Thunderhill Trackday

June 4th, 2003

By dgrace

A hot one at Thunderhill!

We had a blast yesterday. Got lucky and had James in the control tower - he always does a great job. Only 4 or 5 crashes all day, the worst was Louis (older guy, I remember him from a trackday last year) who fell in the Cyclone right after lunch and broke either a shoulder or collarbone (not sure which), ending his day early. Jimil's cousin dropped his Mille and damaged the radiator, svSick50 dropped the Sick50 in turn 14 but it was in real good shape, looked completely ridable to me. I think there was a yellow GSXR that went down but I can't remember who it was. Other than that, lots of clean, uninterrupted track time with a great group of riders.

The turnout was excellent - there was even a healthy TLR representation, with oddball (John), myself, plus a couple of the regulars from the blue TL board. A few Ducati's, a handful of GSXR's, some R6's, R1's and I think a YZF or two. Only one 2-stroke that I saw. Those Czech brothers were back, railing around on a 'Busa and a Honda Blackbird and scraping everything in the world! Those guys rock.

I forgot to take a look at my lap timer after my second crash at Laguna, and of course I'd snapped the connection. After several frustrating attempts to solder it back together I accepted Dito's generous offer of a loaner and stopped wasting time in the pits. It's amazing how a little thing like that can throw off your whole day - without knowing my times, there was no feedback to tell if I was doing well or not. Note for next time: make sure to always have spare batteries for the timer just in case, it sucks to waste track time just because your lap timer craps out.

Andy was kind enough to work with me a bit in the morning, but I wasn't on the pace. After making some preload adjustments I was much more comfortable and nudged back under 2:09 for the first time since early last year. My next session out I broke my all-time record (finally!) with a best of 2:08.05, with which I was extremely happy. It ended up being my best time of the day; by the afternoon I found myself getting tired quickly due to the extreme heat. (by the crowd under the tent I'm guessing I wasn't the only one)

Dito took TONS of photos (over 1300 I think), and from the looks of the few I saw on his laptop they are absolutely spectacular. He did a great job of getting around to different corners on the track, especially considering how hot it was! Great work, Dito. Looking forward to seeing the results.

I had a chance to swap bikes with Andy which was a hoot. I found myself sitting up a bit higher on his bike - the suspension is a little stiffer but still compliant over bumps; it felt a lot like Glen's bike the first time I rode it. Andy's has a great midrange power delivery, different than what I expected. On the straight it was actually very evenly matched to my TLR, possibly even a little faster. He demonstrated a ...um... non-standard passing move in the top of the cyclone, going from curb to curb but managing to square it off before he took the Zook off-roading. His power wheelies into the hot pits were cut short by the rev-limiter on the big twin, which kicks in a lot earlier than his inline 4. With a little practice I'm sure he could keep the front end up past start/finish.

Thanks again Jimil for organizing a great day, and it was great to meet some of you guys and put faces to names. Rock on!

dave

By Jel

Man it was a hot one. I was just burnt out from the heat. By 2:30pm I had a splitting headache and called it a day. Shit, I think I rode more in the 110 heat last year.

Quite a few Strafers showed up. A few of them newer members so some of you may not have known them.

Here is my official list.

Alex Junio -blue R1
Andy Carman (PantyBuncher)
Dave Grace (dgrace)
Dion Dangzalan (SVsick50 - t-shirt designer)
Jay Dance (JJJAMN)
Jim Young (jimy) - red ducati 996
Jimil Borillo (Jel)
Megan Kau (cowtwnz)
Mike Freeman - GSXR600
Mike Thompson - Honda F4
Nick Ngo (dainese51)
Peter Shepherd (BlackThundercat)
Rich Lortz (rich)
Rob Graham (nocoderob) yellow GSXR750
Vince Ornum (yoda) - GSXR600

There were 4 crashes. 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. The first crash was my cousin, Carlo, on his Aprilia Mille. He lowsided in T4 when he lost the backend. It was his first time riding the bike at the track as he had just picked the bike up the previous Sunday. It had already been down on the same side and he got it for $5k so its not as bad as crashing new one. Damage was mostly cosmetic except for one of the seams on the radiator busting so that bike was done for the day. Luckily he came up with his brother and his RC51 so they were able to take turns riding the RC.

The 2nd crash was SVsick50 in T14. He went in too hot and got into the dirt and then went down. The bike wasn't damaged too bad but Dion decided to call it a day.

The 3rd crash was an older guy who actually joined us on a ride out on Hamilton. He went down in T5 and broke his collar bone. I guess he was pretty upset cause he was adamant about us loadiing up his stuff and wanting to leave ASAP. He drove home with his injury so I hope he is doing ok.

The 4th crash was also in the Cyclone. NocodeRob and his yellow GSXR750. Damage to the bike was minor so he should be up and running soon. New uppers, fairing stay, left lowers and he's good to go. Rob got a big mouse size welt on his elbow but he's ok.

