Gateway Event

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

     I was at Gateway on Sunday only, which had sunny weather all day (though it was a little hot for me personally). Sure was glad it didn't rain at that place, a number of people crashed as it was without rain being a factor. Speaking of that does anyone know how the guy is doing that hit the wall and was transported to the hospital? When I went by him he was against the bare concrete wall and looked dazed, I hope he is doing ok. That transition onto the main straight banking sucks! I think it's worse than the transition from the infield onto the banking at Daytona.
     I got to see K3 do some wild break dancin' on the track while I was following close behind him, impressive to say the least! Glad to see he was up and ok and racing again later that afternoon.

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

OOOOOOOH Do the night fever night fever... ;D  $#it happens!

[Super Dave]

K3?  You fell over?

Greg Kritz was the guy that fell down.  I think he was concussed and decided that taking off his helmet and sitting there was a good idea.  His wife is a nurse, and she was pretty unhappy with him taking off his helmet.  Those are the only details I know.  I'm betting that he might think that he's Batman...

Mike, I am just realizing that I saw you at the track.  Duh!  Don't know your face, but the number 58 thing is in my head now that I'm on the board.

[Super Dave]

And, yes, this transition is a bit worse than Daytona's.  As a reasonable person, one must only go so fast in certain spots at Gateway since the potential for problems exist with the walls.

And to put this very plain and simple, last year I was vocal about my concerns about the location of the hay bales and the air fence stuff.  Didn't get moved last year.  This event I made my concerns known after the first practice, three rows, about nine feet, were moved.  Really not enough, but I didn't make a stink.  I really NEEDED to be further down.

[tigerblade]

I thought the placement of protection (haybales, airfence, whatever) was woefully inadequate.  I screwed up the transition a time or two and was bouncing up toward that gleaming white wall.  Talk about pucker factor...   :-X

[Dawn]

Yep....

Chris fell down again.  A little birdy told me so.

Dawn   ;)

[cabbage996]

Gateway is a terrible track, well at least parts of it.  What's the deal with that narrow area before the chicane?  It's about 3 feet wide.  I tossed my sv in the turn going up onto the back banking, luckily I didn't come anywhere near the walls as you all have said the stinking fence and bales where definately in the wrong place.  

[KBOlsen]

K3... whaddaya mean you fell down again????

You okay?
Bike?

Geez... I can't leave you alone for a minute, can I! ;)

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

Geeze!  Guess I've gotta do a race report!  The BAD SRAD was way faster, but scary abrupt in it's power delivery.  Track conditions were muddy, and I was having confidence problems.  I still don't have the correct springs, (Terminal backorder... Dave?  E me with that phone # please.)  SD did what he could with the suspension, but the bike was very hard to ride.
I got a 4th in F39.5, then finished last in GTO.  More tweaks and a change in gasoline gave me a much better (still not right) bike to ride.  I decided to enter 2 races on Sunday.  For the first time all season, I was feeling racy!  First race, Doc Stein was in front of me, and looking just too tasty to leave alone.  I came whipping into the infield s-turn, hammered right, left, throttle on, rear gone!!!!  Thought about the broken necks and ripped off arms that  the tire wall in those esses has produced in the past as I slid and tumbled, but luckily neither happened.  I was perfect, bike needed a de-mud, a pipe re-bend and a brake lever.  Out in the second race.  A lap to ensure that the bike was OK, then I set my sights on GSXR Mike.  Turn 2, lit the rear again.  Very close to a high side.  Stayed on the bike, but I saw God for sure.    This was just wrong.  I really wasn't on the gas that hard the second time.  Parked it.  Took it to Tom Mason, and he noticed that the chain was too tight.  He said I was tying up the swingarm that way.  Oops!  I hope that adjusting the chain, new springs, (PLEASE!!!) and a stock throttle to replace the 1/4 turn model will keep the damn thing under me.  Score so far, 2 weekends, 2 crashes...

[Dawn]

Thanks for the report Chris....

