Ok, so I know it's not a race report per se, but I thought I would write up a little something about how my first track day EVER went.
I didn't get much sleep Tuesday night, I was nervous about what to expect and I was also reading Total Control to try to brush up on my skills and have a fresh mind on Wednesday. That and a baby that woke up 3 times that night didn't make for a fun evening.
Wednesday morning rolled around and since Rowan decided to wake me up at 5am, I decided to stay up and start preparing for the day. After a mad rush to pick up the babysitter and get home in time to leave, Mo and I rolled out on our bikes and headed to the track.
Once we got there, I was so amped up I immediately started looking for something to do. Mo helped me channel my energy by having me tape my bike up and help get the pits set up. Once I was finished with that, I had nothing else to do but ride the scooter around and say hello to everyone I knew. Bike tech and registration were all uneventful, except for the fact I got an "A" (fast group) sticker by accident. EEK! I changed that pretty quickly.
Ok, on to the more interesting stuff.
First session of the day, first lap. Mark's voice was echoing in my head, telling me to stay on the inside of the turns through turn 3 because of the faster bikes trying to pass, just for the first lap. I took that to heart and did a face-peeling 30mph around the whole track, never leaving the inside! As other bikes passed me doing at least twice that in the corners, my expression was a little something like this:
On the second lap, I became a little bolder and sped up to a screaming fast 60mph down the front straight, still scared out of my mind and not wanting to move left at all for fear of the bigger bikes rear ending me. I kept lining the inside of the track because of that fear. Much to my relief, Pat O Connor appeared in front of me on the third lap and signaled for me to pass him. I followed his lines as best as I could, and I knew he was going super slow, probably parade speed really. But I still couldn't keep up.
For the most part, the day was pretty awesome. It seemed I was improving with each lap, finally opening it up all the way down the front straight. My little ninja only gets to about 95 at full throttle, but it was still pretty damn fun. I shifted down too quickly at one point going into one and was still carrying too much speed, so when I let out the clutch my rear end got really squirrely and threatened to dump me but I didn't panic, I pulled in the clutch and rode through the turn. I will admit I screamed a little. Ok, a lot. But the important part was I learned my lesson and completed the turn without further incident. The highlight of my day was going through four and hearing my peg scrape. I didn't know what the hell it was so I stood the bike up for a second and looked down to see. I could almost hear David Lane laughing at me from behind.
All in all, I had a great time. The 2Fast org is a great track day org, very organized and professional. I thoroughly enjoyed the Performance School and I probably would have taken a lot out of it if my mind was jumping in a million different directions. I think I'll have to take it again to really digest all the information. I had plenty of on-track instruction, with instructors both behind and in front of me to help me with my lines. Thank you Pat, David, Do, and Mo for giving me really good advice and encouragement.
I want to thank my loving husband, Mo, for getting me this track day for my birthday, and subsequently creating a new addiction for me. I'm already planning for my next time out.
