The Novice school I did with Keigwins in April was a lot of fun and I wanted to try out the intermediate school, but was a bit intimidated as my lap times were still somewhere in B- group and not in B+, the best I did at novice school was a 2:30. Its not fun being passed by fast guys on bigger bikes and I was expecting to see a lot of fast guys on the intermediate school. I tried to get a couple track days to prepare for the school, did a day at Infineon in May and another at Laguna on June 5th. I was trying to practice whatever I learnt at the novice school and things did seem to work for me.
On track day, I was nervous, the feeling you get on your first track day. After about 8-10 track days I did in the last 9 months, track days used to be very regular, but the 'intermediate' name made it somewhat scary for me and the mention about race starts and a race .. errr sprint
and to add to all that it was way too windy and I felt like I was being thrown all over the track, specially on turns 1 and 2.
But as the day progressed everything seemed normal and I felt like I was getting faster, but the lack of power on my standard sv-650 was obvious on the back and front straights. I was all pinned only to see the 600s and 1000s pass by me as if I wasn't even trying to go fast. I did pick up a few tips from Gary and Ernie ( also on a sv-650) on the first day and I was getting more comfortable on the track...
on the second day, I had an 1-on-1 with Adrian and he helped me find the mistakes and we worked on body position and preparing for the turn... I realized I was doing quite a few things wrong! I still need to get everything right, I end up missing one or the other...hmm more track days to practice
After watching the A group race starts, I knew I have to be close to the last with the least powerful bike in the group. did the first race start from the second last row I believe and then mustered some courage to go up a few more rows for the actual race. The race was an awesome experience.. it did seem quiet scary watching the A group race from side but it wasn't as bad when I was on the track, looked like enough space around me. Also the race did make me go faster.. i probably did the fastest lap times on the race, but I will never know
, I was able to pass guys during the race who used to pass me before the race. On the race I did a small wheelie on top of T9, probably because I was shifting gears on the top of the hilll, but it did scare me and then before T10 my rear was up hard on brakes! I was happy to come back, checked the lap timer and it was off, i thought the battery was out but then it turned on and it did reset itself to factory defaults.... no lap times !!
the rest of the day went on fine, had a fun day and I think i did improve a lot, now I am much more comfortable on the track and with passing or being passed
the fastest recorded lap time was 2:22.5 The race might have been faster, but I am happy with this
..some pictures
Turn1:
turn2:
turn10:
turn11:
