well I finally got settled back in. total driving distance was 1776 miles round trip. I know a *** load of miles but well worth it. You guys don't understand how freakin cold and miserable it is up here. I was happy to get away for the weekend.
In any case. the second day started off pretty cold. It was windy, and the temps were probably in the 40's. There was no skipping first sessions this time, I had the bike prepped and ready to go. Advanced group went out first, and they were zipping around the track like it was 80 degrees outside. Damn them and their fancy chicken hawk tire warmers. Then intermediate went out, and had someone run off right away in the first lap. Then once that was cleared up, and everything started rolling again, there was another tear off. The first bike was a honda, and he was out the rest of the day, b/c he broke off his shifter rod. The other guy I don't know about, he was pitted on the other side of the paddock. Finally novice got up and going. We were putting around the track in small groups. They had about 5 control riders out, and about 2-3 people behind each one. After about two laps I was ready to open it up a bit more, but had to wait. At the fourth lap the CR pitted in and let us go. And off we went, and BAM someone else goes off. And I'm thinking to myself, DAMN how many crashes has that been?
Second session it had warmed up into the 50's and it was a lot warmer out. Advanced had another crash, as did intermediate. Novices were ok this session. I was still a litle shaky from watching everyone run off that I didn't get on it too hard. I just went around practing my lines, and trying to improve on my form. I really need to work on my form alot. If I got my butt off the seat, then I forgot to tuck in. If I tucked in and got my butt off, I would forget to get my head down. If I did all that, I would forget to get off the seat. And if I paid complete attention to my form, then my lines were all F--ked up, and once you miss the line between 7-8, then you were going to be off all the way through 10.
Third session it was still a bit windy out, but the temps were up near 60. I was off and running, back to passing people, breaking late, and gassing it right when I'm about to come out of turn. In turn 13 , I would come in on a nice arc, and go right up to the edge. Once I got the line down, that become my favorite turn on the track. A CR then pulls up in front of me, and taps his tail, and I follow him around. Or ty to at least, he was really gunning it (for me anyway), and I was trying to take the same lines he was taking. But with that speed it was completely throwing my form off, and I couldn't go through the turns on the same line he did. When the session ended he pulled off to the side and I pulled in next to him. He said I was cutting into the corners to quickly. And I was leaning the bike at an extreme angle, which is why mid turn I would have to correct myself, and lean the bike up a bit. He said there really wasn't much left before the bike was going to be on its side. He said to come in wider into the turns and then hold the line, and that it would greatly improve my riding. And he was absolutely right, I would come into the turn and lean the bike over, and then midway through I could feel a little dip and I would lean the bike back up a bit, and slow down, come out of the turn wide, and be screwed up for the next turn.
After lunch I tried to work on it. I was trying to set up correctly. But it didn't seem to be working. I don't know if I was just tired, or what. This time the Cr said I was doing much better, but to keep working at it. I didn't think it was much better, but hey, whatever. ;)
Then the guy pitted next to me, who was running advanced offered to take me out, and just follow him around. So I followed him around and was able to keep up with him, but my form was waaaay off. I would forget to tuck in, or forget to lean off the bike, or put my head closer to the tank .. it was like no matter what I did, I always managed to forget to do something. I guess its just going to take practice so that it becomes second nature, and I don't have to think out all these individual steps.
I spent the rest of the sessions just zipping around, and passing as many people as I could. I don't have a lap timer, but when I was following the guy in advanced around he said the lap times were 1.38, 1.40, 1.38 for the ones where I was following him around. I know they're shitty times, but this is my third time on the track, and the last two times were over a year and half ago.
There were plenty of crashes the rest of the day as well. Honestly it felt like that crash truck went out almost every session. Thank God no one was seriously hurt. I'm just glad I got to go down, have some fun and come back in one piece.
The next run will be beaver run April 8th, hopefully I'll run into some more .commers there.
and here some pics .. I'll have pics of the other riders as soon as the group out of tampa posts them on their board.
