13 March 2008
Putting on some Dunlop GP's i picked up for 80 bucks for track service.
14 March 2008
Driving! it rained a lot of the trip. and there was absurd traffic a lot of the trip. it took ~8 hours and i stopped like twice the whole time. twas a long trip.
now it's looking like FL
orly?
just in case i need em
so much stuff
I didnt have someone to photograph for me this time...so no riding pics
March 15
This day was AWESOME. i enjoyed it much more than my previous track day (not to say i didnt that one a ton). i was relaxed and simply enjoying myself and that made it waaaaay more fun, and it made me waaaaaay faster apparently. Since it was my second track day, i signed up for the novice group again, b/c i was nothing special by the end of my first. I bought the full weekend (3 days) and you only choose 1 group, so i chose novice and they could bump me up if need be.
i lapped all (well, maybe there were 1 or 2 guys i didnt get) of the novice group in the second session and all of the following sessions. In one of the sessions, i passed ~6 people on the back straight including a control rider who was just chillin with some noobs watching their lines etc. when i blew by him, he gunned it and followed me. When we got some open track, he got in front of me on the front straight and rode pretty hard. I followed him. He turned around ever time he got a chance and looked behind him to see me on his ass, lol. When we were pitting, he gave me a thumbs up and called me to the side. The first thing he said was, "dude, that was awesome." He said he'd talk to them and get me bumped up. sweet.
enough basking. sorry.
oh, and he also told me i was throwing sparks.
turns out:
my footpegs were down through many of the turns, and they got lower and lower all day. i need some aftermarket footpegs/rearsets.
i stayed novice the whole day and mostly just rode with a control rider through everybody else. i got really good at passing and i was turning some awesome lap times. i set my video camera on the dashboard of the truck (which was facing the track) to just see a little section of the track and get my lap times. after reviewing the times that night, i was consistently 1:35's with a best of 1:32...and this was through the traffic of the other novices. they told me a 1:32 is a low intermediate time, and the recommended expert time was 1:28. W00-HOO
on your toes you stupid bastard!
borrowed some tire warmers. im looking for some though.
here is the bike pitted next to me:
the next morning i didnt talk to the guy before registration (it was early), so i figured i would just talk to him after the first session and run novice once more just to do a little more passing and review the lines etc.
BAD MOVE!!!!!!!!:banghead:banghead:banghead
the problem comes at the end of the first novice session on Sunday the 16th. the session was awesome once again, and i was running really well, and actually was starting to learn my shift points well and felt like it was helping my times a good bit. This is a new day, so there are first time track riders in this group, sadly.
the checkered flag came, and we were pitting. i passed a few people in turn 10 and could've gotten a couple more on the straight after it, but that's approximately where you slow down and move the the right to pit in. so i just got in line behind a guy on a gixxer. pit road comes off the track in a right hand turn and then straightens out. i raised my arm signaling i was pitting (like everybody else, b/c the session was over). the guy in front of me didnt signal he was pitting, but of course i assumed he was but noted i would tell him he needed to signal after we parked. as we were coming through the right turn, a control rider had slowed down a little and was signaling for us to pass him, so a couple of people did. i was glancing over at him b/c he was signaling to pass him and he was telling me to meet him on the paddock (with hand signals). everybody goes probably ~30 mph on pit road until pit out. after i noted the control riders hand signal to me (he was going to bump me out of novice, this was a different control rider than the one i'd talked to before), i looked up and wtfbbq the dude on the gixxer is stopped.
stopped. on pit road probably 30 yards off the track. stopped. my natural reaction was, of course, front brake. and this, of course, made me do a front flip, and land about an inch from him. and i didnt hit him, damnit. everybody was just like 'wtf' to the guy, including me while i was laying on the ground (i would have gotten up and told him how much of an idiot he was, but my right knee was hurting like mad. so, blah blah blah..
and the control rider watched the whole thing and couldnt figure out why the hell the guy stopped. they said when he got off the track they told him he better go apologize to me. yea, thanks a lot bub, now how about 400 bucks? he gave me "everything he had in his wallet," which was a 20. what an asshat. My knee wasnt broken, but it has some rash and i could barely walk.
anyway, that's the summarized version..
and time to fix; the gauge cluster bracket was bent, but now, good as new
some super glue to avoid moisture getting in there
neato...no, looking at the motor was not necessary
the upper fairing and windshield are done. maybe i'll bondo the upper and make it a race plastic for track duty
subframe is bent like crazy. it was a little bit before, but now it's worse.
the current state of the blue steed:
i'm gonna try to bend the subframe back somewhat. i dont know how that's gonna work out. i still need to bend the mirror bracket back. then i just need a new upper fairing and windscreen.
what a weekend. oh, and, before i was even back to my paddock they told me they had 2 trackday certificates waiting for me...which is not something Jennings usually does unless you have a good excuse and you ask.
