180 days, basically half a year, between track days – that’s was too damn long!!! Especially when the last time I was on the track I tossed my brand new motorcycle! It had been a long, painful offseason!!! Thankfully, Pat and I had another successful adventure down to CMP. I ended up having to be in Asheville, NC on business on Thurs and Fri so I decided I would trailer the bike down on Wed, work Thurs and Fri, and then head to Kershaw. The weather was beautiful during my drive down to Asheville. About halfway down there I started to wonder how the snow tires on my car would deal with 80 mph on the highway in sunny, 78 degree weather. I was checking on my fork seals at every stop, and they were leaking a very little bit. I was worried that would be an issue, and I was worried the weather wouldn’t work out as the forecast was now showing a 30% - 50% chance of thunderstorms on Sat / Sun.
Things went well at the office on Thurs / Fri and I left for Kershaw in a brutal thunderstorm at around 3:30 PM. I hit some of the heaviest rain I’ve ever driven in, my fairing got chipped in a couple places from the hail, and I was thinking the snow tires were probably serving me well at that point. By the time I got to Charlotte, it was 86 degrees and sunny and the snow tires were getting high temp tested again.
I met Pat at the luxurious Executive Inn, we hit the local Italian joint for dinner, and called it a night. The weather looked fantastic in the morning, it was cloudless, sunny and warm, with low humidity. We got set up and through tech with no drama.
My goals for the weekend were; #1 no crashes, #2 get a comfort level with the 750, #3 have fun. Notice that “go fast” was not a goal! I took it really easy for the first session and just tried to feel everything out. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about my crash every time I went through turn #3. I checked the fork seals and cleaned the fork tubes, and brake rotors when the first session was over, and there wasn’t a drop of oil on the fork tubes. I ended up doing this after every session during the weekend and the seals never leaked a drop (that was a huge relief).
The weather was fantastic for the first 4 sessions, sunny, low 80’s, low humidity. The on track sessions went as planned as well. I didn’t crash, my bike was feeling good, and I was having fun! I felt like my riding got better as the day went on, but I never felt like I was going fast. The 750 spins the rear tire up in places the 600 never would – specifically tapped out in third gear in turn #9. Apparently, I’m not going to be able to just smash the throttle open on the 750 nearly as much as I could on the 600. It is nice to be able to hang with, and pass, other bikes on the straights though. Pat came by me a few times (yep, he can still blow by me on his 600, even though I’m now on a 750) and pulled me along a bit, which helped. He looked to be riding great, and we were both having a good time, and were just happy to be back on the bikes.
We went out for the 5th and final session of the day and it started to rain a bit. It was never more than a sprinkle, and I don’t think it ever impacted the available grip, but it messed with my head. I did a few laps, had a slide in the 3 Sisters, and called it day. Pat came in about a lap later. We cleaned up our pits, and grabbed some Mexican with Josh, his wife, and Mark. It was a good day!
Pat and I only signed up to do Sat, because it was looking like a better chance of rain for Sun. It started pouring shortly after we made it back to the hotel (good timing) and we were both obsessing over the forecast / radar. Surprisingly the parking lot was pretty dry in the morning, there was little cloud cover, and low humidity. We went to the track and signed up, hoping for the best.
Our pit neighbors were 15 year old USGPRU racer Alex Wisdom, and his dad, ex 250 cc English Road Racer, David Wisdom -
http://www.alexwisdomracing.com/7001.html. They had driven 16 hours from St Louis so Alex could learn the track before he races there later this year. They were both really nice and Pat and I have a great time talking with them, and riding with Alex all day. David insisted that Pat and I try out one of his Qstar GPS lap timers. We both used it for a session and then David hooked it up to his laptop and showed us how it works. It’s way cool, and I have a feeling Pat and I will both have one soon. We both noticed that a large number of riders on the track had them on their bikes as well. It was a lot of fun to see Alex and David work together. They take a very systematic / analytic approach. It was nice chatting with them about all of the tracks they’ve raced at, and all the travel miles they rack up. It was also fun to see Alex tearing it up on the track on his CRF 250 Moriwaki.
I went out for the first session and felt surprisingly good. The second session was even better. Some fast guys showed up for Sun that weren’t there on Sat, and they pulled me along and helped me pick up the pace. It was by far my best session of the weekend thus far, and Pat and I agreed that even if the rest of the day got rained out, it was already worth it. Looking at the radar, it looked like our day could very well be over. I put a new rear tire on and we went out for the third session and we were chased off the track by the rain. We had a long drive home, and it sure would be nice to get an earlier start, but we decided to stay around and see what happened. Good thing we did, as it cleared up, the sun came out, and the last two sessions were my best of the weekend. I mixed it up with the fast guys and felt like I was going pretty fast myself. I didn’t have the lap timer on, but I’m guessing I wasn’t too far off my best time at CMP.
We got our stuff loaded up and said good bye to Alex and David. They were driving 16 hours straight through to St Louis so Alex could go to school on Monday morning. The drive home was pretty uneventful until we got to WV. My trailer lights were going out when I used my turn signals, and when I came to a stop. I discovered that if I turned my lights off and on, my trailer lights would come back on. Every time they would go off, Pat would flash his high beams to let me know, and I’d turn my lights off and on and my trailer lights would come back on. We hit every stop light on RT 19, and my lights turned off every time – what a PITA! Shortly after we made it past RT 19 the skies opened up and we drove through some wicked storms. Even with the snow tires, I felt both my car and trailer hydroplane at times, so we had to slow down a bit. We made it through and capped off another good CMP trip.
