Stuffing the corner?

You think beating up old guys on vintage bikes is funny? You probably kick puppies too!

 

He has a well documented history of loving dogs. Now cats on the other hand...

 

Very much so.

 

I was going to reply but your post spooked me!

 

Dick...

 

10-4 .thanks.

 

In my very first race I was the deviled ham in the middle of a three bike sandwich. I had just taken the WERA class earlier and yes I was wearing an orange newbe shirt over my leathers. As I entered a turn a faster rider went inside on me. Since we were both heading straight for the apex I loosened my line up a little so we would not meet at the same spot. Another rider I had not yet seen was beginning to pass me on the outside. I watched him go wide but he was going to maybe go off the track so I saw him consciously lay his bike over so he would stay on the track. I had to lean back over hard toward the first guy. I heard a lot of plastic scraping and got bumped on the elbow. I'm just glad the banging around didn't catch any of our handlebars or we would of gone down.

I felt qualified to race after that. It was a very tight slow turn so the danger was likely minimal. I might have felt differently if it had been a sweeper.

 

Go to intermediate. You'll be happier there.

 

The best remedy for that kind of shit is to go faster.

....or another option is to start from the back.

That is the only bright side to my shitastic launches, regardless of where I am gridded I typically enter T1 in 127th place or some shit.

Since I spend the first 1-2 laps riding like an asshole trying to get back to where I should be, I am always the one on the offensive and in control of the passing situations.

 

if u cant separate a trackday from race practice in mentality and approach, perhaps u shouldnt ride at trackdays.

i dont even ride trackdays much anymore because im not skilled enough to run my race pace with clean passes that are comfortable for the passee in A group traffic. and practicing that slowly just hurts my riding. i see the Graves racers come out to Fontana and accomplish exactly that and im in awe.

 

I could turn this into a pissing match, but in all honesty we probably agree mostly. Early in the thread I separated hard passes out of track day riding.

When there are no hard passes, absolutely practice a corner or sector or even lap at race pace. Here, 90% + in Advanced are racers, and hard passes are a very rare exception in practice and usually only occur due to some misjudgement.

 

It really depends on the track day org and rider perception too. The one track day organizer around here bases their levels strictly on lap times so you end up with people that can throw down a fast lap time but have never raced and are kinda spooky to be around. But if you go out in Advance and notice that most of the people out there are sporting black numbers you can expect the passing to be a bit closer. The only time I have gotten to ride Barber was the weekend before a WERA race. Since I had not ridden with STT before and no longer have a race license I signed up for intermediate and about 3 sessions in was pulled aside at pit out because apparently I "stuffed" some lady in T4 and she had waited at pit in to yell at me. I actually still have the GoPro video that shows us about 12' apart cresting the hill but she did not expect anyone there and was spooked when I went inside and squared off the corner but she was very insistent that I "stuffed" her. I was annoyed so went and asked to get a bump to Advance and spent the rest of the 1st day and all of the 2nd day being a passing dummy. But I had no issues with the black number guys take the 6" that I was leaving on the inside of corners and making room for themselves on corner entry. It was close, there were a couple of touches and most times really fast but they were in control and I never felt like anyone was out of line. I know others that would have freaked out if people were passing them like that. So who's perception should a person be going with and what is a good way to police it without taking away things that make track riding fun?

 

I remember reading an article online in which the author, an expert LW racer penned, “Any pass which causes the rider being passed to change his line to avoid contact is a dirty pass, period.”

Cracked me up. Turns out I’ve never made a clean pass in a race in my life.

 

So every block pass in the history of block passes is a dirty pass? Normally I would just pass on this wisdom but I won't pass judgement until others pass along their passing input.

 

LOL, this man gets no points, and may God have mercy on his soul.

 

That was some good fun.

 

Fuck that guy.

 

IMO, when it comes to trackdays, I've no problem with nice, close, inside passes as long as they are done cleanly.

Also, it goes a long way to making sure everybody walks home with body/equipment in shape by setting up expectations during the riders meeting. If nobody running the day happens to say it, I typically mention that if a rider is having a particularly difficult time getting past a slower rider, usually all it takes is a nice friendly showing of the front wheel on corner entry (then backing off) to let the slower rider know somebody is trying to get around. Most of the time that rider will yield or wave you by on the exit so you can go about your business.

If that doesn't work, no reason why you can't pull into hot pit for 30 seconds and get some open track ahead of you......

 

I just finished my first race weekend with a full practice day on Saturday...those racer practices were the most fun I have ever had on my bike. I didn't make a single pass all weekend, got stood up 10-12 times to varying degrees, and watched a freight train worth of people pass me like friggin clowns getting out of a car after one guy opened the door on me under braking. I loved every second of it and can't wait to start giving it back.