04-18-2012, 08:13 PM
Friday Night Fuckup
I gave myself plenty of time to get the uhaul trailer and get to the track on Friday. My plan was to drop off the trailer and get a good night's sleep in Winchester. A few things took longer than I wanted, but I got to the track at 11. Turned out there was a $25 gate fee, cash or check only. Well, for the last several months I'd been using my frequent flyer card exclusively so I had gotten to the point I had forgotten my debit card PIN. Long story short, I ended up having to drive all the way home to pick up my checkbook. Had to pull over and nap at one point because I was nodding off.
When I got back to the track at 5:30 am there was a different guy at the gate and he said, "We don't accept checks." WTF?!!!!! Luckily the original guy came back and I was able to get into the paddock.
First Practice
Went pretty slow to scrub new tires in. I'll have to work out how fast I can go when I'm doing this in the future but for my first time (when I'd had very little sleep) I wasn't taking any chances.
Second Practice
Started cranking on the speed. Each lap I was going faster until...I came into turn 1 one knee pinned to the bodywork and lowsided. I'm pretty sure I wasn't smooth enough rolling on the throttle and the rear stepped out and put the bike on its side. Luckily there was no damage so I hopped back on and rode to the pits
Day 1 - C Supersport Novice Race
I wasn't as nervous as I thought as I waited for the standing start. I got passed by a few guys on the green flag but got a couple of guys braking into turn 1. I settled into a pack of of 3 or 4 riders and had worked my way through them, but came out of T10 in 5th gear instead of 4th and three guys blew by like i was in reverse. Well shit, had to go chase all of them down again.
I was having a lot of trouble getting my body position right for turn 3. I just didn't have it together for some reason and was getting through all kinds of ugly. But I eventually started getting it together and set about chasing a dude down that was about 2 or 3 seconds in front of me. I came charging into turn 5...and lowsided. This time I folded the front. Probably because I put some extra undesired steering input into the bars.
This crash knocked my camera off and bent my swingarm spool a little bit. But still, it was the slowest corner on the track so I was able to ride back to the pits with no problem.
All in all, Day One sucked.
Day 2 - First Practice
After having crashed out of my first two sessions, I figured I'd run less lean angle and just focus on getting a better drive out of the corners. Unfortunately I didn't have time to put the tires on the warmers before I went out so the bike was kind of hairy for the first few laps.
Day 2 - Second Practice
Went faster, but still way slower than I had gone on Saturday. I was in control, which was good, but way too slow.
![[Image: t9_15apr12.jpg]](http://www.aclr8.com/images/racing/t9_15apr12.jpg)
Day 2 - Race 1 C Superbike Novice
I decided to be more aggressive at the start but I ended up doing a wheelie and losing some ground. I was closing in on 2 guys and caught up to them in the carousel. I was fast enough through there that I could've stuck the bike underneath one of the guys to pass him before turn 7. I started to show him a wheel but I figured one of two things would happen:
A. I'd stand him up and he'd run wide (and possibly crash)
B. He would turn down into me
I thought better of it and backed out. However, the penalty was that it killed my momentum and 6th and 7th place got away. It took me a couple of laps to regain that ground, but coming out of turn 1 on the second to last lap I was in 5th gear instead of 3rd and away they went. The problem I was having with downshifts came down to the fact that the shifter on the bike needs more force to engage the gear than I'm used to. All in all, finishing 8th wasn't bad. I figured all I had to do to finish higher in Race 2 was not fuck up any shifts.
Day 2 - Race 2 C Supersport Novice
This time I got away a little bit better and was able to put together some tidy laps. 5 of my 8 laps were faster than my fastest lap in the previous race and 4 were within 3 tenths of each other. My fastest lap was the last lap while I was battling with a guy for 6th.
Coming into the last lap there was one guy in front of me by about 4 or 5 bike lengths and I'm thinking I can chase this guy down. I pass him on the brakes going into 1. All right, time to pull away. I went through 3 probably the fastest I had all weekend and the front end was pogo'ing all over the place because of all the bumps mid corner. I expected him to maybe come around me while braking for 5 but he didn't even show a wheel. But going into 9 he popped up on the inside and passed me. Shit. I was able to get a good drive off 9 and I passed him on the brakes going into 10. I thought I had it made but dude let off the brakes and came AROUND THE OUTSIDE! I was thinking, "This guy is gonna crash..."
But sure enough he was able to keep it together and he was leading me coming out of 10. Last chance. I tucked in behind him to see if could draft him. He didn't carry as much speed out of the corner because of his outside pass, and I definitely had more power than him. I pulled in front of him and beat him by about 6 or 7 feet. Fuck yeah.
![[Image: mm_15apr12.jpg]](http://www.aclr8.com/images/racing/mm_15apr12.jpg)
Summary/Plans
All told I had a fucking blast. Day one sucked but day two definitely made up for it. Looking back I can't believe I waited this long to finally take the plunge.
Speed wise I'm a little bit slower than I wanted to be but I figure I can take another second or two off the lap time without having to get too crazy. Chopping off 2 seconds would definitely put me on the novice podium. As for the bike I've got some new stomp grips for the tank so that I can hold on to the bike with my knees better. Not being able to solidly hold on with my knees means I have to use my arms a little more than I want to hold on in corners. This is why I ended up having to back off the lean angle on Sunday.
Next orders of business are a lap timer, new camera mounts, and getting my ACLR8 race livery done up. Won't be able to race again until June because I have some date conflicts but at least that means I'll be able to get some practice in at track days.
TL;DR Didn't sleep, low-sided twice. Slept, finished 8th and 6th. Swapped position 5 times on last lap. Great time was had.
