I want to give an up to my strategy which paid off at the races and a down to my preparation[no rain tires, never ridden on the track, EVER]. We had nine riders gridded up to race in Senior Superbike Heavyweight Novice. It had started to rain again, lightly before the race. I went out on DOT's and six of the riders were missing. I assume they thought that everyone but them would be out on rains so they didn't risk it. Turned out that the track began to dry and DOT's were fine out there. I putted around[at least it felt pretty slow] trying to learn the track and hoping I was not in the way of the Experts heading to lap me. I apologize if they had any trouble. I will be more prepared next time. Luckily there were not many bikes on the track at one time or I would have pulled off. 1:54 was my fastest lap. If I had used a little more sense, I would have tried harder to make a track day there in September to learn the track. I was most intimidated by 10a which turned out to be one of the easiest approaches on the track. The chicanes on top of the hill turned out to be much harder to get right..... My advice to everyone else is don't show up at the Nationals never having ridden the track. I actually talked to two other riders in the same predicament like me, hoping that the rain would end before going out. Great food at the awards, btw.
I can't agree with this... I had 1 practice lap and never even looked at a track map and won clubman novice My first race of the day was motard though and I crashed in 10a. I think that was lap 3 or 4 so I did have those as practice laps before the clubman race. A friend of mine was in senior superbike (expert) and went out on rains because he had them mounted and no spare wheels... he said it was quite scary as the tires were sliding everywhere. Luckily it rained for both of my races.
rain for sr. superbike???? what to do???? it was a mess for the ole brain trying to figure out what tires to run. rains or dots? i got lucky and went with dots, i won sr. superbike mw. novice. track time is everything! i was there in late june and it paid off. i got to re learn road atlanta. i raced there from 82-92, the new track is nothing compared to what it used to be back in days, but it is still pretty fun..troy sorensen
I agree with knowledge of the track. Each lap I broke later, leaned it harder, and got on the gas sooner, but 7 laps was just not enough to become competitive. I only made it down to 1:54 but felt like if I had 7 more laps I would have been closer to 1:45. And hopefully when it is dry, I can shoot for low 1:40's. But I'll take the gimme...... Congrats troy boy! What 600 were you running?
Just tried to call you. Sounds like you had an Okay time. I ran a track day at Barber through nesba. Had a good time. Call me when you get a chance.
Is this Clark? Did you make it into the 30's at Barber? You really need to give racing a chance at Talladega in February.
Congrats to Senior Superbike Riders! Troy, congrats on your win! Hey Charlie, gonna be able to send me that video? Are you going to be at Tally this weekend?
