Trackday Report: MAM 4/5/03

Started by tigerblade, April 07, 2003, 10:09:01 AM

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tigerblade

It didn't look good for my first trackdays of the year.  The weather reports for Omaha kept getting worse as the week progressed.  I figured I would at least head up there and ride if I could.  Saturday was in the low 40's, but there was no precipitation so I got to the track to find maybe 30 other riders there.  I guess we were the hard-core guys (or idiots, depending on your point of view).  They told us that the forecast for Sunday was about a foot of snow, so they gave us all memberships to the track which can get us cheap trackdays the rest of the year.  Since there were so few of us, they decided that there would be only one group instead of the usual three.  After the rider's meeting was over around 9:30, we took to the track.  30 minutes of green track, 5 minute break, 30 minutes of green track again.  Save for the lunch break, we did this until 5 pm.  Needless to say, no one was complaining for lack of tracktime.

We set up our pit next to Allen Hoover, another RC51 guy and ROGUE member.  On the other side of Allen was another RC51 rider.  It was pretty strange that the 51s seemed to be a relative majority.  We all had a great time.  My pit crew (friends and family) spent a lot of time in the scoring tower to stay out of the wind and cold, so Allen even had to help me a few times since I have no kickstand.

I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to tell when my tires were up to temp.  This was my first time on real race tires (Michelin S2 front, M2 rear) and I didn't want to be one of those guys who crashed out on cold tires.  After probably 3 laps of taking it easy, I could feel them stop squirming and start to stick.  Excellent.  I was also reaquainting myself with GP shift pattern, which I hadn't used since about 1997.  I slowly got up to speed and started getting smoother.  There were probably 6 or 7 accidents during the day, but no one was hurt and most remounted and were back on the track.  As I was exiting the track in one of the early sessions, a guy went past me and instead of going though the chicane, he went straight through the mud and biffed it right in front of me.  I was going slow enough to easily avoid him and he jumped right up.  

After only a couple of sessions, I was dragging knee all the way around my favorite left-hander and toward the end of the day I even got knee-down in a couple of other corners.  I'm still not as comfortable in right-handers, so my right puck is still shiny and new.  Allen and I went out together in one of the last sessions, with me leading.  I was finally going pretty good (my unofficial laptimes, kept by my family, had dropped from a consistent 2:02 to a 1:54) but still need to work on braking later.  I slow down waaay to soon for a lot of corners.  For reference, they said the track record is like a 1:30.  30 seconds isn't a long time, right?  LOL  Allen and I had a great session, with me pulling away coming out of the corners and him catching me on the brakes.  He said the he could hear me getting on the gas a lot earlier than he wanted to, and it shows in the video.  Still, he would catch me at the end of the straights so we were fairly evenly matched.  Allen had been faster than me all day, so I was happy with my progress and know what I need to improve.

All in all, it was a great day.  I knocked off the winter's rust, got to meet some more cool guys, made sure my bike was reassembled properly.  I'm going to be taking CRA's New Rider school this Friday and will hopefully race for the first time this weekend at MAM.  Can't wait!

-Kris
Younger Oil Racing

The man with the $200K spine...

Super_KC124

I'll see you there. The weather forecast looks pretty good right now. ;)

tigerblade

Looks like I'll be #191 Amateur in CRA (#91 CCS).  Come look me up!

Younger Oil Racing

The man with the $200K spine...

Protein Filled

I should be there too with our team...Numbskullz Racing!

Come by, we should be pitted with the tire guy (Tommy Mason).
Edgar Dorn #81 - Numbskullz Racing, Mason Racin Tires, Michelin, Lithium Motorsports



Don't give up on your dreams! If an illiterate like K3 can write a book, imagine what you can do!

Super_KC124

QuoteI should be there too with our team...Numbskullz Racing!

Come by, we should be pitted with the tire guy (Tommy Mason).

K3 is looking for you. ;D ;D

Super_KC124

QuoteLooks like I'll be #191 Amateur in CRA (#91 CCS).  Come look me up!


I'll be CRA #424. CCS #124. Red ext. cab Chevy and a yellow/ black GSXR600. Later, Kevin