I spent part of the morning leading Peter around and showing him some lines. I also followed my other cousin (Carlo's brother Allan) and gave him a few pointers.

The heat was affecting Bling as much as it did me and he was feeling out of it too. Although he did ride 5 more total miles than me.

Megan is looking really good out there. I'm so proud of her. She is such a go getter. She can prolly smoke half the members by now.

Nick got his knee down for the first time so he was proud of that. I know what that feels like! Congrats Nick!

MAJOR PROPS and KUDOS to Dito for coming out and taking pics. He was out there for a long time and got really burnt. I think he is about 4 shades darker. Thanks for the awesome pics! You are ready to go pro!

Thanks to Rich and Andy for being track marshall's as well as to Bling for helping to keep our trackday safe.

Also a big thanks to Peter for hooking us up with all the pies, muffins, and honey buns.

Big thanks to everyone for coming out and having a blast (literally and figuratively) in the heat!

If you do only 1 more TH trackday this year, save it for the October 23rd day. Weather should be just perfect then.

By Peter aka BlackThundercat

Well I’m no longer a virgin, a track virgin that is. I popped my cherry at Thunder Hill on June 4, 2003.

I have been wanting to attend a track day for a while but had no way to get the bike up there, neither of my cars have a tow hitch. Thanks to Rich’s offer to ride up with him, that problem was solved. Rich, thanks again for letting me tag along. It was worry free knowing you and Jimil had lots of experience tying down and prepping the bikes.

My other concern was attending an “open track day” as my first time. Being a first timer out there at the same time as a bunch of very fast guys had me a little worried. My biggest concern was that I would piss people off by being slow and screwing up their lines, but Jimil told me not to worry, just hold my line and be predictable.

I started the day out following Jimil during the siting laps. It was a big help to be able to get an idea of the lines to take. We did about 2 laps together and the track went green. I stayed out there for another 3 laps and then came in for a break. The first thing Rich told me when I got in was I had to start hanging off the bike. For the rest of the morning I ended up doing 3 laps and then coming in. I could feel myself getting a little tired at the end of the 2nd lap and figured it wasn’t worth pushing it in the heat, I had all day to ride. My concern about being the slow guy went away pretty quickly when I was not passed any where near as many times as I thought I would. I guess I picked good times to enter the track. Jimil’s advice to just hold my line and be predictable helped. I realized throughout the track there were plenty of places for me to take an inside or outside line once in a turn or straight that would easily allow anyone behind me to pass which made me feel comfortable using the whole track when setting up for a turn. After the first couple of sets Jimmy (who rode up with me, Rich and Jimil) warned me I needed to get my feet up on the pegs. He was behind me when my toe touched the track, so for the rest of the morning I tried to get more up on the balls of feet. I ended up getting in 17 laps before lunch. There was at least one time I had gotten all suited up and headed to my bike when they black flagged the track.

At lunchtime I was able to catch a ride into town with Rob and his friend. We had a nice lunch at the Black Bear. The drive into town, lunch in the restaurant and then the drive back to the track all with air conditioning was a nice break. My first session back on the track after lunch as awesome! I felt good and rested and finally got my footing right and realized how much more stable the bike was once I stayed on the balls of my feet. I got in three 4 lap sessions before they shut down the track for the 4th accident of the day. Again I had just gotten suited up to get back on the track. I was even more bummed when I found out that it was my friend Rob who had gone down. Fortunately he was ok (only a bruised elbow), but it was sad seeing his new Gixer 750 come in all banged up. At that point I was trying to decide if I should count my blessing I hadn’t run off the track and call it a day or temp fait once more for another session. It was almost 4 pm and pretty much every one had called it a day. Then I saw Jimmy suiting up for one more session and decided to go for it. I ended the day with a 3 lap session and pulled into the pits and called my wife to let her know I was done for the day and both me and the bike were still in one piece. In total I put 97 miles on the bike for the day. I have new respect for racers now.

Like many things you experience for the first time, it’s not until afterwards when you are reflecting back that you start getting really excited about how much fun it was. It was cool seeing faster riders blow by me and get so freaking low into the turns. The “Dredlocks” racer was unbelievably fast. Being able to keep people like Megan and Nick in site for a couple of turns after they passed me inspired me with how smooth they rode. Having experienced the freedom of an “open track” day I’m going to make it a point to try and attend the open format instead of the group session days.

There is no doubt I am on the road to becoming a “Track Whore”. I will for sure attend either the September or October track day at TH. It was great meeting some of you for the first time and getting to know others better.

I haven’t gotten back on the bike yet since I rode home on the freeway from Rich’s. It will be interesting to see how my street riding attitude may have changed after spending a day at the track.

I’m working on putting together a group ride for June 29th. It will be up Mt. Hamilton from San Jose and then down to the Junction where we will ride Del Puerto and then Mines back to Livermore. I’ll post the details in week or so.