Thunder Hill Track Day Satruday
 

Anyone else going to be there by chance? I'll be riding the B group.

I have to say I'm comfortable enough to admit that pic gives me special feelings in the tank protector area... Have fun!

Have fun out there, man... Wish I was going, but it's just not in the cards these days.

Good times! Perfect weekend.

Your new matching leathers are cute.












Ha, ha, ha.... looking good bro.

Very nice!

I couldn't swing Wakefest and the trip down to your neck of the woods but I did manage to get signed up for a track day this coming Monday when we get back. Should be interesting wakeboarding three full days then hopping on the track for the day. I'm going to be test riding a buddie's 07 600rr novice race bike. He picked up an 06 GSXR 750 for next year and is willing to let the Honda go cheap now that the season is over.

Cool have fun. You'll love the 600RR.

I wish I could do trackdays during the week, but I don;t think it will ever happen. I'm limited to weekends, which is a pain. I only found 3 days that worked for me all summer. And of those days, I could only get someone to go with with me for one of them.

I gave up on my street buddys coming and started hitting the track on my own. The WMMRA racers kind of took me in. Now I've always got someone to pit with when I go. I'm learning at a much faster pace riding with a core group of guys that are willing to teach me the ropes. On another note, I hate lap timers! They take your ego and stomp the ish out of it every time you use one.:confused:

lol...totally. Lap timers don't lie! I was timed Saturday running 5 consistent laps of 2:20 at Thunder Hill, and that's with a few seconds of being stuck behind riders. I need to make up 5-10 seconds to break into the A group. In B's I end up stuck behind slower riders, so I'm caught right in the middle of the two groups.

How's this for an ego check.......

Saturday my buddy Eric was running 2:04s on a 125 2 stroke with 37 horsepower! His best time is a 1:59 on a bike with 1/4 the horsepower as my bike. Kind of made me reconsider what it important in a bike, and how much my riding needs to imporve

Cliff, you're going to be hooked by that 600rr. My advice is not to ride it unless you're ready to buy it. Ha, ha, ha.

Lap times are all skill. Anybody can twist a throttle. Being able to put it all together is much more difficult. Horsepower is a tiny part of it when the guy on the bike with 1/4 the power nails the corner and gets on the gas 3 seconds sooner. Sometimes it's good riding in a slower class on a slower bike than the litre bozos. Learning to set up passes can be just as important as getting out of corners faster. If you can pass a litre bike on a 600 and make it stick, then it'll be that much easier to make passes stick on someone with equal hardware. Also, riding in a faster group will undoubtably make you faster instantly. It'll also make your butt pucker a lot. There's a reason those guys are so fast. They're willing to hang it out a long ways. The upside is that you're usually dealing with guys that have more experience and know when and how to make a safe pass. The down side is that when they go down they usually go down hard. I think I've seen more medi-vac trips for A group riders than anybody else.

I wish you would have seen it. The big bikes would smoke him in the straight, and by turn 2 he'd be on their asses. No heavy braking and down ****ing at turn 1, he just barrelled on through it. Crazy to see that big of a skill gap in A group.

The wagon and chopper were both on the track for one crash, and it was an A group crash. But I've seen mroe C group disasters in the past.

You guys see the story about teh 13 year old that was killed on the track? A trailing bike ran him over.

That kid was well known up here. A few of the guys I ride with were talking and riding with him at PIR the weekend before he left for Indy. He was an amazing talent and who knows how far he could have gone in the sport. My son is going to be flat track racing this fall and Pete's passing has me second guessing my decision to let him do it. I know it's very rare and the organizations are ultra safe so I'm going to stick by my word, but I can't (and don't want to) even imagine the sorrow his parents must be going through right now.

I think the fastest groups and the slowest groups are packed with people of the widest skill margin. The slowest group because you've got some fresh faces that need to build confidence and experience. They're mixed with people that really just don't belong on the track. The fastest group because you've got really skilled riders out there mixxing it with guys that have ego and cash. You can buy lot's of go-fast parts for your litre bikes, but that really smooth rider with a 600ss bike is going to give you fits all day.

