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A weekend at the racetrack
Apr. 13th, 2005 01:08 pmLast weekend I attended two track days at the Putnam Park Road Course, which is in southern Indiana. These are put on by a company called Sportbike Track Time. In an effort to encourage more women to take up motorcycle racing, they offer a steep discount for women riders. This, plus the fact that they run their Novice group as a school, with instruction included in the price, makes STT a great bargain. It cost me $85 per day. This is the second time I've ridden one of their events; I rode at a track in Pennsylvania last fall, BeaveRun.
The weather could not have been better. Perfect blue skies, not too hot, not too cold. Putnam Park is narrower than BeaveRun, and the track is a bit longer, I think. There's a very long front straight where you can really push the top end of your bike. There are two left hand turns that are deep enough to scrub the left side of your tires. The ground is graded so that all along the front straight a spectator can stand on a ridge about twenty feet up from the track, and see out across the whole track.
The riders are split into three groups, Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced. Advanced is mainly full of actual racers, who use these events to test and tune their bikes, and for practice. You can't ride with Advanced unless you have a racing license, or the STT folks judge you to have the skill level and promote you. Novice is the school class; if you have never ridden on the track before you must go to Novice. If you have ridden the track before, it is your choice to stay in Novice or promote yourself to Intermediate. Intermediate is the carnage class; it has enough riders whose aggression exceeds their skill, that there are always a few crashes.
I stayed in Novice.
The three groups take turns with twenty minute sessions on the track. The order of the sessions is Intermediate, Advanced, Novice. During the Intermediate's time on the track, the Novice group is in the classroom getting instructions on what to work on during the next track session. Many of the instructors for the Novice class, are also riding in the Advanced class. They are not paid to teach, but they get the track day for free, and they all seem to enjoy teaching. There doesn't ever seem to be any shortage of willing instructors.
Every day runs the same way.
The first thing that happens is a riders meeting that is attended by everyone from all three groups. There are two basic things covered:
1. Here's what you need to know about the track, the rules, etc.
2. Don't be stupid.
The Intermediate group goes onto the track first, and we Novices go to class. In the class, they discuss the rules for the Novice class. There is one lead instructor that does the lectures, and there are a number of other instructors who lead small groups during our track time. We are each assigned to a group and a particular instructor.
The first classroom session covers the rules for the Novice group. Basically, we are supposed to stay close to the rider in front of us, and follow our instructor like ducks in a row. We are not allowed to pass unless the instructor makes the decision to do so, and when we pass we are to pass groups, as a group. Then they tell us about our first exercise. We are to ride around the track three times at a relatively slow speed. We are to visualize the track as three lanes, and ride once around the track in each of them. We will then ride the racing line, slowly, until our time is up. We should find reference points on the track, so we know exactly where to initiate our turns. We should locate the corner stations and watch for signal flags.
I had to have tires put on, and while I was in class I got skipped by the tire changing guy. So I missed the first track session for the Novice group. This combined with the fact I was the slowest one there caused them to assign me an intructor all to myself, that first day. His name was Mike. I learned a huge amount from him.
Later classroom sessions cover things like countersteering, throttle steering, looking where you want to go, body positioning, etc. Every day has the same series of lessons, so I've now been through this four times. I'm still the slowest, but I learn a huge amount every time I go. It's just amazing the amount of skill improvement that I have gained from these track days.
Part of the reason I am still the slowest, is because I'm on the wrong motorcycle. The TDM and the V-Strom aren't bad, they both have plenty of power and the TDM in particular is very agile. But I would be better off on a purpose-built sportbike. A lot of the body positioning tricks are hard to do on standards; they work better on bikes with the footpegs set farther back. And my bikes are heavier and they cannot lean over as far without touching hard parts.
The other reason I am the slowest is that I lack the proper aggression levels to really do this right. I am too careful and too risk-averse. I can't bear the thought of dumping my bike, so I don't push as hard.
I will definitely do this again, but I'll be remaining in the Novice class for the forseeable future. The instruction is very good for me, and frankly I'm not keen on joining the carnage of Intermediate.
The weather could not have been better. Perfect blue skies, not too hot, not too cold. Putnam Park is narrower than BeaveRun, and the track is a bit longer, I think. There's a very long front straight where you can really push the top end of your bike. There are two left hand turns that are deep enough to scrub the left side of your tires. The ground is graded so that all along the front straight a spectator can stand on a ridge about twenty feet up from the track, and see out across the whole track.
The riders are split into three groups, Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced. Advanced is mainly full of actual racers, who use these events to test and tune their bikes, and for practice. You can't ride with Advanced unless you have a racing license, or the STT folks judge you to have the skill level and promote you. Novice is the school class; if you have never ridden on the track before you must go to Novice. If you have ridden the track before, it is your choice to stay in Novice or promote yourself to Intermediate. Intermediate is the carnage class; it has enough riders whose aggression exceeds their skill, that there are always a few crashes.
I stayed in Novice.
The three groups take turns with twenty minute sessions on the track. The order of the sessions is Intermediate, Advanced, Novice. During the Intermediate's time on the track, the Novice group is in the classroom getting instructions on what to work on during the next track session. Many of the instructors for the Novice class, are also riding in the Advanced class. They are not paid to teach, but they get the track day for free, and they all seem to enjoy teaching. There doesn't ever seem to be any shortage of willing instructors.
Every day runs the same way.
The first thing that happens is a riders meeting that is attended by everyone from all three groups. There are two basic things covered:
1. Here's what you need to know about the track, the rules, etc.
2. Don't be stupid.
The Intermediate group goes onto the track first, and we Novices go to class. In the class, they discuss the rules for the Novice class. There is one lead instructor that does the lectures, and there are a number of other instructors who lead small groups during our track time. We are each assigned to a group and a particular instructor.
The first classroom session covers the rules for the Novice group. Basically, we are supposed to stay close to the rider in front of us, and follow our instructor like ducks in a row. We are not allowed to pass unless the instructor makes the decision to do so, and when we pass we are to pass groups, as a group. Then they tell us about our first exercise. We are to ride around the track three times at a relatively slow speed. We are to visualize the track as three lanes, and ride once around the track in each of them. We will then ride the racing line, slowly, until our time is up. We should find reference points on the track, so we know exactly where to initiate our turns. We should locate the corner stations and watch for signal flags.
I had to have tires put on, and while I was in class I got skipped by the tire changing guy. So I missed the first track session for the Novice group. This combined with the fact I was the slowest one there caused them to assign me an intructor all to myself, that first day. His name was Mike. I learned a huge amount from him.
Later classroom sessions cover things like countersteering, throttle steering, looking where you want to go, body positioning, etc. Every day has the same series of lessons, so I've now been through this four times. I'm still the slowest, but I learn a huge amount every time I go. It's just amazing the amount of skill improvement that I have gained from these track days.
Part of the reason I am still the slowest, is because I'm on the wrong motorcycle. The TDM and the V-Strom aren't bad, they both have plenty of power and the TDM in particular is very agile. But I would be better off on a purpose-built sportbike. A lot of the body positioning tricks are hard to do on standards; they work better on bikes with the footpegs set farther back. And my bikes are heavier and they cannot lean over as far without touching hard parts.
The other reason I am the slowest is that I lack the proper aggression levels to really do this right. I am too careful and too risk-averse. I can't bear the thought of dumping my bike, so I don't push as hard.
I will definitely do this again, but I'll be remaining in the Novice class for the forseeable future. The instruction is very good for me, and frankly I'm not keen on joining the carnage of Intermediate.
