Tuesday, October 07, 2008

MotorSport Ranch Cresson, Trackday - 10/05/2008

So yes... this is starting to become a habit. :D




So here is my write up on my 2nd track day with Nina.

The highlight of the day was having my girls there for the first part of the day. They were so good about getting up and sleepily walking down the stairs to load up around 5:15 a.m. After they had settled in, I finished the last bit of loading and we headed out in the cool predawn. When I'd catch a glimpse of them in the rear-view mirror dozing peacefully, I'd remind myself that I really needed to make sure I was conservative during the day and made sure I brought myself and the bike home in one piece. I only wish I had remembered to leave my ego at home.

We arrived at the race track around 6:30 am and I set about getting our pit area setup. The wind was starting to pickup so I made sure to use straps to hold down the canopy.

Once I had setup the area I started to make sure the bike was ready for tech inspection. I got some great assistance from one of my girls while the other snuggled under a blanket and read. My wife also huddled under a blanket in the van. (Note to self: remind pit crew to bring layers as well)



As I was leaving the tech inspection area, I saw that Brad had made it out. I said hello and asked him to join us.




Now to the actual riding. Motorsport Ranch really is a great track. The surface is very smooth and just seems so predictable. There are a couple of complex turns but really its the kind of track that lets you focus on improving your lines. This was quite different from Eagles Canyon with all the patches and double apex turns.

The early sessions with low tire pressures, cold road surface and cold tires were a little squirrely every now and then but I could tell it was going to be a fun day.


The Daytona is so light that even the Rattlesnake that left me a little unnerved the first time I was here seemed like a cake walk. I'd hit corner entry on the first turn and it seemed as soon as I started even thinking about the next turn, the bike was already starting to transition. It was in the Rattlesnake section that I really decided I needed to consider moving up to the next level since I repeatedly had to dodge or adjust for riders checking up or blowing those turns.


Little Bend got to be another favorite section of the track by about the 3rd session. It's a 90+ degree right turn at the end of a nice high speed straight. Thanks to those great brakes, I'd be able to scrub off speed pretty quickly and pick almost any exit point. This opened the door to some quick passes on exit of Little Bend.



It really was a toss up between Big Bend and the Rattlesnake as far as my favorite portion of the track. Big Bend is a big ole honking sweeper that just seemed to get faster and faster each lap around. It really got to the point that I'd scrub off a little speed, drop a gear and start rolling on the throttle earlier and earlier all the time. Coming out of Big Bend like that it felt like a sling shot into the long front stretch.

So... about that ego I forgot to leave at home. If you go down to the entry dated 9/21 and look at the session pictures, you'll see a shot of my coming around the outside of a yellow Ducati. The riders name a came to find out is Carlo. Anyway, ego being what it is, one of the highlights of that day at Eagles Canyon was catching Carlo on that turn, looking for a late apex, and motoring by on the outside of him. Each time I'd do that I couldn't help but grin. Now, fast forward a few weeks and there was Carlo and his Ducati in my group again. I'm not sure what he had done in the intervening weeks, but he seemed to be moving quite a bit faster this time out. Well in one of the mid morning session, I came out of the Ricochet and passed up a couple of bikes and had my eyes on a third but backed off when I decided I couldn't get by him before Little Bend. As I got in line behind the rider, out of the corner of my eye I saw Carlo come up on the right side and then back off and fall in behind me. I didn't want to press the rider in front of me before entering the Buzzard Neck so I stayed behind him and entered a series of left handers trying to figure out how to quickly get by him and keep Carlo behind me. As corner entry of Tombstone came into view, I decided to move to the outside of the SV in front of me and I could hear the twin of the Ducati spin up to the inside of the rider in front of us. In my minds eye I could see the arc of the line I had taken was going to run out of track somewhere up ahead. A subroutine somewhere in my head said I should back off the throttle and adjust my line. Unfortunately, the Ducati had triggered super_eg0_master routine and I stayed in the gas and tried to correct my turn.

The result? I ran out road surface, hit the curbing, stood the bike up and went for a brief off road excursion. I only ran wide about two feet and quickly got back on the track, but as the Ducati flew by with Carlo shaking his head, I felt pretty stupid for any number of reasons. Carlo, sorry I was an idiot.





Thankfully that was the only hair-raising experience and I managed to keep the ego routines in check the rest of the day. Brad had a near miss as well that after talking about it several times seemed to likely have stemmed from a missed shift. We compared notes on the day and both agreed that it was likely time to go be the slow guys in the next level at the next track day.

The girls really seemed to enjoy it. One got lots of good pictures and even put together a video, the other got lots of reading done (surprise). Around noon, Mom took the girls into Granbury to shop around the square and that seemed to be a good balance.





And a first time movie maker's video:


On a scale of 1-10, I'd rate the day an 8.5.