Wow, what a weekend!  Overall I would give this weekend a 6.5 out of 10…

Things started off bad when I hooked up to the trailer and found that I had no lights.  It turns out that the module that I put on the van burned up so nothing worked except for the trailer brakes.  Our neighbor was helping me troubleshoot the issue and when we figured out there was nothing we could do to fix it he gratiously offered to let us use his truck for the weekend.

We wanted to be on the road by noon so we could be at the hotel and settled in by 4pm but we didn’t get out until 1:45, and even had to skip our trip to walmart for snacks, drinks, ice, locks, etc.  All in all it wasn’t a big deal, but I had hurt my back a few days prior (pain tends to put me “in a mood”) and this just fueled the fire.

The Holiday Inn website made the hotel we had booked look great but in reality it stunk.  Brittany and I didn’t have any problems with the staff, but witnessed numerous things that raised our eyebrows…

I snuck out of the hotel early Saturday morning and headed to the track to meet my buddy Ben.  Once we got the trailer unloaded and our pit area setup we worked on getting the bikes ready for tech inspection.  By 9am the fog was starting to lift but was still so thick that we weren’t able to get out onto the track.  We finally got onto the track at about 9:40 but after 3 laps I had to come back into the pits.  My visor had fogged up so bad I couldn’t see my own hand if I held it up.  I cleaned it off and went back out but after another 2 laps I couldn’t see again.   The first session was a bust.

The second session started out a lot better… the fog had lifted, I got my tire pressure and teperature set where I wanted them, and the suspension was dialed in.  The first lap was great, but I lowsided just after the first apex in the carousel.  I was carrying too much corner speed and as I hit the first apex and got back on the gas I dialed in a little bit more lean angle and washed the front wheel out.  I broke a clipon (handle bar), banged up my exhaust can, bent a rearset bracket (foot peg), and scratched up the side of the bike.

The only thing that needed to be replaced was the clipon and I had that done in about an hour (thanks Ben & PJ)!

The rest of the day was alright, but I wasn’t riding as well as I would have liked.  I finally worked things out the last session of the day and was looking forward to Sunday.
Sunday finally came and I was feeling a lot better for the first 3 sessions but after lunch I was just TIRED, and sore.  I was tempted to pack it in and go home, but Brittany and Ben giving me grief to stay.  The next session was red flagged when the rider infront of me highsided in the carousel.  He tightened his line up too much after the first apex and would have run off the inside of the track - he tried to save it by standing it up a bit and braking.  I’m not sure if he ended up locking the rear wheel in the turn, or got on the gas too hard but he spun the rear out from underneath him and that’s all she wrote.  He spilled 5 quarts of oil on the race line, so that took a while to get cleaned up.  The next session I went out and was excited again… I wanted to beat my old track record (1:10:xx).  The first lap I warmed up, the second lap I got on it and ran another 1:10, I started to pick it up and braked late into T1, came out and found my bike was quickly slowing down.  I tried giving it more throttle but it just kept on slowing… I ended up stopped before T3 and had a hell of a time getting the bike off of the track.  I’m still not entirely sure what happened (haven’t got the front end pulled off the bike just yet) but it looks like a rock got wedged between the caliper and the rotor or a piston in the caliper got stuck.  The heat built up and caused my front brakes to lock up completely, then 30 seconds later I had no brakes at all.  The rotor is completely warped and will need to be replaced (luckily I already have 2 “in stock”).

A big THANK YOU to my amazing wife Brittany who came out to the track with me.  She even found the time to snap a few pictures:

I finally (and I can’t believe it was almost a year) made it back out to the track!!

I should start by reminding everyone that I’ve spent the last 9 months rebuilding and modifying the 2006 R6 I bought wrecked.  The rebuild was loads of fun and kept me busy for a good amount of time, but I couldn’t wait to get it out there and see how she would run. By the time I was done tinkering and modifying the bike, she put out a mind blowing 120 HP at the rear wheel… on pump gas!

The 2006+ R6 is one of the most popular track weapons because it’s geometry is ideal, the handling is superb, and the power (above 10,000 RPM) is quite significant for 600cc.

The first session was very slow… I was refamiliarizing myself with the Summit Point raceway, getting used to the bike, and getting back into the zone (I’ve only ridden dirtbikes for the last year).  By the second session, speeds were creeping up but I really felt like I was just fighting the bike.  The handling was quite different than I was used to, the corner speeds were significantly faster, and it felt as though there just wasn’t any power.  Every time I would start to feel a little power, I would hit the rev-limiter (17,500 RPM) and have to up shift again.  I was frustrated, and as a result, I wasn’t handling the bike like the lady she is.
On the racetrack, all your movements need to be smooth, deliberate, and slow… upset the suspension too much, and you loose traction; input too much throttle or brake too quickly, and you loose traction.

The third session I slowed down and concentrated on reading my girl… I was paying close attention to noise and vibration from the engine, watching the tachometer whenever I could, and shifting at the rev-limiter instead of bouncing off of it for a second or two.   After a few laps of concentrating on her (as well as throttle control, brake application & release, body position, etc), things started to click.  Speeds began to pick up as the smoothness of my actions increased and before I knew it, I was screaming along trying to concentrate on other things like passing, getting off the bike while downshifting and braking (HARD!) into the corners, and the oh-so-important lines.

As the day progressed, I got smoother and smoother (faster & faster) and started working on other things, like setting people up for passes.  Riding the R1 spoiled me… there was so much power, and so much torque that there was really nothing to think about… go through the corner like normal then open her up and hold on.  The R6 is completely different.  If I want to pass a 1000cc bike going down a straight, I really shouldn’t stand a chance. But if you back off the throttle going into the turn and really pick it up and get a drive on them through the turn, you can slingshot past them into the straight and they really can’t do anything but try to catch you.   I have a (bad) habit of saying the R6 has no power, but with 120 ponies at the rear wheel there’s plenty of power there… you’ve just got to know how to use it.  I spoke with several Control Riders who couldn’t pass me coming out of corners or down the entire straight - everyone was raving about the power my R6 had.  I had 3 people say something to the effect of “Oh, you’re that guy on the wicked fast 600″.

By the end of the day, I was the fastest guy out in my class and was bumped up to the next class by the organization.  The family and I are headed up to Beaverun Raceway in early September — I’m nervous to be with these new (faster) guys.

Enjoy the pics!