Nashville....Supercross??

That's what's cool about having open dialogue like this on the BBS. Most people (including myself) aren't aware of all the factors involved in the decisions WERA makes and it helps to lessen the confusion and questions when that type of information is shared with the masses.

 

We just feel that the track is in need of a few changes and it will be ok. Yes every track is differant the first few times running it people go from hating it to liking it. I thought the over all lay out was fun to ride. Just it was a big differance from most tracks we ride at. the transisions are way rough coming down from the banking into turn one. that is not so bad other than testing the limits of the travel in your forks We need more testing time for our team before we really make the call not to go back I would like to try differant springs that we did not have. Going down pit lane would help some gitting people slowed down some for turn one. Our set up issue was the big bumps set the fork oil to high to control the bottoming and we had bad chatter. I needed bigger springs which I did not have. We run a differant set up at most tracks and I had no clue as what to expect. Now I do I am not totaly hating the track I like the big pit garge smooth floor very nice like the people running the track to. The fix for me would be to get rid of the back straight chicanie some how and just run the chickin road. Our camper was in the impact zone watching bikes coming straight at me was cool but then you think what if.

 

I did not like it much at first but after putting in some laps I got used to it and really had a lot of fun and like that place after all. Getting rid of the front straight is not a good idea.
It was a lot of fun riding on the banking. Showers would be nice and the entry into the shicane can use some attention. I thought the cones were a good thing to stop people from going in too low and not making the turn. Also the run off is a bit rough at some spots.
What is the purpose of locking down the garages ?

The track is challenging - is that why people are bitching ? I guess they would rather have a simple layout that is easy to ride and takes 2 laps to learn .
You should have at least a full day of riding at NSS before you comment on it (Tom shut up ).

I'm looking forward to going back.

 

Its always good to try new tracks.

I really want to like Nashville because I loved the reception we got from the track people (even the guards were nice!) and the garages and pits were great.

We went fast, we won, and I had fun on the bike, but I didn't enjoy the track.

1. The long left burned up a rear tire in about thirty to forty minutes and then the rest of the stint was just spent cruising around. This was a problem for all brands. Batey brought the Vesrah bike back in with 18 inches of steel belt showing on the left side of the tire. DOT riders had a worse time of it than those of us on slicks.

2. The transitions just took the fun out of it. One, like at Texas, can be sort of a thrill, but when you are taking a hit in the chest three or four times a lap it is just brutal.

3. Watching a bike almost clean out the signalers out by the track edge was sort of an eye opener.

4. If I stop to think about it, I guess I would prefer NPR, Gateway, Putnam or Roebling (or a double header VIR!) to Nashville.

Roman's crash was not really caused by the track layout. The same incident could have occured at any fast converging turn.

 

Re: Its always good to try new tracks.

If you are talking about the Canaan's purple TLR then it wasn't too bad. I was the closest to him at about 20ft. It was pretty wild to be that close to an accident that I wasn't in... like slow motion(except for the other signallers that ran for their lives). I watched the entire crash unfold so it wan't really a surprise to me. Glad he was okay.

 

Re: Its always good to try new tracks.

ROEBLING (Anything with bling in it has to be da bomb!)

GATEWAY: Someone remind me why the starting early and running into the night thing did not work? I thought it was loads of fun!

PUTNAM: MONGO is there anyway around this Friday practice thing? Maybe we hold a weekend around labor day and run the Practice on Saturday and the Races Sunday and Monday. SAM the wall in turn 10 at Putnam is this really a place we should be holding a National.

NPR: ????

Also SAM is there any way to make Nashville work better? There is something to be said for going to a place that wants you there!

Everyone keep the Constructive stuff coming. Alternatives to Nashville, ways to help Nashville work these are the things MONGO listens to not the petty garbage.

 

I'm going to run my first ever race/races in Nashville this October. Did the Bargy school on May 8th and I'm hooked. I was surprised there were only 6 riders there for the school but if WERA keeps coming back to MidTN, I think it will turn alot of the area sport bike riders into WERA roadracers. The fact that WERA came to a track so close to my house really made me think: "Why not give this a try?". I went from being totally apprehensive about getting involved in roadracing to committing all my resources to it in one day. All this change was brought about basically because WERA brought bike racing here.

During the school I doubt we rode near as hard as the racers did but later in the day I was coming off the concrete onto the asphalt going into turn 1 at around 140mph. One time it felt like my rear wheel must have come up a foot off the ground. After I tried different approaches, the transition wasn't so bad. The further you are to the left in this area, the easier the transition is. Not bad at all, really.

