NJMP report 6/28
 

Wound up having a great day today. Learned a lot and tweaked my body position so its not as bad on my knees.

The day didnt start off too hot. First session was a clusterfuck, knees started hurting after a few laps, my head wasnt in it and just felt lost out there. was more interested in watching an airplane take off then making a turn. Second session was a little better, at least I knew where I was this time around and rode a little better but was getting tired quickly so I just relegated myself to riding fast for a few laps then pitting out.

Durring lunch I had my suspension set up. Made some twists and turns and altered my riding geometry due to the tire wear I had. he said it would make the bike turn in faster and would be a bit more flickable. I took it easy next session out and was altered a few things with my body position after something our instructor said in the classroom. After a lap or 2 a CR caught up to me and had me follow him for a few laps then waved me ahead and i rode a few decent laps. We tracked each other down afterwards and he gave me some good info, esp how i was realy dropping anchor on a few turns.

So we head out again and I make it a point to brake less or not at all on a few turns and its working well and I wind up mixing it up with a few guys and rode some good laps. my last few sessions were by far my best of the year. I was able to take all the classroom stuff and advice I got from our instructor and control riders and put it to use.

What I realy like with the instructors with TTD are how they realy stress the use of reference points and finding more of them and using them as opposed to just riding by feel. I was able to apply a lotof what I learned today prety quickly and see where i need to find more reference points. I was able to learn a lot about t-bolt today but can also apply that knowledge to other tracks.

Sounds good man. Glad things came together.

which track did you run? If it was thunderbolt, how did you handle the long left right before the quick chicane that leads into the straight i still have yet to get that left turn down, the patches in the road throw me off. Also did they add in the 2 other chicanes, back to back after the straightaway

I just watched a few videos of motorcycles on that track and it looks fun as shit. Im going to have to trailer up there sometime.

it was t-bolt. They ran only the second chicaine after the straight, they used the first chicaine to pit in onto the track. Most MC orgs only use the second chicaine, at least the times I have been there. I am not sure if ama uses both.


On the back leading to the straight, do you mean those 2 little s turns or the big triple apex right witht he decreasing radius turn into the left? if thats what you mean, they had a totaly different line through there compared to what I had seen other times I was there. They had a few cheater marks on the track itself for us to use. My first 2 sessions i was like wtf are they thinking using a line like that, I tried it a few times with near disasterous results LOL When they explained it in the classroom it all made sense. In the end I was still a bit off line but knew where I had to be and was working on a few more ref points.

For that left they had an X on the entrance too, it was prety far to the left of the track, what I would do is hit the x then you run it out to the right a little then come back in to the left and prety much ride over the curbing. If you hit it right you miss all the patchwork. Ant those patches have plenty of grip so not to worry if you go over them.

LMK if ya do at least Ican prolly keep up with ya on my gsxr :lol:

Never done a track day so you would be the vet in that market but it wouldnt take me long to get used to it. ask anyone who was at the rally,

lol.

I have seen some guys go from beginner class to intermediate in their first day and some make advanced in as little as 3 days. God I hate those people :lol:

Yep, thats the set of turns I was thinking of. I kept running wide to avoid the patches, then would try and stay on line but would wind up crossing the race line. It was more a mental thing for me with the patches, im used to avoiding other colored sections on the street, them that pops up and screwed me up. Toward the middle of the day i had it down and moved up to intermediate but lost the line on the next to last session and was bumped back down to beginner

In that left hander after the killer right you can avoid all the patches if you do it right. You go in a little wide and let the bike carry you out and you will be on the right side of the first set of patches then as you close it up you come inside the patches and hug the curbing.

yeh but you cant ride it to far to the side without blowing that chicane and getting back to the left to set up for the right leading on the straight

You can enter the turn a little wide but they have a cone at the end of the turn, so long as youre on the inside at the curbing for the cone it sets you up to almost straight shoot the esses before the straight. From that turn out I am on the gas and ratcheting it up untill I hit the straight then hammer it at that apex.

I still manage to fuck it up

Tommay! Glad ya had fun and made some improvements, bro. :) Sorry I coudln't make it. Ken (Chief Instructor) asked me to come down for the event but it was too last minute for me to make arrangements.

Who were the instructors that you were working with? How'd they do?

To confirm a couple of questions I saw answered, yup, we only run the 2nd chicane only, as do most track day organizations, as well as the AMA. But we do use the 1st chicane for pit-out which makes things MUCH safer for everyone at the end of the front straight.

As for the llloonnnngggg right that decreases, then flips to the left (turns 8 and 9 on this map), for 8, I stay right of center until the turn tightens up. As I approach the decreasing radius I add just a touch of a turning input and trail brake all the way in. The reduction in speed along with a slightly increased lean angle brings me right over the apex.

