Well, I post this not to intentionally embarrass myself, but as a public service to any lurkers out there marveling at the lap times posted above! I will, however, throw out the disclaimer that this is my first year with a motorcycle and despite putting a decent amount of miles on (7K+) since March, I am still very much a newbie.
As Mike alluded above, this was my first day at BeaveRun and would be my fourth track day total (3 previous with TPM in their white/beginner class) - still running my Buell XB9SX totally stock. Based on word of mouth that the beginner group would be VERY beginner, I signed up for intermediate. The track was quite wet and seeing the 'A' guy go down first lap out was a bit disconcerting, but I wanted to at least get out there and try to learn a decent line around the track. Coming in, I was wondering if I had picked the wrong class as I felt pretty much like a rolling roadblock - at least until Joe pointed me to the parade that was the B class - I figured I 'd just have to suck it up and get moving! I spent the rest of the morning trying to get the line down a bit better - thanks to Joe and Mike for all the pointers - and tried not to think about the lap times too much, though Mike was 'kind' enough to let me know I was running a dog slow sub 1:30!!
As the afternoon went on, I tried to focus on a decent body position, stopped soft pedaling the straights and actually was able to stay on pace with most the of guys in the group through 2-3-4-5. I was getting passed a lot less and even managed to catch a few folks. My 6th and 7th sessions both had consistent strings of laps in the low 1:20's with at least one or two in the high 1:19's (my handheld gps times aren't accurate to much less than a second). Looking at my pictures and thinking back on the day, I'm leaving a ton of time by not consistently maxing out my cornering - while I felt decent in some areas, I'm sure I was not cornering as hard as I could have been through 1-2 or 6-7-8 or even 11-12.
All in all a great day - we even had a decent ride home with minimal traffic. Sorry I didn't get to talk to more of you guys, but I'm sure I'll be out again soon enough!
P.S. Mike/Joe - the towns that bracket Rt839 are Dayton and New Bethlehem - definitely good stuff!
Sounds like you had a good time out there and at the end of the day, that's what matters. I bet you'll be surprised how much more comfortable you feel when you hit the Beav again. My first time at the Beav I actually hated it, the blind parts of the track were freaking me out big time. Second time out I actually had some solid reference points and it didn't matter to me so much that the blind parts were blind because I knew where I needed to be. Once that fear is gone (or lessened) it sure makes it easier to twist the throttle. I love the Beav now, and I still have a ton to learn. I don't know what my lap times were from my first time out there but the second time which was this May I dropped a good chunk just from the morning to the afternoon. A lot of that was asking questions to the guys on here about where the line is ect...
