Up until a few years ago, I never knew us mere mortals could venture out onto the track. Back in the day, the closest I thought I'd ever get to riding on a track was pay'n 5 bucks to do a slow lap at big willow on or in anything you drove or rode to the track that day to watch a race.
One can't be friends with Grio, Derby, or gm2 without being told... " dude.... you need to do a track day"
I've always wanted to, but everytime an opportunity presented itself, nerves, or lack there of, took over and I'd find an excuse not to do one. The thought of crashing a bike I'm making payments on didn't sound all that fun. Well.... one lowside on the street later, and that excuse went out the window.
Enter Phil aka boog. Phil is a neighbor of mine who just happens to have a shitload of cool bikes and.......... he's an instructor for Reg Pridmore. So everytime we ride together ....."dude.... you need to sign up and do a class"
Well... a few weeks ago my job prospects started looking better, so I pushed my nerves aside and signed up for a one day class (after getting lms approval
)
Let me tell you..... if you want to do track days, or just want to add to your riding skill-set, but are a bit unnerved by what you see at typical track days, I suggest doing a class like Reg's.
I'm hooked
Here's a lil of what happened that day.
7:30 am we arrive at The Streets of Willow Springs
Checked in with Gigi then geared up to head over to tech inspection. FYI..... new tires are pretty much a must have for Pridmores class.
8:30 am there was a riders meeting that pretty much mapped out the track and the days itinerary
9:00 am we ( the B group) headed out to the track with Reg to watch the faster "A" group circulate in a follow the leader format, then headed back into the classroom while the "A's" had their fun. 20 minutes later we switched off, and the "B" group went out to play follow the leader while the "A" group went to the classroom. And for most of the morning, we circulated in and out of the classroom and out on the track every 20 minutes until some guy ignored the "WUTTS" sign.... warm up those tires stupid, and highsided his ass to an ambulance and the track was cleared.
Right before lunch we practiced braking skills on the skid pad.
12:00 we had lunch.
1:00pm the rotation starts again until about 4:30.
The entire time you are out on the track, the instructors are out circulating, offering up tons of advice if wanted, or, you are just left to ride as you please at your own pace if that's what you want. I can't thank Phil or Fred enough for the advice they both gave me. I was scared shitless the first few laps....even while creeping around during follow the leader. But with all the advice given....my confidence level rose with every lap.
Anybody who has ever ridden with me will tell you I'm stiffarmed slow
, but by the end of the day, I was waaaaaaay more relaxed and having a ton of fun. Once the nerves settled, the advice I was given started to set in. I set up plans for corners... better lines...braking points.... shift points.... body positioning... everything improved.
I'll be honest...as nice of a guy that Reg is.... I felt I learned more from the instructors that I did Reg. He told more stories than gave advise, but that was fine for me. Had he not had such great help, I might have felt a lil cheated..... but, that was not the case.
front tire at the end of the day
rear
they were new dunlop q2's (you can buy a set for $245.00 if you sign up for a class and they ship the directly to you)
Turn 2 during the second morning "b" session
Turn 3 another morning am session (note the bad body position)
This is the guy right before his cold tire highside ( he was launched... I saw the pics)
leaving the bowl am session (starting to relax a lil)
another am session I think this is turn 6
this is Phil (boog) chasing me off the skidpad onto the front straight(later to offer up tons of advice)
a sloppy almost knee down leaving turn 3 in a pm session
I had clicked of three great laps towards the end of the day, getting a right knee down at turn two and a left knee down at turn 3 each time.... then, I had two crappy laps and decided to call it a day. I was beat. I sat out the last "b" session and hung out with the "a" groups class time with Reg.
I passed a bunch of guys, and was passed myself a few time.... I even passed batman. I didn't realise it until the end of the day, but Christian Bale was out there riding in the "b" group with me on a pretty cool Honda cbr600rr
Batman
After having talked about Reg's class with a few of you, I would not recommend this type of thing for those who know what you are doing.... but for guys like me, this was the perfect outlet for getting onto the track for the first time.
Thank you again Phil.
