And I bet you want to know why. Well, this Thursday, at a track day at Road America, I made a bad pass. There was contact. I passed in a bad spot, and then slowed for a turn. I thought I was far enough around the guy, but about a second later, I felt a bump from behind. He didn't go down, thank god. He chewed me a new one, but accepted my most sincere apology. His front tire hit my back. I made a bad choice in a couple of ways at least. First, I did not choose a good spot, it was between 12 (Canada Corner) and 13, pretty much just before 13. Second, I should have stayed harder on the gas after the pass. I think I was around him OK, but it just surprised him, and he didn't have enough time to react to me slowing for the turn. I don't want to be treated like that, and I sure don't want to be the idiot who does that kind of thing to other people on the track, even more so when it's just a track day. I was reelling in some riders that were supposed to be faster than me. I think this guy was a lapper. I was getting excited and maybe feeling overconfident. I was also pretty frustrated because half of our day was rained out. And the other sessions for my group had multiple red flags, and were shortened. I did own up and apologize to him, and I have learned from my mistake. I will pay more carefull attention to passing safely, and choose my spots more carefully. Confession over. That last session made up for the whole day, in spite of the stupid incident. I was in the groove, and feeling like Superman. Sure am glad he didn't go down.
Wouldn't this be more appropriate to post on the NESBA board? Curious.... Were you in the I or A group?
Yeah, post on the Nesba forum if you haven’t. Did you talk with a control rider? I wasn’t there, can’t say how reasonable or bad your pass was. With few exceptions the rule-of-thumb is that you are responsible for the rider in front. You were in front, so IMO he was at least partly at fault in judgement, skill, or reaction time. Especially on track day if you don’t know another rider’s skills or habits you assume he/she will brake more than necessary for a turn.
C'mon... Zippy, if you can't make a safe pass on a track day, please don't do it. There are no trophies, no prize money and we all have to go to work the next day. If someone is "in your way", pull into the hot pit and restart. Give the "lapper" some time to get away from you so you can resume your "blistering" pace. I saw the aftermath of an unsafe pass in the intermediate group at RA in the afternoon on someone's prized R6. The guy was physically OK, but he was upset his bike was trashed and that he got cut off. I figure it's gonna cost somewhere around $2000 to fix a minor low side. A "sincere apology" does not cover that cost, or the cost of that rider getting his confidence back in himself and fellow riders. If you want to run "race" pace with passing, move up to the advanced group with NESBA. Anything goes there, but until you get there, please try and be as courteous as possible out there. We need more level headed riders and from your post I see you can be one of them. FWIW, this would be a good post for you to make on the NESBA board...
way to go! You get an 'A' for ownership . Too many fools practice like contingency money is waiting at the next turn and to hell with anyone in their way. I've been punted as well as my partner off the track in a practice session or track day. I now make it a point to get those numbers so I can address it afterwards. I got stuffed in T-1 at Summit and the pass would have stuck if the idiot didn't chop my front because he couldn't hold his line. It took 3 guys in the neighboring pit area to keep me from getting my license pulled to say the least.... Ride like you stole it.....in the race. In practice, wait for the next opportunity...it will come. Signed, Another slightly annoyed Postal Worker
Zippy, Prop's to you for talking about it and admitting you had some trouble out there. A wise man I know says: It's OK to make a mistake, just don't make the same mistake twice. BUT, on the flipside to that - because roadracing is inarguably high-risk, in some cases, the first mistake can have dreadful consequences. Rider No. 919 was lucky to get the opp' to address a slower person's mistake (he barely avoided taking both of them out) during the odd session superstock qualifying. He was out on a fast lap when coming up to enter the Kink he finds a red Ducati 748 in front of him, hears the downshifting and watches this rider sit up to brake in front of him. This person was working on bike setup for the Pro Thunder race. He confronted the rider afterwards asking them what they were thinking: This rider responds "My bike bogged" - He says, "Was that before or after you downshifted and sat up to brake?" Rider had no answer and he told rider (who had just gotten Pro license) to go win some club level races before coming to AMA nationals with a bike that has some 30 less HP. That's that. Good luck to you Zippy and it's refreshing to see a rider who can admit to mistakes.
Thank you all for the constructive criticism. I didn't post on the Nesba board because I was too embarrassed. I didn't want everyone to know what a goober I was. I kind of knew deep down that Nesba people would be here on this forum too. I apologized to the guy, but I guess I felt I had to apologize to the world as well. Bad karma, you know? Yes, I confessed to the nearest control rider. He gave me a real talking to about it. He reinforced that it was totally my responsibility to execute passes safely. Even if I were racing, I would not see my behavior as acceptable. I don't want to hurt myself or anyone else. Thanks again for the replies.
