Re: Summit Point / Roger Lyle Motorcycle Xcitement Track Day Report?????
Copy-pasted from a different board:
Had originally planned on using this season just to get used to the track, build skills, and then hopefully go racing next year.... but the itch started to get to me and I was finding myself getting lazy and track days. Riding "the pace" on the street is great but had made me a lethargic track rider; I was all about the cornerspeed but hard braking, hard accelerating... ehh... too much work . I've certainly gotten better but figure I need a new goal to aim for and what better than to HAVE to improve to avoid getting slaughtered in a race setting . I'm a competitive person but an incredibly polite (perhaps overly so) track day person so wanted to get into a place where I could be a little less polite
So I signed up for Roger's race school to get my diploma so I could get my license. Now, please note that this is the VERY first time they've offered this school.... and it showed. They seemed to have a general idea of what to teach... but that was about it. It was three different instructors (none were Roger), who planned on splitting up the material but did not plan ahead on who would do what. At times they would contradict each other (one person who give X advice, and when they left another instructor would say "ignore him, do Y" ). Not particularly reassuring... but I just read the little booklet regarding rules and flags and figured I'd be fine. This is NOT Cornerspeed... you will not learn anything at all about riding a motorcycle. It is purely designed as "this is how you sign up, this is how you get called, this is how you grid, these are the flags" etc. Frustrating because they wasted a lot of classroom time that could have better been used just sitting outside shooting the chit with my pitmates but oh well. Had a short 3 lap mock race (that they said would be at least 5-7 lol... oh well) and they emphasized that if you crashed you'd fail the school.. so don't crash! Went out, passed a few people, then checkered flag. Yay. The purpose was to get my diploma and I got that so it served that purpose... but hopefully they'll work out all the kinks as time goes on.
As for the actual TRACK time... weather was gorgeous! Arrived early and setup. My first time with warmers which made a world of difference. Finally could set hot temps which revealed my previous settings were way too high... tires felt much better at lower psi
First session, someone not so smart decided to throw the race school out with the intermediate group.... HOLY CLUSTER F*CK. I gridded out last behind what looked like 100 bikes... and they made the brilliant decision to not allow any passing ANYWHERE. Well after making a lap and noticing my speedo said 28mph on some of the straights (and I'm -1 in the front...) I couldn't take it anymore and started to move my way up to the front. Made it to the front behind 3-4 other guys and then 3 CRs... who for some reason weren't waving anybody by and holding the whole f*cking train up. Thank god the session ended because it was the worst on-track experience I've had to date.
MUCH RESPECT to NESBA and TPM CRs for the jobs that they do about being aware of riders around them!! Technically the CRs had the same rule as NESBA where to pass they have to wave you by... but it was VERY obvious VERY early that most of these guys never or rarely CR. I've never been behind a NESBA CR for more than a turn or two before they realize you're there. These CRs, while certainly excellent excellent riders, just didn't seem to have that sort of awareness. The school had smartened up after we complained and moved us to advanced sportbike for session two at least, but even then it was an issue. I ended up giving up partway through session two and just started passing them as if they were normal riders.
I had been out on the track on Easter (3/23) so had a chance to see the new pavement (although this was still only my 2nd time at the track)... but they've since added painted lines which changed the look of the track a bit (especially 10... wtf). But the real problem was the giant POTHOLE in turn 3 thanks to the cars. That was my favorite turn on the track and it completely ruined the race line Also made it harder to outdrive people down the chute cleanly...
My day was slightly hampered by a serious power delivery issue... that I still have to figure out. The bike would lose power and suddenly regain it, especially at high RPMs and under heavy load (gears 4,5,6). This of course made my bike dog sh*t slow down the straight (shortshifting and still having trouble even breaking the 140mph mark, even with a good drive out of 10....) as well as making for some interesting moments exiting a few turns... hoping it is fuel related and I can diagnose it today/tomorrow before BeaveRun.
The groups definitely needed rethinking, since having "intermediate" as the lowest group makes NO sense. Advanced was a mish-mash of some fast guys who are actually "advanced" and some people would be lucky to break the bottom ranks of NESBA "I". But group size wasn't too bad and people seemed to spread out decently (and most people held their lines decently) so I really can't complain. I think I heard more complaints from people in amat racer...
Anyway, wish we had gotten more track time. I have a lot to work on still, especially if I want to race with CCS at the beginning of May. I brake too early for 1 still, don't drive hard enough out of 2.... 3 I was slower in because of the patch, need to carry more speed through 4... need to cleanup my line from 7-9, faster through 9, faster through 10... so basically GO FASTER EVERYWHERE
Only ran the timer for a few laps to get an idea of where I was and was running in the 28s... so not embarassingly slow at least but still needs a lot of work I was too scared about crashing (not because it hurts/is expensive but because I wanted my license lol) to really push beyond maybe 75% or so though, so I'm positive if I can diagnose my bike's problems and stop being a *** and just GO FASTER I can drop a ton of time Ideally I would like to at least be running 25 or 26s before racing so we'll see what I can do. Also the final straw in convincing me to say goodbye to my stock suspension and get something new.
All said and done, it was a sunny day, I got my diploma, I didn't crash, I had fun... and ANY day at the track is better than EVERY day at the office!
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Overall though lots of grip and things are pretty nice... though coming from VIR makes you much more aware of the reduced runoff in many of the turns 
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