I was following one of the instructors out of the long lefthander charging up onto the banking. I hit the concrete and shot up out of my seat so high that my feet came off the pegs. The bars tankslapped and I was headed for the wall. Got it under control and made the decision to stay leaned over in that left hander longer, sacrifice some speed, and transition later. Everything was fine after that.

After getting the transitions figured out, I really hope WERA decides NOT TO REMOVE THE TRI OVAL and use the pit lane as
the front straight. Put some cones out to keep people transitioning early heading into turn 1.

I'd like it if the turn coming out onto the back straght was more sharp so you wouldn't be pointed right at the wall. The bump coming off the concrete into the chicane sucks but at least there's not concrete walls there. After that bump, the chicane is fun. I actually got fast enough later in the day to swing way out to the left and had to trail brake a bit to make the right hand turn. Best part of the course,IMO.

The transitions can be rough if you take certain lines but I was running a bone stock F4i on street tires and didn't really have any problems once I sacrificed some speed to transition in the right places.

Keep the Superspeedway on the schedule and KEEP THE TRI OVAL section for the front straight.

 

This one's for the shaddup comment!

Is that like Shicago?

 

I had to miss this one due to band commitments. I did call Jamie during the endurance and his impression was "turn 1 is a blast, the rest of the place is a shithole". Tim, on the other hand, really got along well there. In spite of a crash sustained while passing a slower rider that stood his bike up, forcing Tim off track, (he had to dump it to keep from hitting a wall, more run-off would have been nice, but not possible) Tim got back on the bike and was running laps very close to the leaders,(he's usually 2-3 sec slower) even hanging w/ the Vesrah bike for several laps. (never did hear if he actually passed them)
After reading all of the negative comments, I was, at first, glad that I missed it. Now, I kind of wish that I had gone, just so I could see if it's as bad as everyone says.
FWIW, I LOVE shitholes!! TGPR is, and always will be one of my favorite tracks. The only track that I've ever gone to and swore to never go back was AMS. Even Memphis was a lot of fun in spite of the dangers involved. I'll go in oct if my schedual permits, but I certainly won't make any sacrifices to get there.
Oh yeah, I realize the track owner is something of a dick and very hard to do buisness with, but Putnam is sorely missed from the national schedual. Any way we can work things out for next year?

 

YES! That MIRROR is a Hazard!

As Jen & I came around that corner on the DRZ, she screamed as we passed it like we were about to get creamed by a freight train.

I started the SIPDE drill like crazy for what she was yelling about. When I didn't see anything, she said... Nevermind, it was just the mirror.

 

MONGO - Can we race minis at Nashville in the fall? It seemed perfect for them...

 

I thought that Nashville was the perfect Motard track. If you added a table top and whoops through the grass at the bottom of the banking, it would be a great TT track as well.

I did not like the track enough to want to go back. I think that Putnam or Roebling should get druthers over NSS any day of the week. I'll 2nd the Double Header idea anywhere else, too.

 

Re: Re: Its always good to try new tracks.

Mid-America; no walls, 2.5 miles, 45 feet wide, long straight, sweeping turns, Alan Wilson designed track, middle of f%&king nowhere.

 

Well you do play in a band so that's understandable.

 

I didn't like this track. My first ever lap at VIR I thought "I can't ride this track." By my 5th lap, it was "I can ride this track but I can't race it." By the second practice session, it was "I can race this track if I'm careful. By the end of the weekend I liked it. I had the same experience at Putnam. I would really like to see some pavement improvements at Putnam and it's not a track I look forward to, but it's OK. I actually liked TWS from the start, despite some difficulty with the section before going up on the banking (which I never really felt I had overcome). I like TGPR. I still think that racing at Nashville is a bad idea. I'll do endurance there again. I might even go to the sprints later this year to see if the changes make any difference, but I doubt the problems with transitions can be effectively overcome. You really can't polish a turd. Thus I don't have any "constructive" suggestions for improving the track. This track is 30 minutes from my house but I'd rather not go there.

 

Wow, you sure used a whole lot of words to say nothing Dr. Bad!

 

Thank you. I worked very hard to achieve that

 

Mark would like to recommend to all the endurance teams to check their fork internals. Today he discovered that one of our fork legs on the bike we raced at Nashville internally self destructed. This was only the second race on these forks, ever.

Nice track.

 

why yes mark, he did..