Its been awhile since I had reason to do one of these things so please bear with me.
Thanks to the Gremlin (Shaun) AMCC,Billy, Kiwi Graham and Millars Car Centre I have a new machine a new team and a renewal of my passion for racing.
I was lucky enough to get invited to the AMCC/ART trackday on 18th of april. and I had an apsolute total ball.
I fronted up at 7.45 expecting a few early risers -But the upper pits had really filled up fast.
I was lucky enough to nab the spot in front of the (closed) tuck shop for the day so I had power for the tyre warmers.
The atmosphere in the pits was apsolutely amazing with everyone clearly buzzing at being on the track. It was fantastic to meet up with some old AMCC freinds and all The KBers who were itchin to be out there on the track .
I thought maybee I'd be in the med group but the team gave me a funny look and made it clear I was in the fasat/race group.
The event was run I must say almost exactly like a race meeting which was great from a safety prospective.
A bit of a scramble to get ready for session one because whilst the slower groups got their extra breifing the fast group had to head on to the track . Fastest Ive ever got my gear ON.
Im on the dummy grid on the bike actually shaking with nerves.Really this was a case of -the bullshit stops now -Can I ride a real bike at speed or not? Despite Shauns words (its only a trackday FFS) I was on a bike I've never ridden, on a track I have a fairly healthy respect for after 3 years of not racing.
Well I must say during session one I reckon that was a resounding NO. Coming to grips with just how good everything on the gsxr600 really is was a heck of a wake up call There was not one newbee error I diddn't make in the first 5 laps. I braked into Jennian (T1) I stuffed up the chicane and the hill--Ahh ya get the picture. I was riding so badly A lines bike wanted me to follow him for awhile and I couldn';t even do that.
I took my own advice and slowed down and just rode the bike like I was on a country road -things started to flow but even then virtually everybody passed me. I even got passed by a track virgin on an old SV650.
The second session rolled around suprisingly fast actually and I decided to let everyone else go have fun and entered the track dead set last. Well bugger me I'm now not the slowest guy out here . I caught up with a guy on a gsx1100 posty bike and followed him for about 4 laps His lines are different from a 600 but he HAD lines and braking points which I at that point diddn't. I got him out of the hairpin and using basicly his lines managed to get into a groove. I was having a great ol time till session end.
The rest of the day things just got better and better for me finding lines and thanks to some points from my lil Ginga pit man/manager for the day my riding improved by leaps and bounds.
A lil point here if you EVER get a chance to get someone like Shaun to watch you ride-- take it.
During the day his feedback was fantastic and he made 2 suggestions which (believe it or not) I was able to act on and at end of day he made another comment which confirmed another area to work on. He also noticed small suspension issues that I couldn't qualify by feel.
ANYWAY--Last session of the day-a short extra session and Kawarider and I decided we would have a little battle. Nothing serious but just giving it a little push.
We were suprisingly evenly matched so it turnbed into a bit of a ding dong battle.Turning into Jennian (t1) Im still a bit tentative so he would pull back 75 odd meters on me.But then the second half of the esses and through castrol I''d pull that back. I get better drive out of castrol pulling 150 m on him but He got most of that back because he brakes later at the hairpin. Again Im on the gas harder though out of the hairpin. Up over ford "hill we're pretty even matched.
This went on for about 7 laps till we caught up with a slightly slower guy on a ducati monster. I'd seen the guys lines and planned to take him heading up over Ford hill . Kawarider had other ideas and swept in under both of us just as I was about to make my move. The Duck rider then closed the gap I was planning on taking. Next lap and the flag was out so he beat me to the post.
It was a fantastic way to end a fantastic day.
The plan from here well --My oldest boy wants to team up with me and get racing--who am I to argue?. He will be on Billys season winning KR150 and I'll be on my GSXR600 (possibly gsxr450).
I'll be doing a fair few trackdays to get some sort of track fitness and learn how to ride a 600 sort of propperly before we enter our first meeting later this year.
Again thanks EVERYONE who made sunday such a fantastic introduction back into this crazy addiction we call racing.
As an end note if EVER thinking you need to improve your riding skills then I must say I have revised my opinion of Pukie as a venue. The format the ART guys n gals have arrived at works really well.The track was made a tonne safer than any backroad you are likely to encounter and because you get back to "that" niggly corner every couple of minutes you can practice till you get it right. Better still If you don't theres plemnty of people happy to tell you and better still show you where you might need to work on stuff.
My new motto on this is --LESS TALKING MORE RIDING
Hopefully I'll see yall out there soon
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Originally Posted by Edbear
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