I exit the corner, roll on the gas and give it a good squirt as I stand the bike up and aim STRAIGHT at the curbing on the left. As I reach the curbing I throw it in and stay relatively tight all the way through the turn, though I do let it drift out a little in the middle of the turn. I carry my lean angle through the whole turn with neutral throttle. I really delay my roll on so that I can tighten my line back up by the end to get a straighter shot into The Esses. I make sure to delay that roll on just a bit to get that straighter shot so I can really punch it outta there. Roll on too soon and I run it wide at the exit which makes for a much harder right turn to enter the Esses.


To get a better idea of what kind of lines we're taking, here's a video of when I raced there earlier this year. This vid was taken by a guy on a Duc 1000ss that I stalked for most of the race. There's a nice spark show that happens right in front of us at 6:30 in that near 100mph right hander in the back section and I make my pass on the Duc around the 7:50 mark.

YouTube- CCS at NJ Thunderbolt May 2,2010,Lightweight Superbike

I think our instructors name was paul, he rode a ktm motard. I didnt get the name of the CR who gave me a tow but he had prety much all white leathers on was prolly around 5-10 ish somewhat stocky build with blondish brown hair. I am going to look on the site for his name. They both did a great job, the clasrrom stuff realy made a lot of things fall together the last few sessions, and esp after my disaster of a first session. Plus they realy helped me break through my personal wall of realy parking it in some turns when I am by myself. I just started braking alittle less and later and was carrying much more corner speed and felt hey that wasnt bad and maybe next time I will go a little faster. Its funny that just those litlte things made so much of a difference, but I think the biggest part was just gaining more self confidence in my riding and that I CAN hit these turns faster.

I am figuring on doing a handful of days with tpm over the next month or 2 but want to twist a few arms to head back to loudon in the fall and if my conditioning is better make a run for advanced, figuring I am almost midpack now and have gained much more knowledge from our trackwalk.

Paul Duval! GREAT guy. Very soft spoken and pretty shy, but incredibly knowledgable. Former 125 Champion, too!

The CR might have been Josh?
http://www.tonystrackdays.com/catego...osh-cuppek.htm


Sounds good man, glad to hear it. Hope to see ya again soon. :)

OreoGaborio-

Hey can i ask about how fast were you averaging in some of those curves?

Im a 70-80mph kind of rider in the twisties and im just wondering what speed you average hitting some of those turns like (1) (5) (6) (8). See my problem is im not trusting the road 100% when im in the mountains so im holding back some. There are far to many variables for me to let loose in that kind of environment. So im thinking if i get on the track ill be able to step up my game even more and really perform.

Also Tommy when i was reading this the other day i wasnt really paying attention i was really distracted by my 7 month old. I didnt realize it was you when i posted up and wrote "ask anyone at the rally." Sry haha my bad. Obviously you were there just slipped my mind when trying to take care of his little self.

Sorry, I have no idea. If I had a speedo I could tell ya, though I would have to put a video camera on it as I don't look at it when I'm riding.
I could tell ya what gear I'm in, but that wouldn't help much.


Very rough guestimates:
1 - 60? Maybe more?
5 - 35? It's a bit of a bus stop. Maybe 40.
6 - Faaaast. Near triple digits I'd say. I'm almost top of 5th on my SV. You can carry a LOT of speed through there if you get a good solid quick turn-in.
8 - You mean the llloonnngg wide right, or where it tightens up? Where it's wide, 60-70 probably. When it tightens up you're probably doing about 40.

Those turn numbers should match the ones on the map that I linked to above.

lol Thanks I'm just trying to get an idea of the speed. That helps a lot. And i looked at the map when deciding on what turns to ask you about to try and understand different spots on the track. And if thats what you were probably hitting on those then im sure i would love that track with a passion. But hold on you said your hitting turn 6 in 5th gear? idk that seems fast for that turn unless its not really depicted right on the map.

Dont gague it by what gear he is in, different bikes can be in different gears in a given turn.

I think tony said he just taps the brakes going into 6 and thats it :tremble: I need to work my way up to that a bit more.

T-bolt is a mix of everything for the most part its big and fast to reward the bigger HP bikes but also has its technical areas, that long right and the left after it are kinda tricky and it seems there are different lines through there. Some of the stuff in that race video was similar to what we were taught/shown and some was different.

What I think you will find interesting is going from a fast street guy to a track guy is theres a ton of stuff you dont know and will have a lot of room to improve as you learn different things in a controled environment.

And if ya keep it up I promise to stuff yer ass in a turn as a welcome to the track :lol:

Remember,

1 - I'm on an SV. Usable (top 1/2) 5th gear is somewhere around 80-110.
2 - the Map isn't perfect.

Here's an aerial photo. T6 is on the track on the left and is kind of at the end of the runway. It's pretty quick through there.

http://www.championshipkartracing.co...jmp-aerial.jpg

Or some skip intermediate and go straight to advanced :)

Not only this but sometimes a fast street rider doesn't always mean fast on the track vice versa with slow street doesn't mean slow track.