All west coast trackdays calender

Repeater · 03-16-2006, 11:42 PM

Found a site with a list of all the track days on the west coast!

http://www.biketweakers.com/trackcalendar_2006.html

Must of taken allot of work for the guy to put that together

.

I'm heading to button willow on 4/10. Couldn't pass up 140.00 for a track day. Maybe it is so cheap because they are doing it backwards DOH! I'm also thinking about doing the superbike school at the streets of willow. Any one go to that school? It’s on 4/30.

RRWANTR · 03-17-2006, 1:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Repeater

Found a site with a list of all the track days on the west coast!

http://www.biketweakers.com/trackcalendar_2006.html

Must of taken allot of work for the guy to put that together

.

I'm heading to button willow on 4/10. Couldn't pass up 140.00 for a track day. Maybe it is so cheap because they are doing it backwards DOH! I'm also thinking about doing the superbike school at the streets of willow. Any one go to that school? It’s on 4/30.

I'll be there on 4/10. it'll be the first time I've ran it backwards, but I've heard VERY good things about it. All of Ti2TTs days at BW are 140 I believe except one day that's 150. What group are you running?

Repeater · 03-17-2006, 1:42 AM

I just did my first trackday there with zoom zoom. turn two was hell the right way wonder how it is going to be the wrong way!

RRWANTR · 03-17-2006, 1:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Repeater

I just did my first trackday there with zoom zoom. turn two was hell the right way wonder how it is going to be the wrong way!

Here's a very good riders (and fast) take on turn 2 when running backwards.

) The old Turn 2, is a VERY technical corner, when run in the reverse direction. Lots of hard braking on the approach, trying to get back off the brakes before getting too deep into the off camber. The "line" out of the turn, is to dive downward onto the very inside of the track (at the candystripe on the left), and take advantage of the positive camber. Restraint is the key here, in keeping a tight exit line, that allows you to get the bike upright ASAP, and on the gas. I could see a lot of guys tucking the front end on the last 25% of this turn.

RRWANTR · 03-17-2006, 1:49 AM

Here's his entire write up on it backwards

1) The "new" Turn 1 (now a right-hander) shows up with a lot of speed on approach. Serious braking is involved, and setting the "right" (not too slow) entrance speed will require a lot of practice to get right (without finding out the hard way what's "too fast"). The pavement on the exit seems to come back at you (slightly decreasing radius?) just a bit, making it a serious effort to keep from getting over zealous on the throttle and running off into the dirt. Very little margin for error here! (worse then when run in the other direction).

2) After exiting the "new" Turn 1 (a right-hander now), the speeds approaching the first of the "Esses" (at least if you're on a 600cc+ bike) is quite high. The lack of any real visual landmark (at least at 100 yards away, and 100+MPH) to identify the first turn-in point, can be a bit un-nerving. Some form of orange coning to mark the left and right sides of the first curbings of the first "S", would be a good idea.

3) Going up the backside rise of "Lost Hills", in the reverse direction, is a lot steeper than the ramp encountered when the track is run in the normal direction. The speeds at the appoach (on my ZX-10R), were somewhere in the 120MPH+ range, requiring some serious braking on the rise of the ramp. The bike definitely wants to get VERY light over the rise, with the tires losing a level of grip directly proportional to the speed at which the bike's traveling at the crest. Caution and respect were what I used all day over this rise.

4) The turn-in (right-hander) from the end of Riverside corner, to the Bus Stop, was actually not nearly the issue I'd expected. However I do feel that some form of orange coneing, to deliniate the backside of pavement edge as a visual reference point, would be desirable.

5) The "wheelie rise", that now occurs after exiting the Bus Stop, is an area to respect highly when running the track in the reverse direction. The bike gets VERY light over that rise, and in this reverse direction, you're not going into a faster section after the rise, but instead into a "need for braking" zone. Immediately upon the bike settling from getting very light (both tires) over the rise, there's a need for getting on the brakes to make the left-hander leading up to the flag station. It'd be very easy to get over it too hot, and end up running right off track into the dirt. This was proven on Sunday, more than once.

6) The old Turn 2, is a VERY technical corner, when run in the reverse direction. Lots of hard braking on the approach, trying to get back off the brakes before getting too deep into the off camber. The "line" out of the turn, is to dive downward onto the very inside of the track (at the candystripe on the left), and take advantage of the positive camber. Restraint is the key here, in keeping a tight exit line, that allows you to get the bike upright ASAP, and on the gas. I could see a lot of guys tucking the front end on the last 25% of this turn.

7) One of the hardest turns to get "right", is the last corner (right-hander leading onto the front straight) in this reverse configuration. Getting the confidence to "late apex" this turn as much as is needed, is very hard to do. Again the exiting pavement seems to "come back at you" (in a decreasing radius fashion), making it hard to get on the throttle again until you've really worked at getting the bike pointed back down the front straight (instead of dropping a tire off the edge of the pavement).

CanyonCarver · 03-18-2006, 11:18 AM

Good write-up there. I've run Button backwards 3 or 4 days with The Track Club, now. It flows pretty well that way, but I find (as mentioned above) that all the turns that normally open up on exit are now decreasing radius and can lure you in too hot if you aren't careful. In addition to the ones already mentioned, the AFM turn is tricky on exit, too.

I've seen more than a few riders go for off-track excursions at the old T1, coming onto the front straight, and at the right mentioned at the end of the straight. And the unweighting of the bike at Lost Hills can be a bit hairball, as there is some patched asphalt there to add to the fun. OTOH, the Bus Stop flows much nicer, IMO.

Lots of fun going backward -- basically a whole new track. Just take some time to ease into it and it's a blast.