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 Post subject: Mid-Ohio 9/18
 Post Posted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:45 am 
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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
Bike/Plate #: 25
Just signed up to do this with Milletary (his first time at Mid-O). I've been wanting to do a Twilight day for a long time. My plan is to watch my kids soccer game in the morning, meet Jeff at my house and hit the road...


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 Post subject: Re: Mid-Ohio 9/18
 Post Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2010 10:35 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
Bike/Plate #: 25
Well it was another fun track day adventure! I’ve been wanting to try a Mid-Ohio Twilight day for a long time, so when Millitary said he wanted to do this day I was game. He ordered tires that were scheduled to arrive on Friday, so we planned to change his tires Friday evening. I spent some time wrenching on my bike Wed after work (making sure I have the forks lined up correctly) and then I was up until 1 am wrenching on Thursday. Work’s been really busy so I’m getting home last and can’t get out to the garage until 7:30 / 8 PM at the earliest. I think Jeff left around 11 PM on Friday night after we got his bike ready and I was in the garage past midnight again getting everything together and packed up.

Jeff’s daughter was cheerleading at a football game on Saturday morning and my boys had a soccer game. Our plan was to meet at my place at 12:45 and hit the road. I knew we’d be tight on time, and I hate rushing around, but neither of us wanted to miss our kid’s functions. I figured we’d be at the track by @ 4 PM (the rider’s meeting is at 4:20 PM and the track goes green at 5 PM.

We left my house at 12:50 PM and followed my GPS on the back roads route I’ve used the last few times I’ve gone to Mid-Ohio. We were making decent time and the GPS was saying we’d be at the track by 3:50 PM. When we got to Ohio RT 250 it was closed – not good! We got jammed up behind some old guy wearing a hat (never a good sign) on the detour. It cost us a good 15 minutes and the GPS was now showing an arrival time of 4:06 PM.

We were a few miles from getting onto RT 71 when we stopped for gas and ice. After the stop our arrival time was showing 4:24, uhhh we might be a bit late for the rider’s meeting. Then 1.8 miles from getting onto RT 71 we hit another road closure – WTF!!!!! We never saw a detour sign and I wasn’t turning around to look for one. We turned off a side street and started looking for a way to get to RT 71. Unfortunately we were in the middle-of-no-where Ohio and the road map was more like spaghetti that a grid. When we finally found a road heading toward RT 71 our arrival time was at 4:45 – Yikes!

We got to the track and got unloaded and there were still of number of bikes getting teched so that was a good sign. We brought our bikes down to get registered and teched. Jeff and I had both signed up and paid online. We talked to the guy that runs to show there and he said, “uhhhh, we’re over sold today”. I was thinking “that’s not at all my problem”. He came around pretty quickly and got us signed up and teched.

The Twilight events start off with a 15 minute Intermediate session at 5:00 PM. Then a 15 minute Advanced session, followed by open track from 5:30 to too-dark-to-continue-riding (which in mid-Sept means 7:30 ish). Some how, we were geared up and ready to go when the first Advanced session hit the track. I took it easy for the first couple laps to warm up my tires (no time for tire warmers) and then started to pick up the pace. There would be no waiting for the track to come in; it was great right from the start.

After the first session, we stopping in the pits, grabbed a quick drink and rolled back out on the track for another 30 minutes. Jeff was behind me and I was hoping to tow him around for a few laps as this was his first time at Mid-Ohio. Somewhere around mid-session I got into some traffic and Jeff passed me. It doesn’t take him long at all to get comfy! I followed him around and he was riding well and making his was through traffic. It was a fun session. Towards the end of the session there were a couple riders between Jeff and I and they threw the debris flag. I saw some small stuff on the track and I swear I saw a puff of smoke come off Jeff’s bike. Yikes, I hope his motor wasn’t going away! Between that and the debris flag I decided to pit.

Jeff came in one lap later and his bike seemed to be fine. I noticed right away that he had worn through one of his knee pucks and had been dragging his leathers on the track – wonder if that was the puff of smoke I saw? Jeff was carrying some mad lean angle when I was behind him and he kinda rolls his inside foot over the outside of his foot peg when he’s hanging off. This results in a lot of toe slider and knee puck dragging.

At this point we took our only real break of the day. We put the tire warmers on, got a drink and hung out for a bit. We had been on the track from 5:15 to 6, took a break from 6 to 6:30 and rolled back out on the track. I had no intentions of pulling back in until the riding was done for the night. Once again Jeff followed me around for a while, got passed me and I followed him for the remainder of the session. I knew we had been out on the track for a long time when Jeff pulled into the pits in front of me. I was still feeling good so I continued on. It was 7:30 when they pulled the plug, so I had been on the track for 45 minutes to an hour.

When I got back to the pits Jeff showed me that he had been dragging his right toe-slider so heavily that he had burned through his toe slider, boot, sock, and into his little toe!

It was a fun day for sure, but it sure did seem like it was over very quickly! The track was good from the start but there was a bit more traffic than I’m used to. I was not able to get back down into the 1:41’s, but ran some low 1:42’s. I would do another Twilight event, but I’d try to hit one in June or July when the days are longer.

We loaded up and hit KC’s BBQ on the way home. I wanted to avoid the road closures so I was planning on taking RT 71 to the OH turnpike to RT60. Some where along the way I wasn’t paying attention and followed the GPS off the turnpike and ended up in Canton – WTF? I really have no idea where we were. We did hit a couple of roads that seemed like they would be fun for a street ride – RT43? We actually made decent time on the way home and made it to my place by 1 AM (we left KC’s at 10 PM).


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