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 Post subject: Mid-Ohio 8/10 and 8/11
 Post Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 9:24 am 
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Major 'Ho
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Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 10:40 am
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Current TrackWhore(s): 2011 GSXR 750
Bike/Plate #: 25
Pat, John, and I, are signed up for both days. :thumbup:


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 Post subject: Re: Mid-Ohio 8/10 and 8/11
 Post Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 6:24 am 
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Major 'Ho
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Current TrackWhore(s): 2011 GSXR 750
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Great 1.5 days at Mid-O! Tuesday was one of my favorite track days of the year! Pat, John, and I, all ran personal best lap times. Today was looking to be more of the same until it started raining after our 3rd session, we waited until the start of the 5th session, and the radar still wasn't looking good, so we hit the road. Pat managed to run a new personal best lap of 1:41.7 before the rain started (he's become a fast SOB!).

I'm sure I'll have a bunch to write when I get a minute, but here's a vid for now. My 3rd lap following Pat in the vid, is my personal best at Mid-O - 1:42.21...

http://www.vimeo.com/14076667


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 Post subject: Re: Mid-Ohio 8/10 and 8/11
 Post Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 9:17 am 
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how many days have you guys done so far this year?

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 Post subject: Re: Mid-Ohio 8/10 and 8/11
 Post Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:29 pm 
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Major 'Ho
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madski wrote:
how many days have you guys done so far this year?


more than me which is uncool :moon:


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 Post subject: Re: Mid-Ohio 8/10 and 8/11
 Post Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 3:51 pm 
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Serious 'Ho
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Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 3:04 pm
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Location: Buffalo, NY
Current TrackWhore(s): K7 GSXR 750
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Too bad about the rain. Looks like quite a bit of open track though so that's good. Good video, you guys are really cooking.

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 Post subject: Re: Mid-Ohio 8/10 and 8/11
 Post Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2010 10:07 pm 
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Major 'Ho
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Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 10:40 am
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Current TrackWhore(s): 2011 GSXR 750
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madski wrote:
how many days have you guys done so far this year?


I'll have to count them up, I'm thinking 15ish...


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 Post subject: Re: Mid-Ohio 8/10 and 8/11
 Post Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:42 pm 
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bacolmm wrote:
madski wrote:
how many days have you guys done so far this year?


I'll have to count them up, I'm thinking 15ish...

:boobies: I think Matt is correct.


You guys will have to come to Mid-O again sometime.It's a great flowing track


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 Post subject: Re: Mid-Ohio 8/10 and 8/11
 Post Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 12:35 pm 
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Location: Buffalo, NY
Current TrackWhore(s): K7 GSXR 750
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sideshowbob wrote:
bacolmm wrote:
madski wrote:
how many days have you guys done so far this year?


I'll have to count them up, I'm thinking 15ish...

:boobies: I think Matt is correct.


You guys will have to come to Mid-O again sometime.It's a great flowing track


This coming Saturday is looking pretty good for me weather permitting. Its a Max twilight event.

I can't believe I've only been out there once this year :rant:

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 Post subject: Re: Mid-Ohio 8/10 and 8/11
 Post Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 8:09 pm 
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Major 'Ho
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Current TrackWhore(s): 2011 GSXR 750
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foster wrote:
sideshowbob wrote:
bacolmm wrote:
I'll have to count them up, I'm thinking 15ish...

:boobies: I think Matt is correct.


You guys will have to come to Mid-O again sometime.It's a great flowing track


This coming Saturday is looking pretty good for me weather permitting. Its a Max twilight event.

I can't believe I've only been out there once this year :rant:


I'm watching the forecast...


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 Post subject: Re: Mid-Ohio 8/10 and 8/11
 Post Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 8:10 pm 
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Major 'Ho
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Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 10:40 am
Posts: 920
Current TrackWhore(s): 2011 GSXR 750
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As usual, I watched the forecast and signed up at the last minute for these 2 days. The forecast initially looked really good, went sketchy, then back to good by Friday afternoon, so I pulled the trigger. Of course, buy Sunday the forecast was back to sketchy and continued changing all the way up to the morning of the 11th.

I talked with Pat on Wednesday the 5th and he mentioned that he decided to sell his truck and was having someone look at it on Friday. I had been wanting to get a hitch put on my wife's SUV, so on the off chance that Pat's truck would not be available, I had a hitch installed on Thursday before I left to visit my parents for a long weekend. It turned out to be a good thing I did as Pat's truck was not available. We were able to somehow shoe horn all of our gear into the back of the XL7 and it did a good job of hauling all our gear while towing Pat's trailer and both our bikes. We even got 16.6 mpg on the way out, which I though was OK considering all the weight we were hauling/towing.

