WOOO HOOOO it was awesome! I did the Buell Inside Pass thing yesterday at Road America. it was a basic STT trackday where you could also demo buells.
I ran in novice (obviously) in a mid level group. the 3 morning sessions were a bit of a let down, the first was just a few conservative laps to learn the track, we quickly caught another group going even slower and just putted around the track for the final laps.
i was late lining up to the second session and go stuck dead last behind a guy on a buell ulyses (sp? who cares?) he clearly belonged in a slower group and the session was painful since there was no passing allowed.
the third session ended quickly after one lap when it was red flagged due to some kid on a buell binning it on turn one. it was a weird crash scene when i passed it, he went off to the inside a good 50+ feet before the turn (chunks of grass missing) and his bike was laying in the center of the track in turn one. I assume he locked his front wheel trying to haul it down. he was fine and standing next to the bike when i passed.
The afternoon got much better
they extended the 1:00 session by ten minutes to make up for the red flag in session one. i was second in line behind a gsxr 750 and the rider coach and we finally got to go FAST! i finally got the rear tire scrubbed edge to edge
the fifth session i was in first position behind our coach after the warmup lap he waved me through and fell back to watch the group, i rode away from them and didn't see another bike for 3-4 laps when i caught up with the next group (RA is 4 miles long, so the groups were gapped pretty far apart). passing was allowed on the straights so i slowly picked off the entire group before the session ended. it was awesome. i think i came pretty close to topping the bike out on the front straight, my speedo was covered but the tach was pretty much stationary by the time i got to my braking point (7900rpm in fifth or sixth, i don't know i wasn't counting). how fast was i going?
the sixth sesion i rode a buell 1125r. it sucked. i really feel like i wasted a session. we had to ride in a demo group that was being lead at an incredibly conservative pace, and while the engine had tons of power and the clutch and front brake were good the radiators poored heat onto my legs and feet and vibrated violently through the foot pegs above 8,000 rpm. I was very let down by the bike and session.
the last session started the same as the fifth, i followed my coach through the first lap, this time he was reeaally moving, then he waved me through and i took off again. i was quite surprised after my first solo lap when he passed me and lead for the next lap, i didn't realize he was right behind me. after every corner he would look back and watch me exit the turn and give me a hand signal to critique me. either a thumbs up or a faster motion. sometimes he would also stick his ass off the seat and point at it before the turn as a way to encourage me to hang off more. we continued trading lead for the rest of the session, it was great. I was a bit bummed that i couldn't get a knee down, even though my coach was through almost every turn and i was matching his speed... gotta hang off more i guess.
Over all i had a great time, the three good afternoon sessions made up for the others. i brought the bike home in 1 piece with the tires shagged and 116 more miles on the odo. the photos from the track photographer are not up yet but my fiance got a few on my shitty digi cam.
just a coincidence this guy had the same suit
leaving the pits for the first session
vrrrrrrROOOOOOOOOOMMMmmmmm
