Any info on the Putnam track day Aug. 9?

It is the Friday before the next WERA weekend.

We cannot get a hold of the guy running the track day.

We got a number from the people at the track, but they don’t answer their phone.

I think it may be the same guy who is running the Grattan races this year.

Does anyone know if it is going to be racer only or street / racer mix?

How many groups?

Cost?

Do we have to sign up in advance? How?

Thanks
Eddie

 

It's being held by sportbiketracktime.and it's on sunday & monday.They always have a weird schedule.
I'm sure u can just show up and get in.

 

I just noticed u put aug. 9th & the track day i was thinking about is this weekend on the 4th & 5th,my bad.

 

Ed,
It is being run by a guy (I can't find where I wrote down his name). Anyway it is for licensed racers only and it is $75 per rider. They told me to just show up at the gate with money.

Are you guys going to try and make it? Randy is planning on going out for it.

 

I received an e-mail from Eric Nake (of GLLRA) on the 3rd but just got back today. He's helping the track organize a track day and bringing the staff. It's open to anyone, 3 groups, 20 minute sessions from something like 9am-5pm on the 9th. $75.00 for the day. I hope to make it, see ya there

 

The track days at Putnam this past weekend (Sunday and today - we were there Sunday) was a Sportbike Track Time Event - and boy was that bizarre....

 

Huh? What's the story?

 

First we made the dumb mistake ourselves of FORGETTING about the silly 1 hour time diff! UGH Lost a precious hour of sleep at 5AM. DUH. GRR.

Track Day started late, not bad, but not on schedule. We love schedules.

EVERY SINGLE session ended with red flags (usually mutliple red flags/restarts in one session).

Afternoon session did not start until almost 3PM?
Um, a 3 hour lunch break? So the 7 session $140 track day was really only 5 sessions. Which was due to all the extra time required to collect all the crashed bikes.

Majority of riders were street riders, not racers.
My sheltered life has exposed me to mainly racers in the past few years, and I have never seen people go so slow around a track. OK - I realize most have never been to a riding school, studied concepts on braking, passing, etc., but I just couldn't believe it, my jaw was on the ground, and that was watching the intermediate group! Most were sitting straight up the whole time. Watching people come through the bus stop I thought they were going to actually stop and wait for a bus to show up and get on it! Ok that is a little stretch, but close to accurate.

Randy rode with the Advanced group, which was not much quicker than the intermediate, and I must say I was nervous watching most of the time. The difference in speed was huge and you could pretty much pick him out anywhere on the track by glancing. And I am not saying all this to brag on my boy (which I *do* enjoy =) because there are a TON of fast racers out there, so it could have been any of them. Randy rode safely though, and made safe passes, basically came to work on improving in some areas, thinking about braking points, and as an added bonus, exercising his patience. Overall worth-while, but the general feeling I had when I left was just plain strangeness.

Maybe it was the 100 deg weather making me woozy.

OH and we had the pleasure of pitting next to a group of 4 loud guys whose vocabulary consisted mostly of 4 letter words. Not exactly a breath of fresh air. And not once did I hear them EVER discuss the track or their riding. Trust me we heard everything else they talked about. UGH

It was just a complete 180 deg turn from the normal WERA race day/practice day experience. I guess there are all kinds of groups out there with different interests, so more power to them if they want to come crash their street bikes on a track. (sorry I couldn't help it) In the future, we will make it a point to go to track days run by racing orgs because racing is our interest.

Anyway please don't anyone flame me! All of the above is the express opinion of just sweet little ol' me!!!

~jillie~

 

Damn, thanks for the report. I'll make sure and avoid any track days that organization runs. Desmo and Curve Chasers both do a good job of running track days at Putnam. You might try them in the future. I've ran them both and they're usually pretty trouble free. As a matter of fact, Desmo had a track day there Saturday. Very uneventful and ran right on schedule.

Jon

 

Props for putting it like it was Jill!!!!

Ed

 

huh, huh, ed said "props"... that thought gave me my first laugh of the day...

