoon sessions I had figured out the flags, the routine, the course pretty much but with maybe half the C group first-timers, you think they'd introduce the course more gradually. It was pretty much sink or swim the first couple of times out. I mean, they may as well have sent us to the starting gate and said 'go'. The 'sighting' lap were so fast they were useless for sighting anything.

Reno-fernley is an awesome course ('C' configuration). What I found was that finding someone who is running your pace makes taking turns so much funner. I spent hours last night watching my videos, noticing so many new things about the other riders. The funniest thing was I ended up behind a woman (on what I think was a Ducati) multipe times, and she was going into fishtails both entering and exiting turns, maybe because of sudden braking and acceleration. She was sitting so upright on the bike but obviously it had a ton of power, and I just could never safely pass her, because yeah, we would hit the straights and she could just twist the throttle.

The C group seemed like it was about 80% 600cc supersports, and it was fun to try to keep up with them on my 1981 honda. I was scraping pegs and it was freaking me out, but by the afternoon of the first day I was relaxed enough to start really leaning off, trying to keep the bike upright so I wouldn't scrape. I got compliments from two instructors and even a supersport rider who got stuck behind me, 'man you're really hanging off, you're looking good'. I think if I had an appropriate bike it would just seem normal. Honestly, the bike doesn't feel much different under me than the ninja 250... but the peg scrape was holding me back for sure.

Link to original page on YouTube.

The Precision Trackdays website makes it seem like they are newb friendly, and they did have the hourly classroom sessions and there were instructors available for one-on-one sessions. But basically there is no plan on how to train newbs, what to teach--they are just saying whatever strikes them at the moment. It was all great information, but you really needed to filter it and decide what was appropriate for your level. They didn't give any caveats to the advice to go in faster, brake later, etc, and the next session two people crashed... I don't think it was a coincidence--I mean, we had gone around the track twice at that point!

I think the key is to be assertive and approach them for one-on-one help before the sessions, because they don't approach you. This is the advice I got after whining to some of my more experienced camping neighbors and it was good advice. The very same guy who was giving crazy-inappropriate advice to people who had never been on a track on saturday was giving me great advice on sunday one-on-one.

But I would advise newbs against this provider for C group unless you already know how to take a turn fast--maybe (like if you're a cute female) you can get enough personalized attention to go in with no twisty road experience, but like I said, four first-timer guys on supersports agreed with me that the first sessions were crazy, and they knew how to ride. It wasn't just me man! And none of us crashed.

Fun, fun, fun, but newbs, prepare yourself for chaos. The funny thing is that at the end of the second day I heard a rider say to an instructor, "yeah, you guys are great, I did a pacific tracktime trackday before this and that was a free-for-all! There were A group racers practicing in the C group, it was totally nuts!" So if this provider is great for newbs, man, what are the bad ones like?

[csmith12]

Cool you got out there and hand fun! 4 crashes..... seems about average to me, go again and you should find it about the same or even a few more. During my last track day there were 19 crashes between 57 riders. That is A LOT yes... but we were riding in what was left of hurricane Isaac.

Also the first sessions on any given track day are a little more chaotic. Some riders are in groups they don't belong, the track is cold, the riders are cold and so on. It takes a few sessions for everyone to get sorted into the groups where they are comfy, other riders may move in the afternoon. And I was one of those A racers in the C group. It sucked for me, so I know it had to suck for the C group riders.

Anyway, some track day orgs do not have much of a novice school. They also expect you to be able to hold your own for the most part and offer you the basics in a garage/paddock meeting between sessions. Others are very structured where you group up into 4-6 riders and follow a coach around every sessions performing skills until near the end of the day where you are finally let go to practice on your own. I look at it as "you get what you pay for". If you didn't pay extra for the classroom time, then don't expect much and be surprised when you get more than expected. So from my point of view, I like the cheap track time without the class part (ie Free for All) but others may need the class time and should consider a different track day with a different org.

While riding with these types of orgs, you have to be on your toes, be forward and take it upon yourself to get the attention of coaches or go with a trusted friend that will help you along the way/answer questions you may have. It would be even better if that friend could be on track with you.

