practice day/track day

[DucDog]

Karl,
I don’t know if I can teach a class about how to begin racing, but I have slowly figured out some of the major steps in the process.  

--Go to motorcycle races to see Scott race.  Visit his pit area.  (Wife is unaware of dangerous friends.)  

--Get wildly stupid idea that you can do this too.  (Wife is well aware of my history of impulsive, dangerous and stupid ideas, but unaware of the latest decision.)

--Consult with Scott and Stu.  Now, multiply the wild idea by a factor of three.    

--"Accidently” buy several motorcycles that fit the race class you have blindly chosen.  (Wife is now aware of idea and unhappy!)

--Sell the motorcycles that seem unlikely to win any races.   (Wife is happy!)  

--Spend goverment deficit scale of money and black hole quantities of time building, riding and developing the one bike that was kept.  (Wife steadily moves into the unhappy zone!)

--Ride the race bike like your tail is on fire at every opportunity.  Bike parts regularly break and get modified, the neighbors hate you, the police are looking for you, the track mgmt. sees you often and loves your money and….hopefully, you get better….  (Wife is totally unaware that this is going on.)  

--Get a little bit better at riding on the track, get very lucky, and win some races.  (Wife now genuinely worried and wants you to quit racing while you still have some bones which are not yet broken and a few helmets that don't yet have lurid scrape marks on both sides.)  

--Keep working, developing, fixing broken parts, and winning.  Eventually, win the class title.   (Now, the other racers in the class are unhappy!  They are certain that you cheated.)

--Retire to a lovely, bluegrass farm in Kentucky…  Hopefully, to collect large, stud fees….    (Wife discovers and vetoes this new plan…  She points out that you are not a race horse!)  

--Ed

(Note:….The comments above are intended as race humor and don’t apply to Track Days.  Track Days have all the fun of spirited riding without the blood, sweat, money and time required by racing.  I will separately post some thoughts about how to improve the Track Day and Race Day experiences.)

[DucDog]

Warning:  This is a very long post, so if the topic is not of interest, feel free to move along.    "… these are not the Droids that you are looking for…..”  - Obi-Wan Kenobi/Star Wars.


How I became a Track Junkie":
Scott, I started my track addiction when I came to watch you race.  You made it look easy and fun.  I didn’t find out until later that racing was just a bit more complicated…..  However, my early observation leads me to believe that personal interactions with the racers are good for promoting both Track Days as well as Racing.  

The Parade Lap idea expanded:
The best time to have the Parade Lap of beginners, race watchers, …etc. may be during the Race Day lunch hour.  This would not slow the racing schedule for more than 15 minutes out of the lunch time.  

A Parade Lap for race watchers would contribute to their enjoyment by helping them understand what the far side of the track really looks like.  Sandia has a very poor location for its grandstands.  It is very hard to see what is happening on the far side of the track.  I think this greatly contributes to small crowds.  

On Track Days consider a “free” parade lap, or maybe 2 or 3 laps.  As others have said, this should be effective at taking away the apprehension of riding on a real race track.  After this Parade Session, offer first time riders a discounted ticket that would come with a brief track school talk.  SMRI already offers inexpensive track suit rentals.  Offer/Sell “Blue Painter’s Tape” to these riders as well.  Anything that lowers the barrier of that first decision to ride on the track, would be helpful.  

Of course, the parade lap riders would get the standard “no stunting or goofing off” speech before the ride and be guided front, middle and back by “highly visible control riders” to show the race line and keep chaos at bay.  

Race and Track day General Promotion:
As others have mentioned, the promotion of motorcycle racing and track days is poor.  Could SMRI afford an ad in the Motorcycles for Sale classifieds section of the paper?  How about a small ad in the Sports section of the paper?  Would the paper be willing to donate ad space?  As others have pointed out, it might help to post flyers, even simple ones, at key dealerships with high walk-in traffic.  These could be sent by mail or delivered in person.  

Dealer Involvement:
Would it help to have a group of two or three Executive Committee members or other SMRI representatives make appointments and visit larger, motorcycle store owners, and sales/service mangers?  If done in the Santa Fe, Bernalillo to Belen corridor, would it generate support and ideas?  If this were done in January and February, there would be lots of time to stand around on empty show room floors and chat.  

