Thunderhill Trackday

April 1st, 2003 Novice Day

By Jimil Borillo

I just want to thank Jeff, Dave, Rich, Chris C. (haven't seen this
guy in ages!!!), and Aaron for coming out and joining us. Jeff, Dave and
Rich were helping out with the instruction and we all had a good time doing
it. Thanks for the support!

Other Strafers that were out there, but not as well known were Samson
(YZF600R), and Jay Dance (R1 and R6). Alvin (R6) is also a new member. He bought Glen's old YZF600R but now owns a R6, Joel (Ducati 888) new member.

Yeah it sucked a single fairly large rain cloud came and ended the day for
us at around 3pm but most of us still got some good tracktime. After the brief
showers the sun came out. Dunno if the track would have dried in time. It
probably would have and we would have had an hour of track time at the end.
Oh well....

Only 30 riders and we ran 2 groups. You do the math. Can you say WIDE OPEN
TRACK? It was perfect for the learning environment!

The riders who came out for the day were great! The guys in the C group were
eager to learn and picked up the tips really well. Makes us feel good when
we hear that everyone had a good time. The B group riders had a good time as well.

There were 4 crashes. 3 of them were minor lowsides where the riders were
ok. Chris' girlfriend was riding a 250 Ninja and went in too hot in the
Cyclone. She is a real go-getter! The bike was still rideable and she was
out there again later in the day. Chris went down later in the day in Turn
14. Lowsided but was able to pick the bike up and ride it back in. The 3rd
was an older Czechalovakian gentleman by the name of George. His 2 sons
(the guys on the Busa and CBR XX) bought him the trackday for his birthday.
He was riding a gigantic BMW 1150GS Adventurer. It was his 4th time on the
bike and he as riding at a very good clip when he levered the rear wheel off
the ground in Turn 11. That bike is a parallel twin so its wide and has big
engine guards. He just got it leaned over too far. When I went out with
Bling to recover him and his bike, I asked him if he was ok. He tells me,
(insert Russian/Czech accent) I'm ok, I'm fine. I'm rock climber in my
country. Mountain climber, I guide climbers in the mountains. I'm strong
and bounce back like rubber band!. He is a very cool guy and wasn't
worried at all about the $17,000 bike!!!! "Ah, its just a bike, only a
couple thousand". Damn, what a cool guy!

The 4th one happened right when the rain came in. Unfortunately it was
Bushido and his pristine Ducati 888. He was pretty much the last guy out
there so everyone heard the big scraping sounds when he went down. From the
looks of it he lost the rear at the exit of Turn 3 and high sided when the
rear regained traction. The Duc is pretty banged up but looks fixable. We
took pics of the bike but you'll have to wait till Bushido posts them since
it was his camera. Joel was pretty banged up on his left side from his
shoulder to his hip. Luckily nothing was broken. He also got a mild
concusion so I ended up driving his truck home for him. [think about going
to the track by yourself, if something happens to you, who will worry about
your stuff, practice the buddy system] He couldn't remember how he got back
to the paddock and couldn't remember what turn it was in. He CONSTANTLY
reminded everyone to do a write up of his crash, even though no one really
saw it. He was really out of it but he is in good spirits, when we dropped
him off last night.

Overall we had a great time! I really wish that more of you Strafers came
out. Not you track whore regulars, but the new guys who've never been to
the track. The only reason we host the Novice days is so that you beginning
riders can come out and learn to become better riders.

I want to thank Bling, Dave, and Rich Lortz for helping out instructing.
Chris helped out as well, thank you!

For some reason, I took ZERO pictures yesterday. Weird. I guess I was too
damn busy. The pics below were taken by Alvin and Joel. The single pic of the Cowgirl and the Kawi was sent in by Amy, one of our students.