NESBA 4/21/2007

Arrival/Conditions

    Well where to start eh?  Arrived at the track around 7:30am (kinda late) got through tech and registration fine.  It was pretty damp when I got there but by the time I was out for the first time there was a pretty dry line and conditions were okay.  Another racer had a doplar radar on his phone and there was this huge rain storm coming right at us so everyone was kind of cursing the weather man from the get go.  The rain wasn't hard...or even semi-hard.  It was just enough to annoy you and keep the track somewhat damp.  After about 11am, though, the track was mostly dry and times started to pick up quite a bit.  The sun started coming out as the day wore on and the track conditions were actually not half bad.  It was sweeeet.

    Turn 2 was pretty hairy for me today...stock suspension and all.  However, I did put a knee down on that turn for the first time ever!  WEE.  Anyways, I had a pertty gnarly little tank slapper coming out of T2 in one of the mid-day sessions.  I was coming out of T2, ran over the new patch, went through my usual line over the little gray patch and then all the sudden I hit a bump I'd never hit before.  Uh oh...my rear end is fishtailing at 100+ mph...not good.  I relaxed and hoped the bike would sort itself out.  Thankfully the bike finally settled down and I was back on my way around the track.

    Oil was also spewed on the track going into T3 and through into the entrance of T4.  One of our sessions was postponed until after clean up...which took a while.  Once the track workers cleaned up it was pretty good though.  We just had to take a tighter line into and through T3 than normal.



Improvements

    Today I really improved over where I had been the last couple trackdays and even the last race weekend.  I had a best known time last year of around 1:55 which is pretty damn slow.  With beating that time significantly in mind I went out and started every session really nice and easy and worked my way up.  By the second session I really started to go a bit faster.  Couple laps in I did around a 1:47 which was a new personal best.  The whole day I was lapping and passing people.  The only times I got passed were by a couple people and everytime they passed me I either passed them back on the brakes or went around them in the corner haha.  I guess they amped me up a bit.  One of the mid-day sessions I ran a 1:46 which was another personal best.  It seemed each time I went out I was getting quite a bit faster, which is exactly what I'm looking for!



O ya...i was dragging my bodywork..that's how cool I am...or how crappy hot bodies race bodywork truly is...you decide.



Ouch

    Well...what's a good day at the track without some drama right?  This time it wasn't me spewing oil...or anything mechanically related.  This time it was me thinking I could throttle just a bit harder at the end of a session while my knee was down, toes dragging, and bodywork scraping in T4.  Well it really didn't work out so well as I laid down about a 10 foot patch of rubber before the rear spun around all the way leaving me rolling and tumbling on the ground at 50mph.  I did a little back somersault onto my head and finally skidded to a stop in the gravel.  I got up...brushed myself off...and said a few choice words.  Could have been worse...and I'm really glad the people behind me were quite a ways off!



Damage

    The damage to me...is well..nothing.  The SV however didn't fair as well as I did.  The windscreen broke into a million pieces.  My left side rearset is toast, and my bodywork is a little fuckered up but whatever...it's hotbodies so it was fucked up to begin with.  Anyways, that's the extent of the damage so it's really not that bad at all.



Conclusion

    All in all it was a fun day, full of learning and progression.  Can't complain!!

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