cOoTeR Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 I got a call Wednesday asking if I was interested in doing a track day at Independent Motorsports Ranch in Willcox AZ. The track was designed as a private track but after starting the owner realized it would be too expensive so he made it a members only track (with an initial fee over ($10,000 plus the yearly membership). When it was built they designed the straight away to also be a runway and the tower doubles as a control tower so people can fly in. That should give you an idea of how nice the place is. I thought about it and decided for the price ($155 including lunch) why not. I called and found out it was limited to 20 riders and was an "open" track day. Now that kind of worried me because my only track day was about 2 years ago and I didn't want to be holding people up. I talked to the guys organizing it and they said it would be ok. I got there and was surprised that there was no tech inspection. Then at the riders meeting I found out that I was going to be riding with members of Aaron Yates team and Jake Holden's former team. There were also a lot of local big names that own dealerships and sponsor a lot of Arizona racers that were going to be out there. So that was a little intimidating and cool at the same time. Then they asked if any had not been to the track before and I was the only one who hadn't. Man did I feel out of my league. They said that's fine and several riders volunteered to show me around the track. The track said they would only allow 8 people on the track at a time so that helped calm my nerves. They decided to run 2 groups fast and a slow group. The fast group started the first half hour then we went out. The first couple of laps were intimidating because every corner seemed to be decreasing radius or blind or on a hill. I was trying to learn the track and remember everything I.had learned about body position and turning and braking and soo on. But I started to smooth out. The first session went pretty well and with only 8 people out and a 2.75 mile track and 22 turns I had plenty of room. I only got passed twice even though I was way slow. The second time out it all started to fall together and I started to feel how awesome that bike is. I went into a few corners and felt like I was going in too hot. I just took a breath relaxed and dipped in and the bike did the rest. The throttle was smooth. I do need to change the gearing. The bike was running in first and second through most corners. Hitting the straight that bike just shot off and pulled like crazy down the straight shifting up into third about 130mph. Then going into the tight corners it just stuck. Going through the chicane was a blast with how light the bike felt going side to side. The race mode on the display was great with the large gear indicator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helmutt Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Awesome. Glad it was a good experience and you kept it on 2 wheels. So is it safe to say you have a new addiction?Got any pics or vid footage to share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinjaDoc Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Jelly, good for you ... And of course the usual or tag here - pics or it didn't happen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cOoTeR Posted November 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Awesome. Glad it was a good experience and you kept it on 2 wheels. So is it safe to say you have a new addiction?Got any pics or vid footage to share?Yeah towards the end I felt the front getting squirrely and it even felt like it was washing out a couple of times. My first thought was chop the throttle tighten up on the bars and hit the brake. But then I remembered that's a bad idea. Took a deep breathe and backed off the throttle a little and relaxed. The bike did the rest. I had a friend following me with a go pro but I think he was too far back to see what I did wrong. He got a couple of laps of me and said he would send the vid to me. When he gets it to me I'll post it up so everyone can see how much I screwed up the lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helmutt Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Yeah towards the end I felt the front getting squirrely and it even felt like it was washing out a couple of times. My first thought was chop the throttle tighten up on the bars and hit the brake. But then I remembered that's a bad idea. Took a deep breathe and backed off the throttle a little and relaxed. The bike did the rest. I had a friend following me with a go pro but I think he was too far back to see what I did wrong. He got a couple of laps of me and said he would send the vid to me. When he gets it to me I'll post it up so everyone can see how much I screwed up the lines.Quick thinking on your part for a first timer, good to hear nothing bad happened. And I wouldn't worry about poor racelines being your first venture, it's more important getting the fundamentals together with body position/smooth operation/keeping your head together in what you're doing. Learning more about the track is next time! Sounds like a win for sure and looking forward to the footage to darken my shade of envy-green:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cOoTeR Posted November 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 (edited) Quick thinking on your part for a first timer, good to hear nothing bad happened. And I wouldn't worry about poor racelines being your first venture, it's more important getting the fundamentals together with body position/smooth operation/keeping your head together in what you're doing. Learning more about the track is next time! Sounds like a win for sure and looking forward to the footage to darken my shade of envy-green:DThis was my 2nd time on a track but first time alone (not in a group) and on this bike.Also people will be able to see how poor my positioning is, movement on the bike and how inconsistent my throttle control, braking, bliping, and entry/exit was. Some corners just flowed and had a great rhythm then there'd be a set that just felt all wrong. I kept hitting the apex's early either I was anxious or distracted by the apex markers that were out for the cars. I was going slow enough that I could tighten up the