Pat and I decided to drive out early Tues morning, get a hotel room Tues night and drive home after the track day on Wed. I left my house at around 3:50 AM, picked Pat up at his place, and we headed for Mid-O. The trip was uneventful. I can't hook my I-Pod up in the XL7 and we didn't have many CD's so we listened to some interesting radio stations. I believe we were kicking some smooth Jazz as we rolled into the parking lot at Mid-O. We met up with John and he got us into a garage with his buddy Bill. We all got tech-ed up and ready to ride.

It was a hot and humid day, which wasn't great for the comfort level between sessions, but the Mid-O track surface likes heat, and the track was good right from the 1st session. I felt pretty comfy right off the bat and I was determined to do a better job of keeping up with John. I was thinking it might take Pat some time to get up to speed as he hadn't ridden Mid-O in a while - Boy Was I Wrong! Pat, John, and I would go out together and pretty much dice it up every session. I would usually go out and first and just wait for John or Pat to come past and then try to latch onto their back wheel. My lap times were coming down bit by bit, every session, and I started to drag my toe-sliders more and more.

I believe it was the 1st session after lunch, I pulled out with Pat and John behind me and I was feeling pretty good. I tried to put in some good laps to keep them behind me for as long as possible. I got down into the 1:43's and was able to keep them behind me for a number of laps. Pat finally came past me on the inside of the front straight going into turn #1. I stayed in it, and made him work for the pass, and we went through turn #1 pretty much side-by-side. I gave him a bit of a drag race to turn #2, but he got past, and I hooked onto his rear wheel. Damn, Pat was flying! He was towing me into corners faster than I was used to, and I was dragging toe sliders all over the place. It was the first time in a long time that I felt like I picked up my pace and it felt very easy and comfortable. There have been other times this year where I felt like I picked up some pace, but I also felt like I really had to push to make it happen. I think part of that is just the layout of Mid-O, and how it all flows together so well. While I had been hanging on Pat's rear wheel, John was on mine. When we got back to the pits and checked our lap timers, we all made it down into the 1:42's, and all had run personal best laps. What a great session that was!

I was late getting out of the garage for the 2nd session after lunch so I didn't get to ride with Pat and John and I found a bit of traffic. Overall we had tons of open track, but I really struggled to get past a lot of the slower riders I caught. John is really good at making passes. Where I will end up following a slower rider for laps before getting around him, John's usually by in a corner or two. Part of it is probably the fact that I'm at a power/weight ratio disadvantage to just about every rider on the track. I'm also not really comfortable passing on the inside of corners. That's something I need to work on. I made most of my passes on the outside of turn #1, into turn #2, outside of turn #4, and a few on the brakes into turn #7? (at the end of the back straight).

I pretty much wasted the whole 3rd after lunch session stuck behind a guy on an R6. I can't even remember how/if I finally got around him. I was getting frustrated, and thought about just stuffing it up the inside of him, but thought better of it. When we pulled back into the pits I was beat! I believe the temps were in the low 90's and it was really, really, humid. It was 98 degrees + when we did Summit in July, and with the humidity at Mid-O, it felt just as uncomfortable. I had been up since 3 AM and I was just whipped. I didn't even put the tire warmers on when I parked the bike. The thought of getting out of my leathers was suddenly more appealing than going out for the last session. I usually never sit out a session, so John was a bit surprised when I said I was packing it in. Pat agreed that he was going to bag the last session as well. John gave me a bit of a hard time for wimping out and Pat and I said we'd be trackside watching him. He got 1 lap in before they red-flagged the session.

We got 3 sessions in on Wednesday before the rain came. I felt pretty good for all of them, but didn't run any laps better than a 1:44.0. Pat came past me in the 3rd session, pulled a gap and then I seemed to be able to hold the gap pretty constant. I knew Pat was flying and I thought I was too. When we got back to the pits I was a bit surprised that my best lap was only a 1:44.0, I was not surprised that Pat had done a 1:41.7. That was a great way for Pat to end our rain shortened day.

My bike felt a thousand times better with a fresh shock installed. It just felt much more solid and planted. My tires looked much better as well! The last time I was at Mid-O, my rear tire was pretty chewed up. I'm guessing it was rebound tear from my worn shock. It looked much better this time.

Speaking of tires, I've been going back and forth between Dunlop 208/209's and Michelin Power Race/Ones. This was the first time in a while I went back to the Michelin's and they felt great! I ran a Power One V front, and a Power Race Med-Soft rear. The Power One V front is awesome! I really like the standard Power One/Race front, but I Love the V front! The Power Race Rear tire has excellent grip and feel, but the wear has been exceptional! The rear on my bike had 1 day at CMP, 1 at Mid-Ohio and 1 at BeaveRun, before the 1.5 days I put on it this week (for a total of 4.5 days) and it's not done yet!


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