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Track Day Instruction

2K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  cbr6 
#1 ·
Before I start, yes I've been told on this very forum money is best spent on instruction...


Well this year I got some actual 1on1 time with a instructor and he was fantastic. The guy in the purple vest is Brian my instructor, he's a young guy an engineer by day and a professional racer on the weekends. Of course I wasn't keeping up with him but he was on a liter bike LOL. Anyways he was super helpful not only did he make me faster , he made me safer. All these years I've been trying to go fast around the corners and never understanding the "Entry/Exit" corners.. Short vid 2 laps one following one leading.

 
#2 ·
Entry was always my weakest point. If I was going to get passed, it was usually in the braking zone going in. Mid-corner and exit I was as good as (almost) anyone. Eventually, I found that there were a handful of corners in which I was taking the completely wrong line! I was taking a line that (perhaps) offered me a chance to go under someone, but cost me a tremendous amount of corner speed! Sadly, a couple of those corners I didn't find out about until after I'd retired, and was just out playing at a track day. :D

Instruction and coaching is a very good thing. The fact that guys like Code kept working with guys like Russell, Chandler, and others kinda proves that. Good on ya, T! :)

Neil
 
#3 ·
I know it's more complicated but to boil down for now for me.

Exit corner has a nice straight afterwards, so I want to sacrifice my corner speed so I can get on the gas faster coming out.

Entry corners a series of corners I will carry my speed through.

Once he said you need to break the track down into corners and explained it really helped.

I was typically 2:10 average at the Ridge. At the end of the day after all the instruction, taking it easy I hit my fastest lap ever, I never thought I would get below 2 minutes let alone not feel like I was pushing it...

 
#4 ·
I hear ya! I remember back when I first got started, "Iron Man" Mike Harth (RIP) was a customer of mine. He used to keep an eye on me and offer advice after nearly every time I went out. On my 2nd or 3rd weekend ever, he said "man...hang OFF the damn bike, fercrissakes!" My next session was a full 11 seconds a lap faster than I'd gone to that time! ELEVEN SECONDS! (yeah, I was slow as fark to start out LOL). But I learned the benefits of smoothness and consistency from there on. I wish I'd kept the lap time sheets that my then GF or pit buddy kept for me....I'd run 2 or 3 laps within a couple of hundredths of a second, then another few a tenth or so better, and so on throughout each weekend. Eventually--and I'm talking years here--I was able to consistently finish in the top 10. That progress, however slow coming, meant everything to me, and kept me going for as long as I raced. Even Rossi or MM can still get better at this. ;)
 
#5 ·
Ken Hill coach to many moto America riders & part of Rickdiculas racing puts out a pod cast that has a lot of great info and it's very entertaining.
WERA689, ah the good old days.... I remember racing the last WERA race weekend at Rockingham speedway on an FZR400 superbike, that weekend Kevin Rentzell (RIP) keep lowering the trap record and I keep getting with in 4 seconds of his time with some tips from him great times.
 
#6 ·
What year was that, cbr? I went there once, in 89, IIRC. I farkin' HATED that place! :D So glad it got dropped! I had decent speed through the infield, but hated the transition out of that and onto the banking. Also hated the armco post holes in the surface as you turned off the back straight and into the infield. And I found the banking incredibly disorienting! That convinced me that I had no interest in racing at Daytona. LOL

Also didn't now that there was no camping at the track. Was lucky that John Shepard, the tech guy and pit out guy, offered to share his hotel room with me and my GF, and his daughter, Diane.
 
#7 ·
'94 WERA689, I loved that track, probably because it was where I started racing at and was to dumb to notice unsafe conditions then. yeah the banking was interesting, I swear I could feel the bike lower as I transitioned from the apron of nascar turn 1 up to the turn 2 banking. I once ran of track coming out of the last turn and was headed for that building, never lifted and made it back to pavement, fun times. My friend passed a guy on the outside of the back stretch and rubbed his shoulder against the wall, crazy!
 
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