 

I loved the part during the "ladies" session with 5 bike totall, some chick hits my friends g-friend and takes her out! The 2 1/2 hour lunch break was great I really needed to work on my motorsports tan..

There wera a lot of crazy/slow/bad riders at the SST event, however most of those red flags were caused by putnams new rulez, no yellows, only reds... Even if someone ran off, and got backon without incident the sesssion was redflagged....Putnam was one of my favorite tracks, now not sure if I'll return..

 

Yeah I failed to mention the Ladies Only session - 5 riders get the whole track while the other 100+ riders work on the tan. I wondered what in the world happened for 2 of those 5 girls to crash when they were going so slow in the first place. I am sorry that your friend's GF was a casualty of someone else's mistake. I hope she is OK and her bike is OK. What was she riding? I saw some girls on really nice bikes/leathers and hope there were no scratches!

Well I hope you won't write Putnam off - it *is* a fun track. What is this new rule? Is it a Putnam-made rule? Does WERA have to adhere to it? So even if someone target fixes or something and rides off straight in the grass, the race has to be red-flagged?! Why no more yellow? Hmm. Got any more info?

~Jillie

 

Just a guess, but I would have to think that it had something to do with the Tony Wright accident.

And I don’t think that WERA will have to follow that rule.

Jill, you guys going to the practice this Friday? It looks like it is racers only and only $75 a head.

If not, we will see ya Saturday.

 

Hehehe...It was a barrowed bike(buelle), but not much damaged, and she is just a little banged up, but OK..

I heard the redflag rule is for all motorcycle events at Putnam...I''ll be back there for the Nesba event, those seem to be a little more controled...

What times was Randy running? I was the Black F3 #800, doin 1:17's(And 1, 1:15, but I think my laptimer is playing with me) when not stuck in traffic...

 

Hi Ed!
We have to work Fri - we are coming Fri night. Wow only $75? Seems like a deal after what we paid.

Will you save us a place to pit near you and Mary?
Do you know if Brett, Julie and their kids are coming this weekend? I hope to see them soon. And
Jeff M., Jeff C. and Colleen, Jason and Amy, have a safe drive down!

Looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend,

Take Care
Jill

 

Parrothd

Glad she is OK.

You were moving along nicely! And I am sure that you earned that 1:15. It was not the weekend to be trying to improve your lap times that's for sure. I think the cleanest lap Randy had Sunday was a 1:15 too. He usually hits 1:14's and has done a 1:13 before. Those are race times of course, practice tends to be a bit slower. Too bad you two didn't get to hook up and practice together. That would have been fun for Randy.

Are you coming out this weekend?

 

No money, and my body needs a rest! it's been a busy week;

2 days gingerman, 2 @ Road America, & 1 day at putnam....Maybe I can bounce a check.. Hmmm.......

 

Either there is another poster on this thread who's name is Jason or I've got a new girl freind I didn't know about named Amy

Jill/R6CHIC,
Do you ride an R6? It's pretty cool that so many women are getting into riding, I mean to have a womens only class at a track day? How cool is that!? I saw about 4 or 5 women racing at Road America and quite a few arrive on their street bikes to watch the races this past weekend.

 

hehe ~ no i don't ride - my hubby rides the R6 and I am the devoted sponsor/pit crew/umbrella girl/cheerleader/go-fer/cook/maid/timer/driver/tool girl/ and also provide other unmentionable services. HA So you see I make some very important contributions - I do everything but race the bike!!!! hehehe (honey if you are reading this - I'm just kiddin!!!)

I think it is great that there are more girls racing these days - I am one of Mary's biggest fans! She is doing awesome in her classes on the 125cc. But I thought it wasn't exactly fair to have a women's only class at the track day though since there were so few compared to the majority of the other riders, and plus they got to ride in the 3 main groups as well (novice, intermediate, advanced).

PS Jason Spencer is the other Jason I was rerferring to and Amy is his fiancee.