slug
Pro
Out in search of my mind...
Posts: 1433
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posted April 25, 2004 02:25 PM
Talladega trackday last weekend
Track report for SportbikeTracktime.com event at Talladega Gran Prix raceway
The weather was perfect. absolutely no complaints there. For some reason Talladega trackdays are almost always perfect.
We arrived at track at 7 or so friday night. set up camp, ate some dinner (provided by Ron & Nancy Johnson, who run STT South events, and TailoftheDragon.com website)
Hung out and BSed for a while, called it a night (i'd been up since 330, worked from 5-1 and then drove from 2-7) long day..and saturday was promising to be a great day.
Saturday morning, life was stirring at dawn...very chilly though. started the little MrHeater propane-takn heater and vegetated in front of it for a while, absorbing heat. 
Registration started at 730, by that time a HUGE number of people had arrived. We had all sorts of bikes in there, R1/6 Honda F4, Ducati 999, a Ducati 888 (one of our instructors for the novice groups), oodles of Aprilias and GSXRs. huge selection of machinery. Even a few dual-sports
Signed up, got the I sticker for the bike, and set about doing the normal morning chores. check tires, check chain, check mechanicals. Hooked ram air carb vent up since i hadn't been able to find teh fitting i wanted. Got the bike teched. He checked all teh normal, brakes, clutch, throttle return, coolant being water only, etc. nolights since it is the tracktoy
then began the wait. drank some water, helped 97cat(friend from McEwen TN) install his newly-mounted front tire. got his bike assembled, and finally, rider's meeting.
we got the whole lecture, all the passing rules (not many) and all the basic safety points. flags, the trophy for the winner etc ;P
but it was time to ride....
got out there first session, and first lap, my ram air came loose....*grumble grumble* had to pull in to hotpit and push it back in place.....
anyway got back out again, and took it easy. holy crap, was being passed like i was standing still. but no way was *I* going to crash out and cause a mess ;P
first session pretty much just chilled out and had fun. got tires warm, relearned the track etc. those 20 minutes were soon over. as soon as i climbed off bike, i knew i was in trouble...my legs were already cooked....first trackday of the year....hehe
sat around, drinking water again, hung out with Neal Bayly's kids for a while and watched the antics on the track. not too bad for first sessions.
went out for second session. about 10 minutes in the red flag comes out. this is only bummer about the whole weekend, the ambulance had to carry the guy off. ends up he broke his pelvis in 2 places....owwie...and he wasn't a young dude either.
2 hours later, we go back out to finish our session. uneventful, finally get braking points back to normal. fueled bike up, 2.5 gallons used in the morning.
cleared the BC800 as well.
(top speed to that point was 105 or so, averaged out laptimes of 1:18 or so, including warmup laps and the cooldown)
3rd session was fun. was riding decently (for me) and having fun. i went out in first batch and didn't have any trouble with other riders at all. was a good clean session. refined line out of hte back sweeper a bit to get bike into 4th gear by end of straight. down 2, heavy braking (back wheel skippingon ground sometimes) for 97cat's corner (he was corner working)
tip in, wind out 2nd gear,then reduce for the decreasing radius, then back out again. fun fun.
and then the shifter went off completely...hit lever and then there was none......yikes...then i realized that i REALLY needed to brake for that corner still...hehe piled on the binders and rolled through in 3rd gear.....pulled in to pits.
the bolt holding it steady had broken....sad. put a new bolt in, good as new
4th session was uneventful, until i got passed by an R6. no clue how long he had been behind me....
anyway towards end of that session the shifter started acting up again.....then he goes by at end of straight and i try to follow ;P
too fast 4 me
after session i stop to talk to him, it was an 03 R6. he said i had better drive out of the corners, but he'd catch me at the entrance. we talked a while, he decided that he needed to change his gear selection once he figured out i was riding the old slow yzf600r ;P anyway i told him i'd see him next session to learn something. though he then packed up (getting towards late afternoon by this point) and took off. o well. got in, and found that the lever had loosened up on me a bit and wouldn't hold. tightened it up and again, worked like a charm.