The mid level groups are usually a bit more consistent. Riders with some experience and typically less ego. Usually that mid group is the safest one to stick around in if you're not looking to shave the last few tenths off your lap times.

That's why I like the B group so much. Most of the guys have relative skills and enjoy pushing it but they aren't hell bent on beating everyone or so scared s less that they are a moving road block. I'm jonesing hard to get out there on a faster bike. Everyone I've talked is saying I'm going to fall in love with the RR when I ride it.

Hey, just curious, are you guys riding with or without the bypass? I ride an FZR1, but never at T-Hill. I have done T-Hill in my car, full course 2:04.174 and 1:59.4 with bypass. I would think on a bike you would just launch off T-5?

J Rod ~~ What about strapping on a shadow box and have a computer help you improve?

My buddie here in UT rides track and he has this pic where he is riding doubles and passing a single rider. One of the best track pics I have seen, I will see if I can find it.

We run no bypass throught the cyclone. So they slow us down by taking us up the hill.

Alright here is that pic I was talking about. The story is they were offering people rides through the track but this was a test run. Not sure if they really gave people rides around the track. I think the pic is great since my buddie is on the gas passing the dude while is says WTF!
Attachment 8154

What would the shadow box do?

J Rod ~~ I haven't used the shadow box yet but from what I remember when wakeboarding it tells you all sorts of info like speed, angle, rotation, loft. From what I get it gives you a 3D view of your set. Why cant you transfer that to the track to get the official numbers of speed, leaning in and out of corners, etc. Record your data and then have a A class rider where it and match his numbers to yours and see what you need to improve on except getting stuck behind a slower person.

Might work.... You'd need a point of reference. The better way to go is data aquisition. You need to be able to see throttle position, rpm, speed, brake pressure, etc. Some of the amateur racers get into this a bit, but it's commonplace in pro racing. It'll tell you instantly if changes you're making to your lines, entry speeds, braking zones, etc... are working. Usually you'll have a crew member in the pits on the the computer and radio that can report the effects of your changes as you ride. Talk about a quick way to learn!

Athleticmale, that's fast. 2:04's there is pretty nasty fast. What kind of car are you running. Has to be on R-compound tires, right? Either that or borderline supercar.

Generally a fast amateur on a quick track bike (600-1k) with decent tires will get into the 2:10's. That's kind of the borderline where you're ready to move into the A groups. Some of the fast A guys were running in the low 1:50's if I recall correctly the last time we were out. Running a fairly conservative pace on a (for some reason sickly) GSX-R 600 with old Dunlop 208's I was ticking off 2:10's in the B+ group last time out.

When I set a lap record there in '98 in my ITC car it was in the 2:16's. I'm not sure how fast I ran there in my M3. We weren't allowed any type of timer. I would guess that I never went faster than 2:05-2:10. Hard to say, though.

Josh, I got passed by a instructor that was running 2-up on a GSX-R 1k. He was flying. Not sure I'd want to be the passanger. They were both dragging elbows coming out of corners.

Evan - Was that Corey Call who passed you? A few of my bud's have ridden on the back with him and nearly shart themselves. I won't do it.

[QUOTE]
Athleticmale, that's fast. 2:04's there is pretty nasty fast. What kind of car are you running. Has to be on R-compound tires, right? Either that or borderline supercar.
QUOTE]

Lap times were both set during actual racing with a fully race prepared, 350+ whp Golf and a M3, both using Toyo Proxes tires.

Mike.... Yup. It was Corey. The guy's a nut.

Athleticmale, that sounds right on, then.

Ha! I rode with him through Yellowstone up to Reno last year. Completely insane on a bike. Last I talked to him, he broke his back and is out for the year. Heck of a nice guy!