I would have asked Paul, but he was pretty incoherent when he rolled in at 5:00 a.m. this morning.   :o

Dawn   ;)

PS  You will have to let me know if he was too big of a pain in the rear.   ;)  We don't let him out in public much  ;D

[r1owner]

Geeze!  Guess I've gotta do a race report!  The BAD SRAD was way faster, but scary abrupt in it's power delivery.  Track conditions were muddy, and I was having confidence problems.  I still don't have the correct springs, (Terminal backorder... Dave?  E me with that phone # please.)  SD did what he could with the suspension, but the bike was very hard to ride.
I got a 4th in F39.5, then finished last in GTO.  More tweaks and a change in gasoline gave me a much better (still not right) bike to ride.  I decided to enter 2 races on Sunday.  For the first time all season, I was feeling racy!  First race, Doc Stein was in front of me, and looking just too tasty to leave alone.  I came whipping into the infield s-turn, hammered right, left, throttle on, rear gone!!!!  Thought about the broken necks and ripped off arms that  the tire wall in those esses has produced in the past as I slid and tumbled, but luckily neither happened.  I was perfect, bike needed a de-mud, a pipe re-bend and a brake lever.  Out in the second race.  A lap to ensure that the bike was OK, then I set my sights on GSXR Mike.  Turn 2, lit the rear again.  Very close to a high side.  Stayed on the bike, but I saw God for sure.    This was just wrong.  I really wasn't on the gas that hard the second time.  Parked it.  Took it to Tom Mason, and he noticed that the chain was too tight.  He said I was tying up the swingarm that way.  Oops!  I hope that adjusting the chain, new springs, (PLEASE!!!) and a stock throttle to replace the 1/4 turn model will keep the damn thing under me.  Score so far, 2 weekends, 2 crashes...

I'm pretty sure my wife got the first one on tape.  Let me know if you want an MPEG of it.

I still can't understand why there aren't more haybales/airfence there.  When I am coming out of the last turn or turn 7 and start applying throttle (a lot later than most apparently ;)) and am most likely to crash, all I see is concrete wall!  Why is that?  Why can't they move the bales/airfence down the track a little more?

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

I'm pretty sure my wife got the first one on tape.  Let me know if you want an MPEG of it.

Oh yeah!!!!  I'd love to have it!!!  How can we arrange this?

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

Mike, I am just realizing that I saw you at the track.  Duh!  Don't know your face, but the number 58 thing is in my head now that I'm on the board.

      :oOh No, my cover is blown! :o So much for the blending in and not being noticed routine ;D.

     SuperDave, That was also me driving the red F-250 Diesel crew cab pick-up towing the black 26ft. V-nose trailer on I-55 about mid-way between St. Louis and Springfield. When I saw you I was feeling pretty lousy at that moment due to how hot I got while racing (I don't really get tired from racing, but heat has affected me tremendously all my life!). I was right by you several times during the day and noticed that you seem to be endlessly bombarded with people coming up to you to talk at every event, and though not a bad thing I can imagine that it doesn't leave you too much time to yourself. I haven't introduced myself partly because of that fact and also because I may have to suddenly stop racing all together due to situations outside of racing (that's also why I'm racing so conservatively and not really putting too much effort into it right now). Hopefully by the next BHF event I will know what's going on and will be able to start actually racing :-/.

[Super Dave]

I'm pretty sure my wife got the first one on tape.  Let me know if you want an MPEG of it.

I still can't understand why there aren't more haybales/airfence there.  When I am coming out of the last turn or turn 7 and start applying throttle (a lot later than most apparently ;)) and am most likely to crash, all I see is concrete wall!  Why is that?  Why can't they move the bales/airfence down the track a little more?

Yes, we want the MPEG...

As for moving the bales...was I the only one that said something?

If so, everyone needs to say something.

Anyone know how Greg Kritz is doing?

[Jeff]

I wasn't there this weekend, but ever since they've been putting up air-fence and bales there, I've been complaining that they are not in the correct locations.

The response was "the slow guys would slide straight up there and hit bare wall if we moved them" and "some people have a line where they need to swing all the way out to the wall".  

HELLO?!?!?!  this is the REASON they need to be moved.  People can CHANGE THEIR LINE.  Let's be SAFE...

Bottom line, complain all you want.  It doesn't do any good...  Perhaps if nobody showed up to the grid and we all walked out and moved the crap ourselves, they'd get the picture.