turns and had plenty of track left I could have used to get a better drive out of the corners but I was worried about getting in peoples way. But as my friend pointed out most of the guys there were WERA racers some with AMA experience who would have no problem getting around me whenever they wanted to.The coolest part was Mike Bartz who used his membership to be able to get us on the track as guests invited me out for next month also. So I guess I didn't do too bad. Wanna talk about envy? That guy has a private garage at the track that I saw 2 track cars in and at least 6 bikes. I'll check the membership rates to see what they are running now just to give you an idea how much this guy is spending so he can do stuff like this. Edited November 5, 2012 by cOoTeR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cOoTeR Posted November 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Here's a video from this weekend. It's the only one I've found uploaded so far but I'm not in it. I'll dig up so onboard shots from another day so you can see the track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cOoTeR Posted November 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 Here's a guy from another day with a pretty good run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cOoTeR Posted November 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 The facility promo video. They took their prices off the internet so I can't show you that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cOoTeR Posted November 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 (edited) http://www.ohioriders.net/photo_popup.php?e=vB_Editor_QR#The first 2 pics are the ones I took at the track day of my crew chief on my bike. Edited November 5, 2012 by cOoTeR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helmutt Posted November 5, 2012 Report Share Posted November 5, 2012 This was my 2nd time on a track but first time alone (not in a group) and on this bike.Also people will be able to see how poor my positioning is, movement on the bike and how inconsistent my throttle control, braking, bliping, and entry/exit was. Some corners just flowed and had a great rhythm then there'd be a set that just felt all wrong. I kept hitting the apex's early either I was anxious or distracted by the apex markers that were out for the cars. I was going slow enough that I could tighten up the turns and had plenty of track left I could have used to get a better drive out of the corners but I was worried about getting in peoples way. But as my friend pointed out most of the guys there were WERA racers some with AMA experience who would have no problem getting around me whenever they wanted to.The coolest part was Mike Bartz who used his membership to be able to get us on the track as guests invited me out for next month also. So I guess I didn't do too bad. Wanna talk about envy? That guy has a private garage at the track that I saw 2 track cars in and at least 6 bikes. I'll check the membership rates to see what they are running now just to give you an idea how much this guy is spending so he can do stuff like this.Ah, well 2nd trackday at a completely new-to-you facility is probably still overwhelming for any novice. Thats really cool he got you in and as cheap as it was, but some personalized instruction would've been key to helping you learn the circuit and proper lines/speeds/braking markers. You're a lucky guy to have friends like that. Thats a killer setup out there! Some of the track guys here can surely gift much more knowledge and help critique your riding/issues far better than I ever could, so once you get that vid put it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helmutt Posted November 6, 2012 Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 http://www.ohioriders.net/photo_popup.php?e=vB_Editor_QR#The first 2 pics are the ones I took at the track day of my crew chief on my bike.Ummm, this link leads to my photos? At least it does for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cOoTeR Posted November 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Ummm, this link leads to my photos? At least it does for me OR wouldn't let me put my pictures in the post from my phone so I went to my album and just copied the url. Guess that's the wrong way. Lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cOoTeR Posted November 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2012 Ah, well 2nd trackday at a completely new-to-you facility is probably still overwhelming for any novice. Thats really cool he got you in and as cheap as it was, but some personalized instruction would've been key to helping you learn the circuit and proper lines/speeds/braking markers. You're a lucky guy to have friends like that. Thats a killer setup out there! Some of the track guys here can surely gift much more knowledge and help critique your riding/issues far better than I ever could, so once you get that vid put it up!The next time that I go out I'll definitely seek more help. There are guys there that have a lot of knowledge about racing and are willing to help. One guy followed me around for a couple of laps. I thought he wanted to get around me coming onto the straight so I got to the inside coming out of a corner. He passed me slowed down and signaled for me to drop behind him so I did. We went around and he was pointing out the braking markers he uses an turn in points and that helped. Then he followed me for another lap gave me a thumbs up and was gone. When I came off the track I tried to find him but it was lunch time and everyone had switched out of their leathers so I couldn't find him to thank him. Then he switched back to the fast group so I didn't get to see him due to being on the track when he was off. It was pretty intimidating at first with some of the guys that that were there and the amount of money some of the guys had. But after having lunch with them it helped break the ice and start talking to them. They had some cool stories.I did get my suspension set by Evan of Evan Steel Performance the same guy that built bikes and worked on bikes for Holden and Yates last season. So that was pretty cool with how much knowledge these guys were willing to share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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