I gave myself plenty of time to get the uhaul trailer and get to the track on Friday. My plan was to drop off the trailer and get a good night's sleep in Winchester. A few things took longer than I wanted, but I got to the track at 11. Turned out there was a $25 gate fee, cash or check only. Well, for the last several months I'd been using my frequent flyer card exclusively so I had gotten to the point I had forgotten my debit card PIN. Long story short, I ended up having to drive all the way home to pick up my checkbook. Had to pull over and nap at one point because I was nodding off.
When I got back to the track at 5:30 am there was a different guy at the gate and he said, "We don't accept checks." WTF?!!!!! Luckily the original guy came back and I was able to get into the paddock.
First Practice
Went pretty slow to scrub new tires in. I'll have to work out how fast I can go when I'm doing this in the future but for my first time (when I'd had very little sleep) I wasn't taking any chances.
Second Practice
Started cranking on the speed. Each lap I was going faster until...I came into turn 1 one knee pinned to the bodywork and lowsided. I'm pretty sure I wasn't smooth enough rolling on the throttle and the rear stepped out and put the bike on its side. Luckily there was no damage so I hopped back on and rode to the pits
Day 1 - C Supersport Novice Race
I wasn't as nervous as I thought as I waited for the standing start. I got passed by a few guys on the green flag but got a couple of guys braking into turn 1. I settled into a pack of of 3 or 4 riders and had worked my way through them, but came out of T10 in 5th gear instead of 4th and three guys blew by like i was in reverse. Well shit, had to go chase all of them down again.
I was having a lot of trouble getting my body position right for turn 3. I just didn't have it together for some reason and was getting through all kinds of ugly. But I eventually started getting it together and set about chasing a dude down that was about 2 or 3 seconds in front of me. I came charging into turn 5...and lowsided. This time I folded the front. Probably because I put some extra undesired steering input into the bars.
This crash knocked my camera off and bent my swingarm spool a little bit. But still, it was the slowest corner on the track so I was able to ride back to the pits with no problem.
All in all, Day One sucked.
Day 2 - First Practice
After having crashed out of my first two sessions, I figured I'd run less lean angle and just focus on getting a better drive out of the corners. Unfortunately I didn't have time to put the tires on the warmers before I went out so the bike was kind of hairy for the first few laps.
Day 2 - Second Practice
Went faster, but still way slower than I had gone on Saturday. I was in control, which was good, but way too slow.
Day 2 - Race 1 C Superbike Novice
I decided to be more aggressive at the start but I ended up doing a wheelie and losing some ground. I was closing in on 2 guys and caught up to them in the carousel. I was fast enough through there that I could've stuck the bike underneath one of the guys to pass him before turn 7. I started to show him a wheel but I figured one of two things would happen:
A. I'd stand him up and he'd run wide (and possibly crash)
B. He would turn down into me
I thought better of it and backed out. However, the penalty was that it killed my momentum and 6th and 7th place got away. It took me a couple of laps to regain that ground, but coming out of turn 1 on the second to last lap I was in 5th gear instead of 3rd and away they went. The problem I was having with downshifts came down to the fact that the shifter on the bike needs more force to engage the gear than I'm used to. All in all, finishing 8th wasn't bad. I figured all I had to do to finish higher in Race 2 was not fuck up any shifts.
Day 2 - Race 2 C Supersport Novice
This time I got away a little bit better and was able to put together some tidy laps. 5 of my 8 laps were faster than my fastest lap in the previous race and 4 were within 3 tenths of each other. My fastest lap was the last lap while I was battling with a guy for 6th.
Coming into the last lap there was one guy in front of me by about 4 or 5 bike lengths and I'm thinking I can chase this guy down. I pass him on the brakes going into 1. All right, time to pull away. I went through 3 probably the fastest I had all weekend and the front end was pogo'ing all over the place because of all the bumps mid corner. I expected him to maybe come around me while braking for 5 but he didn't even show a wheel. But going into 9 he popped up on the inside and passed me. Shit. I was able to get a good drive off 9 and I passed him on the brakes going into 10. I thought I had it made but dude let off the brakes and came AROUND THE OUTSIDE! I was thinking, "This guy is gonna crash..."
But sure enough he was able to keep it together and he was leading me coming out of 10. Last chance. I tucked in behind him to see if could draft him. He didn't carry as much speed out of the corner because of his outside pass, and I definitely had more power than him. I pulled in front of him and beat him by about 6 or 7 feet. Fuck yeah.
Summary/Plans
All told I had a fucking blast. Day one sucked but day two definitely made up for it. Looking back I can't believe I waited this long to finally take the plunge.
Speed wise I'm a little bit slower than I wanted to be but I figure I can take another second or two off the lap time without having to get too crazy. Chopping off 2 seconds would definitely put me on the novice podium. As for the bike I've got some new stomp grips for the tank so that I can hold on to the bike with my knees better. Not being able to solidly hold on with my knees means I have to use my arms a little more than I want to hold on in corners. This is why I ended up having to back off the lean angle on Sunday.
Next orders of business are a lap timer, new camera mounts, and getting my ACLR8 race livery done up. Won't be able to race again until June because I have some date conflicts but at least that means I'll be able to get some practice in at track days.
TL;DR Didn't sleep, low-sided twice. Slept, finished 8th and 6th. Swapped position 5 times on last lap. Great time was had.
2018 Ducati Panigale V4
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com
Past: 2018 Honda Civic Type-R, 2015 Yamaha R1, 2009 BMW M3, 2013 Aprilia RSV4R, 2006 Honda Ridgeline, 2006 Porsche Cayman S, 2012 Ducati 1199, 2009 Subaru WRX, 2008 CBR1000RR, 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R, 2000 Toyota Tundra, 2005 Honda CBR600RR, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1996 Acura Integra GS-R, 1997 Honda Civic EX
http://www.aclr8.com
