Trackdayers ---> Racers

I'll setup a WERA one. Cool?

 

I've never really thought about it that way. Interesting.

 

Agreed, but they don't call it a "licensing school." Perhaps they should.

I agree that this is the function it performs, which is why I was so impressed with Eric actually teaching some race-craft in the curriculum along with the flags and procedures. I was blown away by the lack of experience some riders in my WERA race school had though.

I think we had about 9 people. Seven of them were solid riders. I'm counting myself in that group, so I mean "proficient," not necessarily fast - but people who you would see ride and at least think "that guy has been on the track a few times." The other two scared me. One guy spent the entire day working on his bike, and I never saw him ride until the mock race. He was very antisocial, which I thought was strange, given the paddock environment, and the fact that the rest of the students were yucking it up pretty good during our down-time. The other guy was nice, but scary slow. 3 of us nearly lapped him in the 4-lap mock race... We were still gaining on him during our cool-down lap.

 

rider's school as in for riders not for riding

or not?

 

We didn't turn a lap at my race school. Team Chicago.... in the snow.

 

Done, I think I aced it:up:

 

I would have filled it out, but I only did one trackday before I started racing and I didn't win it.

I did however, rule the canyons.

-jim

 

Same for me. Just a class i had to sit through to get my race licnese. Only helpful thing was the mock race b/c before that i never launched a street bike off a flag before and it was nice to get a feel for it before an actual race.

 

When I started racing there weren't trackdays?

1982, but I did have to do a track orientation to start racing and a mock race with the other orientated.

IN 1986 I went to CSS then again I had to do the track school thing in the mid 90's after having a lapse, I also went and did CSS again, then again in 03 when I went to Barber after another couple year lapse.

So I came straight from the street to the grid, but if I were to do over again now, well now I have lots of race and trackday experience, not that any of that is on your survey

 

I did the same, and now-a-days always feel proud that I(we) did it that way.
Followed Bill Marquert (TEAM ST. LOUIS) around the old gateway on a borrowed 1981 Honda CB750SS for my school/license.... sparks flying and hard-parts grinding away
Next time on the track, Little Tally WERA 2-hour Endurance on my new Hurricane w/ worn out take-offs I got for free. 2nd place
I would say I was then hooked, but the fact is, I was hooked when my neighbor took us down to Corner-Marshall when we were 15 (and he raced GSXR750).....headset on, hot sun, bikes flying by and CRASHES (HOLY SHIT!!!! :wow: ).
It was awesome the first time I witnessed racing (WERA)....I was 'in' before I had a motorcycle. Best times of my life were on or at the track.
Raced 4x that year and had a GNF invite. and a white plate for the next season (I was so proud....I had never excelled at anything in my life, and was a disaster at all sports). Drove to local racetrack w/ full leathers on, and bungee-corded all your trophies on for the ride home, haha

If you wanted to be on the track, you were racing....it weeded out the people who didn't really know if that is what they wanted to do.
Now you have 5+/- years to practice and then go racing....is that really considered an amateur at that point? I dunno. It's really murked the amateur waters in my opinion.

 

I agree.

Right now, the grids are relatively small and further splitting the classes won't help anything. But if there were more people in general, the "Novice, Amateur, Expert" breakdown would make good sense to me.

Like you said, because of track days, people are getting years of track experience before they race. There are first year "Novices" who show up and run :02's at Tally and :35's at Barber. I dont care how much natural talent and potential you have, nobody is going to come straight off the streets, get told how to manage Pit-In and Pit-Out, what the boards mean, which calls to listen for....and then go out and run :35's at Barber in their 1st weekend on the track.

Racing is intimidating enough as it is. It is even worse when you have "Novices" with 15-20 race weekends and multiple podiums under their belt, sandbagging. Then add in the track day Instructors who finally decide to race, and you have TRUE Novices who are intimidated and reluctant to race. I completely understand that you dont HAVE to be able to run :35's to start racing. But often times people will see their lap times being several seconds off of even the top 15 and be like "Im not ready to race". But if there was a true Novice class, they would feel less intimidated.

IMO, more people would be less reluctant about jumping straight into racing if they were gridded up with other true Novices.

 

on everything!!!! Especially your last sentence.

 

Completely agree.

 

there is also this misconception in the track day community that racing is somehow significantly more dangerous.

Racing is made to sound as though riders are T-boning each other into turn 1 on every start, and the CSS novice grid is a death sentence that a select few manage to survive.

I also heard a lot of "here, we all share advice on tire pressures, suspension setup, etc. In a race paddock, those people will lie to you and tell you to run 35 PSI, because they want to beat you." I don't have to tell anyone here how wrong that is. (as if anyone who would believe 35 PSI is a good idea had a chance at beating a racer with even a little experience...)

 

in reality, even 20 weekends is not alot of time. Might be the big end of the bell curve. But still far less time than the hundreds or thousands of hours it takes to develop a skill.

 

Spent time doing both, I prefer racing. If I'm going to waste tires and money I'm doing it for a reason. Trackdays are not any safer and face it flying around on a motorcycle regardless of winning a trackday or a race is dangerous. I fooled my self for years thinking just doing trackdays was for me, it wasn't.