Well I am now an officially licensed Road Racer. This was my first race at Brainard International Raceway, and it was definitely  a toughy.

Friday:
I had New Rider Practice on Friday and it sprinkled rain all day. At the end of the day it began to pour rain, and we also happened to run the New Riders Race at the same time. We decided to run anyways and it was probably the most scarry/fun thing I have ever done. For those unfamiliar with BIR it has a extermly long straight(0.5 miles) which leads to a long right hand turn. This right hand turn is the fastest in North America, and on a GS it is unreal. The problem with the rain, however, is that the strait does double duty as a drag strip, and for traction the drag racers use VHT. When this becomes wet, however, its like riding on ice. So basically the race consisted of me focusing on going exactly down the middle of the straight hoping that I didn't slip and die, followed by Turn 1, at 90MPH in the rain and the rest of the infield was pretty slow.

here is a pic


Saturday:
Practice in the morning, and due the rain I ran the stock Perillii Sport Deamons which worked well. By the second practice of the day the track was nice and dry and I got to rip up the track. If anyone cares, the Sport Deamons are pretty damn sticky tires, and could handle turn one at 9500RPM with 17F/39R gearing, which is like 128MPH, and I could hold it pinned through turn 2 also. I was running 1:22 for most laps on practice and could not get any more power out the bike.
Ultralight Supersport- First and only race of the weekend, manged are respectably 9th place with a total of 12 riders. I think with some race tires I could be running at the front of the pack. Best Lap Time 1:22.53 on the second lap(it started sprinkling after that). The average speed for that time is 75.6MPH

Sunday- Weather shows an 80% rain, so I don't sign up for any races, turns out to be sunny and 70°F . I run practice only and really get the Pirellis to slide around. The bike is also getting way down on power, and starving for fuel down the straight. I am running the stock petcock right now, so I did the ol' switch to prime technique and worked like charm. It was really windy and had a hard time getting the bike up to speed down the straight.

Tips to riders- When going 120MPH+ and trying to turn, it can be simply done by putting out your knee, it works like a big sail and will pull you into the corner. Putting inputs into the bars is very hard at top speed.

Wow, thanks for the report!  I can't wait to get my GS out on the track, so I'm enjoying living vicariously through you.

Your first must be intimidating enough, I can't imagine it with rain!  Congrats on the 9th place finish though!  Any more pictures?

-Turd.

Sounds like a fun weekend... Good way to get you feet wet







...oh man that was horrible

I wish I still lived there so I could come check it out.  You got more balls than me, taking a turn at 90mph in the rain, but I can't say I wouldn't mind attempting it some day.  Congrats on a successful first weekend though

I found a map that some might find interesting:

Quote from: coll0412 on May 09, 2007, 09:04:04 AM

http://www.momentumphoto.net/events/cra/07may/220/images/CRA07_MAY_0063.jpg

http://www.momentumphoto.net/events/cra/07may/220/images/CRA07_MAY_0098.jpg

http://www.momentumphoto.net/events/cra/07may/220/images/CRA07_MAY_0136.jpg

http://www.momentumphoto.net/events/cra/07may/220/images/CRA07_MAY_0180.jpg

http://www.momentumphoto.net/events/cra/07may/220/images/CRA07_MAY_0240.jpg


Pics didn't work for me, here's links instead.

Glad you had a good time! 

We used to race in the rain @ Sears Point, back in the day...they don't anymore...

Crouch down more, and get your elbows down; it makes pivot steering much easier; Pivot Steering is a subject Keith Code writes about, and Doc Wong has a class dedicated to it.  Hope this constructive criticism helps.

wtf.. pics didn't work before, now they work. Did you do something?

Awesome pictures!  I'm so freakin jealous...  I'm doing a track day in August, we'll see if I get bit by the bug.

-Turd.

Scrath- THanks for tips, luckily there was a another GS rider who was far more experienced than me and showed me around. Here is a pick of him 



NGFL- Didn't do a thing, must be you 

tha looks like fun !... though I dunno about tryin git out in the rain in a curve at 90MPH..

I have this great book called " sport riding techniques" in PDF... you should it up on it... it talks about how to make your ride easier on the road and track .. (as per previous technical comment made by someone else)..

anyways... cool man... keep it up. 

Quote from: coll0412 on May 09, 2007, 12:14:55 PM
NGFL- Didn't do a thing, must be you 

Happened to me too... maybe there was something temporarily wrong with momentumphoto's website