What is a bad one like? Well.. for me it is the orgs that overbook the track with WAAAAYYYY to many riders. Where most of their coaches are no more experienced than the B group, have questionable safety practices (race practice during novice sessions for example) and on top of that... expensive. However, most are doing what they can to accommodate everyone as best as possible given the dynamics of the day, track conditions, weather and mix of riders registered that day. Here is another good example; On a track day where not a lot of riders are present, they will sometimes combine B and A groups into one and extend the session length. While some may hate it, I found it to be awesome. I have been to a few "open track" days where there is no C group. You can enter and leave the track more freely and really aren't bound to a session length on the clock (ride as much as you want from 3pm-dark). Those are really fun because you only have to stop for gas or you get tired.

Cool riding in your video and questions for you!
Was there no riders meeting where flags were covered?
Were the control riders/coaches introduced?
How did you like the track itself?
When are you going back?

[csmith12]

Can we get a pic of your 1981 honda too?

[AlanDog]

Thanks for the response, that's interesting. Totally true, this trackday was a great deal, $130/day, relative to other NorCal tracks it was a deal.

We did have a rider meeting in the morning and went over flags, and flags are covered repeatedly in the instruction session (which I felt was helpful because I had problems keeping them straight).

The coaches were not introduced at all, but they had orange vests, so they were easily recognized.

I loved the track! Lots of turns, alot of variety, really tight turns where you don't have to be going 60mph to be working on skills (for my level).

Definitely want to go back, but on a budget...

[csmith12]

Budget.... hahahahaha I used to have one of those.

That is a cool honda you got there. I remember my 83 from back in the day. I don't think I ever got it above 70mph. How did it do?

[alex.s]

budget... is that the thing i made before i spent all my money on motorcycles?

[AlanDog]

Originally Posted by csmith12

That is a cool honda you got there. I remember my 83 from back in the day. I don't think I ever got it above 70mph. How did it do?

In stock form it'd be pretty crazy, it came with super-soft forks and underpowered front brakes. With that fixed, I had no suspension issues, although did seem like I was getting some brake fade (only has a single rotor). The engine is 50HP, but the bike is 500 pounds, so really only a bit more powerful than a ninja 250, just a different powerband. I was at redline (9750) quite a bit, in fact riding in the red zone sometimes, just didn't want to shift up on exit of one turn only to downshift going in (no rev limiter). It didn't complain. On the straight I didn't pin it, and my speedo only goes to 85mph--people say the bike will do 100 if in good condition, but top speeds just don't excite me like taking turns fast.

I had no issues with the tires, running a front radial and a rear Dunlop GT501, which I wore to the edges, pretty funny to see rubber balling up on the tires of this old bike. I was warned against this tire setup, mixing radials and bias ply tires, but I had taken the bike on twisty roads and they felt great to me.

[AlanDog]

Also, not to scare newbs away from trackdays, I never felt endangered by other riders. All the crashes were solo incidents and no one was seriously hurt. It really helped me focus and relax when the coaches clarified that we should NOT worry and hold our normal lines when we had someone behind us--that's why they require you to remove your mirrors, there is too much in front of you to worry about what is behind you. They said to never look behind, just worry about what's in front of you. The supersports have plenty of power to pass and we were told repeatedly that passing requires a 6 foot buffer.

The riders I got caught behind were either moving a pace that was not so slow to frustrate me, or if they were moving that slow, they were easy to pass, even for me (or a 250).

There were definitely some mixed messages by the coaches: they gave the advice before we went out of riding at 70%, in your comfort zone (but yeah, it's hard to ride at 70% when you also have to keep up with a coach on the first lap that is riding at your 90%.... No doubt some of these slower riders were dropped like a rock on that first lap--not that it'd be a big deal actually, it's not like you're going to get lost... it seems they could have simply sub-divided newbs into slow/med/fast lines, or something...

But it is good advice. Ride your ride, let people pass you, don't try to keep up with people who are way faster than you and you'll likely be okay.