I was looking at doing a weekend at New Jersey Motorsports a couple weeks ago and I was really bummed when it didn't work out. I kept an eye on the weather, signed up late and decided to make the drive out to do Thunderbolt with NESBA on 11/7-8. I took Friday off from work, got Ethan on the bus in the morning, packed up the truck and hit the road at about 1 PM. The sun was out, but it had been cold overnight. Cold enough that I had to clean ice out of the bed of my truck before I loaded my bike and gear. As I drove through the Laurel Mountains on the turnpike there was snow laying on the ground in places. Hmmm, this could be interesting. The drive was pretty uneventful until I hit Philly at rush hour. The traffic was terrible and frustrating as hell, but in the end it only cost me about 30 minutes.
I'd never been to NJMP before and didn't know much about the area. I made a reservation at the Vineland Days Inn through
http://www.hotels.com. It was inexpensive, got decent ratings, and was less than 10 miles from the track. There was no one at the front desk when I walked in, and after sitting in all that traffic I quickly made my way to the lobby bathroom. I walked in on the guy, that should have been at the front desk, smoking a pipe/bong of some sort. Not good! At this point I was just hoping it was weed and not crack. When I got to my room it was clean and nice enough, but there were lots of sketchy peeps milling around. I unloaded everything out of the truck and contemplated rolling the bike in the room, cable locked it to the truck and hoped for the best instead. I checked the voicemail on my phone and had a message that day at Thunderbolt on 11/8 had been switched to the Lightning track. I was a bit bummed about that as I had heard that Thunderbolt was much better. NESBA said that it was a mistake and they just discovered it the day before the event? I have to imagine there's more to that story. Between the Philly traffic, the sketchy peeps at the hotel, and the venue change, I was starting to think this trip was a mistake. Things didn't get any better that night as I listened to a couple next to, or above, my room having some really loud sex, or the drunk guy pounding on a door yelling "let me in". I didn't finally get to sleep until around 1 AM and I fully expected my motorcycle to be gone by the time I woke up.
Fortunately, my bike was still there when I got up in the morning. The skies were clear, but it was 26 degrees and there was a decent amount of frost on my truck and motorcycle. I loaded everything back up into the truck and headed to the track. I got to the track and got everything unloaded and tech'ed with no issues. The sun was out, it was warming up quickly, and my expectations for the weekend were back on the way up. Then I was frustrated when my generator kept stalling when I plugged both tire warmers in and I had to go to the riders meeting with only the front tire warmer plugged in. My expectations took another hit during the riders meeting when the guy running the meeting said that at the last time they were there, two weeks ago, they learned the track doesn't have good grip when it's cold, and not to expect to go fast until the track warmed up, if at all. I was thinking another Mid-Ohio/VIR type surface.
After the meeting was over I got both warmers plugged in to the genny without a problem. I guess it was just too cold to handle them both until it warmed up a bit. A guy by the name of Walter, with a sweet Ducati, was pitted next to me. I chatted with him a bit, and he had ridden Thunderbolt a few times, and was in Intermediate with me. When it came time for our first session I went out and followed him around to learn the track. I believe it was around 45-48 degrees with lots of sun for the first session, and although I didn't go very fast, I had zero problems with grip. It became apparent that Thunderbolt is a really fun track, but one that might take some time to figure out. It has a couple of tricky corners that I struggled with all day, especially turn #2 (blind right hander). I couldn't find enough good reference points and didn't have the confidence to run it out wide enough on the exit.
As the day progressed and I learned the track, I was able to go faster and faster and never had any problems with grip. There weren't many guys in the I class (I'd say less than 20) so there was lots of open track. I was able to follow a number of control riders around, learn some lines, and get their feedback. A couple sessions in a row I got behind a guy riding a new R1. He was running slower lap times than I was, but that's a fast bike. The first time I got behind him I passed him in turn # 11 and he passed me back on the front straight. I believe I followed him around for one more lap, passed him in turn # 5 and put the hammer down to pull a gap so he couldn't pass me back on the front straight. The next time I got behind him, I showed him a wheel a few times and it really seemed like he was trying to keep me behind him. I was right up next to him in turn # 11 a couple times and he would accelerate hard on the exit and I'd give him the line. This is where the "only pass on the outside" rule in NESBA I is frustrating. I passed him on the outside of # 11 and he came back by me on the front straight. The next lap I got a good run on him around the outside of turn #11, had the pass made, and moved over to start to set the next rider up, and I got bumped from behind. Apparently he got on it hard on the exit, still not wanting to let my by, and when I crossed over I caught his front wheel with my rear. I thought for sure I'd see a red flag, but thankfully he saved it, and ran it off in the grass. One of the control riders said something about it to me after the session and I apologized to the guy, and told him I was happy he saved it, but I really don't believe I was at fault.
In one of the later sessions, I had my knee down in turn # 7, drifted close to the inside of the track, caught my knee puck on the curb, and it ripped the puck off it's Velcro backing. When I got back to my pits I had both sides of the Velcro on my knee but all the plastic was gone. They didn't put out a lap timer beacon until late in the day and for some reason my timer was having a hard time picking it up. I'm starting to think there's something wrong with my timer. I did two laps where it missed the beacon and my total for both laps was a 3:29.00, so my average for those two laps was 1:44.5. The only actual lap time I recorded was a 1:44.47 (we ran the second chicane).
I had a much better night at the hotel on Sat night. All the riff-raff seemed to be gone, it was quiet, and I got some sleep. If both nights had been like Sat. night I'd stay there again.
Lightning turned out to be a really fun track and I'm glad we rode it on Sun instead of Thunderbolt (Overall I prefer Thunderbolt, but it was nice to get to ride both tracks). It's faster, less technical, easier to learn, and maybe a bit more difficult to pass. I like the track enough that I'd have no problem at all making the trip back to NJMP only to ride Lightning for a couple trackdays. Both tracks have a decent amount of elevation change. Turn #1 on Lightning crests a hill so that the entrance is up hill and as you're starting to pick the bike up you crest the hill and start going down. I had some scary moments there as I picked up the pace and found myself hanging off, with my knee out, and my front wheel in the air. Later in the day, I'd be in the corner with my knee down at the apex, and then as I started to pick the bike up I'd slide back to the middle of the seat and climb forward over the tank. Turn # 9 is a really fun, big, banked, sweeper that reminds me of turns # 7/8/9 at Nelson Ledges, only with much better pavement.
The weather was ridiculously nice on Sunday. It was in the low 70's without a cloud in the sky and felt like a mid-summer day. I was sweating and getting sun burn between sessions. I believe there were 19 guys in the I class so once again there was lots of open track and lots of opportunity to follow the control riders around. They gave me some feedback and helped me learn the track more quickly that I would have on my own. They also pushed me a bit to ride I little bit quicker that I would on my own. I turned out to be a killer weekend of trackdays and I will definitely look forward to go back to NJMP next year.