Would dealers like to bring some of their new bikes to the track and talk to prospective buyers?  Not all the bikes would need to be sport bikes.  Cruisers, adventure and sport touring bikes would also be of interest to the race watching public.  This could start as a free promotion and if popular and helpful, maybe it could generate a small fee or donation to SMRI.  

[DucDog]

Warning:  This is a second, very long post, so if the topic is not of interest, feel free to move along.   "… these are not the Droids that you are looking for…..”  - Obi-Wan Kenobi/Star Wars.

Continued.......

Ask a Track Expert:
Could SMRI erect an EZ-UP on race days and have a personable, track expert or two (male and/or female) that could answer questions about racing, track days, motorcycles….or whatever?  Put up an “Ask the Expert” sign there too.  This opportunity would be highly visible, if located just across from the entrance to the grandstands and near Tech Inspection.  It could be manned in one hour intervals during the day to avoid burn-out.  (By the way, EZ-UP is a deluxe oxymoron.  The damn things are hard put up even on a calm day.  On windy days, this is a real exciting event!)

What if the winning riders from each, just completed, race stopped their bikes at this “Ask the Expert” location.  They could pull off their sweaty helmets, take a long drink of cold milk and answer questions from the crowd for 5-10 minutes.  This could be a rolling, constantly changing, public interview of the winning riders.  It might be similar to what’s shown these days on TV.  It would be an exciting, live, in-person experience for race fans.  These fans are currently reluctant to walk around and interrupt racers working on their bikes in the far reaches of the pits.  More racer face time for the public generates more fans… ask NASCAR.  

Track Day Formats:
The beginner sessions seem OK.  

It appears that the expert sessions of track days are truly for experts and anyone who ventures there risks being strafed by rocketing riders.  This pushes even experienced riders into the intermediate sessions.  

The intermediate sessions are crowded.  This group is populated by two kinds of riders, those moving up from the beginner sessions and those who have lots of experience, but don’t want to ride in the expert session.  This last group may not want to ride in the expert session because their track bike is older, smaller or not as highly developed as the expert bikes and therefore not as fast.  

Perhaps the intermediate session could be split into two sessions that might be called “Advanced” and “Intermediate”.  This would steer newer riders to the next level above “Beginner”, which would still be called “Intermediate”.  Doing this would separate these bobbing, weaving, newer riders from being mixed in with the faster, more experienced riders who belong in a newly created, “Advanced” group.  This strategy would create four groups “Expert, Advanced, Intermediate and Beginner”.  (By the way, use what ever session names that you like which indicate the division of skill into four groups.)  

Splitting the intermediate session would create one more session that would need to be added to the schedule.  But doing so would offer a much better and safer experience for a majority of riders.  Later in the Track Day, when attendance typically goes down and the groups get smaller, combine the Expert and Advanced groups or the Advanced and Intermediate groups… etc.    

Hopefully this long post contains a few helpful ideas.  

Ed Kist

…..Now that I have blabbed on endlessly, how about hearing from others.  There are lots of good ideas yet to be offered…..

[Zaster]

Karl,
I don’t know if I can teach a class about how to begin racing, but I have slowly figured out some of the major steps in the process.  

--Go to motorcycle races to see Scott race.  Visit his pit area.  (Wife is unaware of dangerous friends.)  

--Get wildly stupid idea that you can do this too.  (Wife is well aware of my history of impulsive, dangerous and stupid ideas, but unaware of the latest decision.)

--Consult with Scott and Stu.  Now, multiply the wild idea by a factor of three.    

--"Accidently” buy several motorcycles that fit the race class you have blindly chosen.  (Wife is now aware of idea and unhappy!)

--Sell the motorcycles that seem unlikely to win any races.   (Wife is happy!)  

--Spend goverment deficit scale of money and black hole quantities of time building, riding and developing the one bike that was kept.  (Wife steadily moves into the unhappy zone!)

