Re: [ST] Track Day Update

["Marc Van Est" <MarcVE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sound like you are having fun.

I'm off this Sunday to go play at a local "riding school" , nothing
hectic -just going to sharpen up those skills and start thinking about
putting that knee down sometime this century!

Should be some fellow trumpet owners there this time on 675's and
ST1050's. One guy I bumped into there on a Silver 2002 Daytona is really
quick - big chunks of his fairing missing where it touches down
sometimes.

Fun watching him blow away guys on new Gixers etc.


Cheers


Marc 
Cape Town, RSA

-----Original Message-----
From: st-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:st-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Matthew Heyer
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 1:46 PM
To: ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ST] Track Day Update

Well another successful weekend flogging the bike around the track.
Went to Pocono Raceway for the Formula USA circuit on Saturday, and then
was at Summit Point Raceway for their Main circuit yesterday.
 
Pocono was a very cool experience.  They let us use the NASCAR garages,
which while I don't like NASCAR, the garages were a sweet bonus.  The
track is huge, and very high speed.  The circuit utilizes both the front
straight and most of the back straight including the tunnel turn.  While
I'm not a NASCAR fan, I am familiar with Pocono as being a tri-oval, and
basically the circuit took us across the infield instead of using the
ends of the oval, but we did use the third banked turn.  That was
something else.  Wide open throttle once turned onto the oval, then it
just takes a HUGE sack to keep the throttle pinned and rowing the gears
as you go through a banked, wide NASCAR turn with a concrete wall to
your outside.  Then once through that, the straight still continues for
another two up shifts.  Now their is the usual speedo error, and I
altered my gearing, but I saw an indicated 193 mph!!  That is probably
about 170 mph really, which is still ridiculous.  Then you work on
pushing your brake markers, dropping three gears, and diving back to the
infield.  Even with those speeds, getting under 2:00 laptimes is running
an advanced pace.  Like I said, the track is HUGE.  Tons of fun though,
and it got me to further work on my form to keep the meat of the tire on
the ground in order to apply the power throttle without spinning it up.
 
Yesterday at Summit Point, I think I had the most fun I've had yet at
the track.  Some fresh rubber in the morning, started easy and built up,
but was feeling fast, strong, and confident as I got into the later
sessions.  It was the hardest I've ever run a motorcycle, and yet I
still think the bike was laughing at me.  I was rolling onto the
throttle before the apexes, and then driving hard out.  Rowing the gears
at rev limit all the way up to sixth, pushed my brake markers, and was
just feeling great.  I was really learning to let off the brake and
actually get on the throttle into the turn in order to unload the front
tire and carry more corner speed.  I was also getting really low on the
bike - my entire body, next to the bike really.  My head was about even
with the guage cluster, but off the the inside of the bike.  This helped
tremendously with my corner speed.
 
Anyway, this is getting long, but thought I'd keep those that are
interested up to date.  I'm off to VIR for two days in two weeks.  
 
And by the way, Dunlop's new Qualifier tire - amazing grip.  It is
really a competitor of the Pilot Power, Sportec M-3, and Diablo Corsa.
I pushed that tire pretty hard and never once get a wiggle, either front
the front in a corner or the rear powering out of the corner.  Amazing
tire.  If I were still riding my Sprint like I had been before track
days, and was looking for a sticky tire, this would be it.
 
Matt Heyer
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