[Super Dave]

we all walked out and moved the crap ourselves, they'd get the picture.

I like this.

[Super Dave]

SuperDave, That was also me driving the red F-250 Diesel crew cab pick-up towing the black 26ft. V-nose trailer on I-55 about mid-way between St. Louis and Springfield....

Yeah, I remember you going by...Didn't know that was you either...LOL!

I was right by you several times during the day and noticed that you seem to be endlessly bombarded with people coming up to you to talk at every event, and though not a bad thing I can imagine that it doesn't leave you too much time to yourself.

LOL, yeah, that's the joy of being me!  Like I've always said, my school doesn't end after the school day.  My students should use me at the track when they can.  Whether that's me being the racer psychologist or just looking at the suspension, that's where some things can make a difference.

Do I have a lot of time to myself?  No.  If I had more time, I'd go faster, eh?

[sdiver68]

1st,

How many have contributed to the air fence fund so we could have more sections available?

2nd,

I would suggest sending e-mails to the following list, asking them about it in a constructive manner.  This is the board of directors of St. Louis based MCRA, their crew that does the cornerworking for Gateway, MAM. Heartland, and others:

dansrz350@sbcglobal.net, a750gixr@yahoo.com, sassysmurfmel@hotmail.com, dadamrider36@juno.com, editor@midwestrider.com, docracerx@hotmail.com, cheezsorce@sbcglobal.net, fastbobby@charter.net, dmyers4@swbell.net, judybooty157@yahoo.com, davereid@swbell.net,  gixxer1313@msn.com, dwillms@htc.net, roadrash_101@hotmail.com, darrell.collins@att.net

[Super Dave]

Personally, I thought the problem was the location of the hay bales and air fence in the last section.

Someone made a decision and decided that he was going to stick to it regardless of an experienced rider's vocal concern to the race director.

What will the MCRA have to do with that?

[sdiver68]

As far as location goes, if they had a few more sections they could cover the whole thing...so my 1st response was 1 channel that people could use to help get more air fence.

2nd,

As I explained, MCRA does the cornerworking and supplies most if not all of the set-up help.  In addition, Dave the Gateway race director is an MCRA director, as well as Neville the guy who runs the track day before and places some of the protection for the track day.  By making this an open point of discussion for the local riders advocacy group that is HEAVILY connected at Gateway and to CCS Gateway events, it gives another avenue besides CCS Corporate to air your views.

[Burt Munro]

I am a member of MCRA (the group who provides corner workers and sets up the track at Gateway).

Please take a couple of things into consideration.....
- No one with MCRA, CCS or Gateway is knowingly going to create an unsafe situation.  
- Everyone would agree that the worst case scenario is a head-on or near head-on impact with the concrete walls.  Yes, I know, none of you are stupid enough to put yourself into that situation!   But it has happened due to stuck throttles, sudden changes in lines from someone falling in front of you, etc.  
- The placement of the haybales and Airfence are done with the idea of lessening the impact of the most serious kinds of contact - 90 degree to 45 degree. (idea of course being that the closer you get to a 1 degree impact the less damage is created)

Setting up the track is a major challenge.  We generally only have 3 sections of Airfence provided for race weekends.  These are set up with 2 sections as you enter the front straight and 1 section as you enter the back straight.

Please keep in mind that by solving one problem you arn't creating a more serious one in it's place!

I'll be happy to pass on ideas that solve the problem for everyone!

Rick

[Super Dave]

Thanks for replying, Rick.

I would have to go back to the track and see it again to assess it in the same way you are saying.  I think I have an on bike video from a couple of years ago...maybe I could consult that.

I do understand the challenges as I've done this for a very long time now.  The area will always have some kind of inherent danger, as does sheer speed.  The scenarios you gave are likely, but the potential likelyhood of a highside at the exit as a result of the abrupt transition is reasonable.  Thus, that would be something that should be taken care of for safety.  With the area being a no passing zone should hopefully take care of some issues.  I haven't seen throttles get locked open much lately, but it could happen.  

As a racer, I could see the likelyhood of the exit crash there.  It did happen.  I didn't like the wall.  It seemed to be the path that would be a problem for most of the riders that I know.