How do we learn what we need to learn?

[Super Dave]

Ok, I completely disagree.

Trackdays allow you ride around and fiddle.  You ride a whole lot of miles on your tires while paying $130 to $170 a day.  

You burn up the tires.  $$$

Fuel.  $$$

Still costs a good amount of.  $$$

The trackday crowds are nice, but there is no real seat of racing knowledge.  Unless you're doing a track day with Al Luddington, Dale Quarterley, Rich Doan...which direction do you go?  Do you have any magical intuition that will guide you on your set up?  

I learned what I learned by racing at the professional level and developing vintage race bikes for guys.  The vintage bikes were the hardest, because I had to deal with a chassis that was over loaded by the enomous strain that current production tires traction have.  At the pro level, I worked with Dale Quarterley.  I learned lots just by watching the process that we'd go through in qualifying, etc.

Back to the track day...it's a brisk pace, and you get comfortable with a rhythm.  Unless you're really chasing your times, you get stuck.  Doing my school on Thursdays makes it very, very hard to break a rhythm for the races on SAT SUN...not to mention that I work with guys on Friday...then on into SAT SUN.

I would recommend that a racer, or even just a rider as the case is this weekend, sit down and work with someone like myself for half the time on the track and learn a better foundation of riding and set up.  

You can learn to fish...

or you can be just fed fish...

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

     I was thinking about this topic today and recalled the 2 most significant advancements I ever had in my racing. This is what happened to me and is just for example.

     The 1st advancement was during a Team Suzuki Endurance School at Road America back in 1996. That year they had a sweet deal with Suzuki that allowed you to take their class for free if you purchased a brand new '96 Suzuki GSXR 750. I learned a few things in the classroom section but had an unexpected situation arise out on the track during the 2nd session. There was a rule that you had to pass on the outside if you were a racer (I was 1 of only 6 in the class- along with 54 street riders!). I was going into the 'kink' when this guy stuffs me on the inside during the school on a 600 (turns out it was 1 of the PRO riders acting as a track coach who was there for the NASB races). Well since my bike was faster than his I stayed with him and stuffed him in Canada Corner, then it was on! We did cat and mouse for that session and the next one also. I learned so many lines by following him and trying to pass him back and forth that I noticed in my races that weekend that I was averaging 12 seconds a lap faster than the last time I had been there ( I was a 1st year amateur and went from 2:53 laps to 2:41's).

     The 2nd advancement was when my brakes almost completely failed while attempting to brake for turn 1 at BHF. I was able to slow the bike some, but not enough to make the turn, so I asked myself if I wanted to go off into the heavily overgrown (pronounced small trees) run-off area or attempt the turn and hopefully low-side it. I tried the turn and made it without crashing, I was glad to say the least! While continueing to race I was thinking about the incident and was recalling the fact that not only had I made it, but how smooth and controlled it was. This was because my suspension was now able to stay loaded after being compressed by the corner load and wasn't bobbing up and down like I had previously experienced with lower suspension loads. The people that were timing me said that I had a really fast lap in the middle of the race followed by consistently faster times than the 1st half of that race.

     Both of those situations made me a faster racer and expanded my knowledge at the same time.