--Ride the race bike like your tail is on fire at every opportunity.  Bike parts regularly break and get modified, the neighbors hate you, the police are looking for you, the track mgmt. sees you often and loves your money and….hopefully, you get better….  (Wife is totally unaware that this is going on.)  

--Get a little bit better at riding on the track, get very lucky, and win some races.  (Wife now genuinely worried and wants you to quit racing while you still have some bones which are not yet broken and a few helmets that don't yet have lurid scrape marks on both sides.)  

--Keep working, developing, fixing broken parts, and winning.  Eventually, win the class title.   (Now, the other racers in the class are unhappy!  They are certain that you cheated.)

--Retire to a lovely, bluegrass farm in Kentucky…  Hopefully, to collect large, stud fees….    (Wife discovers and vetoes this new plan…  She points out that you are not a race horse!)  

--Ed

(Note:….The comments above are intended as racing humor and don’t apply to Track Days.  Track Days have all the fun of spirited riding without the blood, sweat, money and time required by racing.  I will separately post some thoughts about how to improve the Track Day and Race Day experiences.)

 

[Ratfink749]

My day in pictures:

Ready to go at 7:00 AM



Keri planted herself firmly at the last corner of the track and balanced watching Michael and taking some pictures for me.















Michael did extremely well.  The only bike that even phased him was a full open pipe vintage bike.  Otherwise it was just another day in the world for him.



Yes.. That's a playpen and stroller in my pit...



I was nowhere near the beginning of the line for Teching' in... but they gave me a #1 on my tape.  No pressure.



.... And yes.. I'm bringing sexy back, and Shufflin'.. Every day.

[Zaster]

Nice picture show!!! Thanks for sharing

[JJ]

It was great trackday and it was simply motivating!   I'll start with the company- Caleb and Wayne & co were there from NMMR side...Molly came over to take some fantastic high speed manual shots! My data analyzer kept motivating me...almost killing me would be the right description...there were few control riders and corner marshals and few track fellas who had their eyes full of ice hockey!

KARL -- Remember you wanted me to keep keep track of my new tire mileage...you may want to reconsider...my Pirellis at 400miles are 70% done on sides!

Caleb the great Scrubbed not just his pegs half way...he showed us how to change shoe styles from round style to Italian pointers...lucky to have few toes!!! Here's him on corner 7:
 
 
Video of Caleb going by:
 

Wayne and wanna be racer Michael:
 

As of me, few pics coming soon...heres my trackday achievement...I had a goal to break the minute barrier..but I was short!   After about over 60-70 laps my last session dropped from last years best of 1'2"300 to 1'1'800 to final session best of 1'0"800. I know I have room to improve, but my tires couldn't do any better and after few crazy slides...slides where you feel both wheels were on ice sidewise...I took late braking approach...the improvement was worth it! Here's the last two times:
 

[DonJuanDucati]

Videos are taking an eternity to upload, I think Comcast is throttling my connection - already uploaded about 3gigs of video to youtube tonight and uploading the last bit of video when JJ used my camera has ground to a halt. I'll see how far along the video comes by tomorrow morning, but I gotta get some sleep. Oh and JJ, I'm not great, just really loud apparently, listening to that video.  

[nicrosato]

Great photos, Wayne. Michael obviously takes after his mother.

[DonJuanDucati]

One of my sessions earlier in the day


Later in the day


JJ's last session

[JJ]

  Great! I know that was painful...but you made my train ride this evening...Cant wait to watch!  

[Ratfink749]

Great photos, Wayne. Michael obviously takes after his mother.

Eh?   

[DonJuanDucati]

Great! I know that was painful...but you made my train ride this evening...Cant wait to watch!  

When I went to sleep last night Youtube was telling me that I still had 1800 minutes to upload your video! Fortunately it was uploaded by the time I woke up, which I think means my upload speed must have opened up during the night. Hope you enjoy it!

[Zaster]

Thanks for posting this guys
Was very interesting to follow your lines and to see your approach angles

[DonJuanDucati]

Don't look at my lines, they're embarrassing. That said, I'm glad I filmed it, cause it's always easier to fix yourself when you watch it after the fact. Anyone want to reserve the track some time? I'm eager already to try and shave some time off my laps, and I don't want to wait til spring.