5th session about 2/3 of the way in i found an R6....there was NOTHING i could do to get around him. i'd catch him on the back sweeper, then hold steady the rest. then he'd pull me on the front and i was back to square one again....no way to go by since he braked as well as i was, and had the power otherwise. showed him a wheel a couple times, but i didn't want to stuff so i backed out.
besides he had me once he hit gas. after this session i caught up with him and had a cool chat. 02 r6, definately had the legs on the 600r. talked a bit, and told him where i kept almost getting him. apparently he thought i had him the one, but i backed off again and he kept going. "oh that was YOU???" hehe. told him he could get much better speed out of the 3rd corner if he widened it out a bit, though it sucks because the hump in the pavement makes for a bit of a nervous transition. we decided that next session i'd show him, then wave him by since i wanted to learn his line on another corner. (much better than mine was for it)
6th and final session....late afternoon, (we went to 6pm instead of 5 since we lost time earlier in the day) go out, take it easy first lap. show the line second, then do 3rd lap at good pace. wave by on straight in front, but noone goes by.....hrmmmmm
anyway about 12 minutes in, shifter dies AGAIN. in 1st gear.....grrrrr
so there i sit cruising one lap in 1st, holding steady 10krpm or so hehehe
according to 97cat later they were getting used to calling out "what's wrong with that bike?" on me over the radios.... *sigh*
(note to self, aluminum works ok for shifter, but steal shaft will eat it eventually.........)
anyway i pulled it in and called it a day. arms, legs, neck were all sore. tired since the cold i had was getting worse and had NOT improved my sleeping....
talked to friend from huntsville area, he told me i was running in the 1:10 range except when in traffic. not too bad for street tires and old outdated machinery ;P i just need ot get some riding skills
relaxed....relaxed, relaxed. looked at some stars, looked at some planets. Juptier was decent, saturn cool, and venus bright (crescent phase)
ate a WONDERFUL spaghetti dinner (again courtesy of Ron & Nancy) with Aprilia mrketing director, his kids, Neal Bayly (motorcyclejournal.net) and his wife & kids, Jessica Prokup from RoadBike magazine, and another lady from FZ1 forums who was cornerworking. (cannot remember her name, funny lady though )
the next day was just as nice. almost no voice...cold was worse yet. sad. ate some breakfast, then paid for it. got to fix Ron's mille (clutch wasn't disengaging). all it really needed was fresh fluid and a good bleed. fixed it right up. Note to self, Dzus fasteners RULE.
went to cornerworker meeting, and chose same corner 97cat had day before. Helped him get bike ready for tech (though mostly done anyway) and headed out with chair, cooler, cameras and film.
morning sessions were slow, except Jacob and Noah (2 of the instructors) who were flying....
the advanced group got up to speed rather quickly though. 1:08s for most of group, they got down to 1:05s. 1 on R6 other on F4, almost identicle laptimes. (though they ARE id twins.....)
lunch was a welcome break. had to break camp and get ready to load truck up for return trip. so much stuff to pack up, and so little room. i think i need a beeger truck for this stuff....or maybe a cap just for trackdays. hrmmm pondering ;P
the entire day i had ONE person run off on my corner, it was novice group of all people. got rightback on and finished session fine, but was a PERFECT corner working day (boring...)
shot lots of film, lots of digital, maybe 50 digitals turned out of 150 taken. o well.
there was even a ZX12R there sunday, talked to him at end of day, told him about this site. maybe he'll join up and yell.
some pictures:
here's 97cat destroying a kneepuck...
he killed one, then half of one of mine....
went through the leather even on his first one...
monday night film will be in so better pics to follow
      
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greenglenn
Expert Class
Ron Jeremy's Stunt Double
Posts: 370
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posted April 25, 2004 02:36 PM
Nice write up Slug! I hope to join you one of these days!
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If you love your bike, set it free. If it comes back to you....you probably highsided.
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harryzx-12
Needs a job
Posts: 3643
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posted April 26, 2004 02:30 AM
Good pics. Wish I could have been there! Who was riding the 12?
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways- Body thoroughly used up, totally worn out...Screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride !!!"
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slug
Pro
Out in search of my mind...
Posts: 1433
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posted April 26, 2004 03:09 AM
no one from here, i told him about the site though, hopefully he'll join up here
and becauseof my advanced case of CRS i don't remember the guy's name
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