Are you guys headed down there this weekend? I'm still trying to decide, it depends how work goes this week...weather says Sat. is going to be 70 w/ sun and 67 w/ 40% chance of t-storms Sunday.

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Ben
#535

Pat just stopped over to pick up the trailer. Unless the forecast gets worse, we're probably going. Looks like Sat should be great and Sunday may be a roll of the dice...

The forecast did get worse, but it looks like we're still going. It's now showing 70% chance of Thunderstorms for Sunday. Saturday is still looking good. As long as the forecast still looks good tomorrow for Sat, we'll probably make the trip and hope to get lucky on Sunday. We'll only sign up for Sat and play Sun by ear. If it's raining when we wake up on Sun, we'll be heading home. It's a long way to drive for possibly just one trackday, but this should be our last trip to Kershaw until October or November...

That's what I was thinking Matt,might as well roll the dice.I actually can't wait

You have turned into a real whore!

Some how I think that's a good thing............I have good teachers

Loaded up and ready to rock-n-roll

This was another great trip to CMP! Pat came over Friday morning and we hit the road by 8:30. Other than getting crushed by rush hour traffic in Charlotte (we averaged 3 mph for 30-40 minutes), the trip down was pretty easy. The weather was killer on Sat and there were 20 bikes on the track (a busy day for Turn1 standards). At our last time at the track I had run a bunch of low 1:47 lap times and only dipped into the 1:46's once. The odd thing was that the one time I got into the 1:46's, I almost made it into the 1:45's with a 1:46.19. I knew it was going to be difficult for me to beat that lap time.

With more riders on the track I found lots of new places to pass. My bike definitely felt a bit quicker with the new exhaust. With a little extra traffic it was tough to run fast lap times, but I did manage to run two 1:46.91's in the last session. Pat on the other had was able to drop more than 2 full seconds, down from the 1:50's into the 1:47's. He was riding great and loving his new brake set up.

After the last session was over Pat and I had Tim and Josh flip our rear tires for us. We jumped in their truck and a bunch of other riders met us at the Mexican joint for dinner. We had a good time bench racing and killing some good grub. They really have a good group of riders show up for these events.

We knew the weather was going to be a roll of the dice on Sunday. It was in the low 60's in the morning and it looked like the rain would hold off until at least lunch and maybe for most of the day. I had noticed some discoloring around the coils on the inside of my front tire warmer on Saturday. I showed it to Josh, who is a T2 vendor, and he said that sometimes the warmers get hot enough to cook the dye out and it's usually not a problem. I put the warmer on my tire, plugged it in, and started getting ready for the first session. About 15 minutes before we were going out for the 1st session, I checked the front warmer and it was smoking and had burnt a hole in the warmer and my tire. Pat and I got the front wheel off in record time, Josh changed the tire in record time, Pat and I got the wheel back on in record time and I never missed a lap. As I was coming into the first hard braking zone on the first lap I was thinking "I did torque all of the caliper bolts, didn't I?".

Not sure what happened with the warmer, but I'm talking to Krosswerx and I'm sure we'll get it worked out. I noticed a small discolored spot on my rear warmer as well, I hope it's not a ticking time bomb!

When we changed my front tire I went from the Power Race V front, to the standard Power One front. I did notice a difference in the way my bike steered with the Power One front. The V tire felt a bit more accurate and precise. I would say that I preferred the V front, but the standard Power One front was still very good and I'm not sure I'd pay the extra $60 to get the V front.

Early on during the second session on Sunday, Tim (one of the control riders) came past me. I hooked onto his rear tire and tried to lay down some fast laps. Due to the forecast, there were only 6 riders on Sun, so we had plenty of open track. I was able to get into the 1:46's twice with a 1:46.33 and a 1:46.10. I was happy to beat my best lap, even if by only 0.09 seconds. Tim gave me some feedback after the session; saying I could go into turn #4 and #14 faster.

I tried to heed Tim's advice and carry more speed into #4 and #14 in our 3rd and final session on Sunday. I believe I did pick up my corner speed in #4 and #14 but my overall lap times were a bit slower with a best of 1:47.0. Towards the end of the session I was running as hard as I could when someone showed me a wheel big-time right after the 3-sisters. He pulled up on the inside as we were approaching the up coming right-hander. I stayed in the throttle, but watched in my peripheral vision as I thought he may get past and I might have to follow him through the next corner. He hung out next to me on the inside for a bit and then checked up and let me in front for the next corner. I put the hammer down as I knew he'd be on my ass and kept waiting for someone to come by. I even looked back going down the front straight, I saw the bike behind me but couldn't make out who it was. Turns out it was Pat and he threw down his best ever lap time (1:46.7ish - he dropped over 3 seconds from last month) and I was probably holding him up a bit.

Pat and I joked that we both ran our fastest laps at CMP while it was raining. It was just a few drops on the visor here and there (the pavement never got wet) but it was raining. I also did my fastest lap on the standard front tire vs. the V-front. I'm not saying the standard is better, just that it's probably not far off the V.

The rain started picking up after the third session and it really wasn't too difficult to decide to pack up. The radar looked like the rain would be around for a while, I was beat, and we had a long drive ahead of us. We were on the road by 2 PM and I was home by 10:30 PM. That gave me enough time to get some sleep and save a vacation day by going into work on Monday. It was another great CMP trip for the books. I am looking forward to doing some up-coming trackdays that don't require 18 hours of windshield time...

Can't go wrong with cmp. Glad you guys had a good time

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great write up as always Matt!

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