Trackday Video

I went on my first trackday of 2006 last Monday at Donington, most
enjoyable. One of the guys with us had some video equipment on his
race bike so he followed me around for one session. Thought I'd stick
it up on the web for you to all laugh at or perhaps get you in the
mood for tomorrow.

6 mins long. Quality is a bit shit as google seems to compress the
uploaded vid with a lump hammer. You need to shrink the window down
otherwise it's shite, but then I'm sure most of you already knew that
anyway...

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=4994483914879209832

 

The quality looks okay to me considering some of the
re-re-re-re-re-compressed garbage that is uploaded to Google.

Perhaps it's a bit of a silly question, Daz, but what is the general
thinking about over/undertaking during a race. What I mean is is
there some kind of gentlemen's agreement during racing about when it's
considered safer to pass the bloke in front? The machines get rather
bunched up around bends and I'd have thought excessive movement would
be more of a hazard than anything else. Is there a spoken or unspoken
rule as to what is acceptable or is it just a free for all?

 

What I find interesting is that you are obviously much faster than a
lot of the people there - However the guy taking the video would appear
to be *much* quicker than you[1].

That's very dis-heartening for people like me you know.


[1] you mention race bike, so this may well not be at all surprising.

 

Farkin' good that was, thanks for sharing.

 

Generally you shouldn't "stuff it up the inside" as they say which
means potentially knocking people off line. However, I'm of the
opinion that if you're in the fast group you're fair game and should
accept people passing *safely* but close.

 

Without wishing to seem critical of Daz's riding (given that I've
never even done a track day so know sweet fa about it) he does seem to
be braking quite ewarly for some of the bends, notably the chicane
after the dunlop bridge.

Why? THere's always going to be someone faster.

I think Daz's is pretty much a race bike anyway, innit?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

Hmm, well it looked to be a K5/K6 GSX-R 1000 to me... with road tyres

 

I always took it to mean no more risk than you'd take on the road, but
maybe that's just me.

 

On 26 Jul 2006 10:27:21 GMT, "dwb" <>
wrote:

It was a fairly slow fast group. His laptimer had us doing 1:20.
I've done high 1:16 around there on my race bike. On the road bike I
really don't push too much. I was in 3rd and 4th for 90% of the lap,
only dropping to 2nd for the Goddards chicane. My braking points are
always a lot earlier too. The guy on the race bike summed it up
nicely actually by saying "An upright day is a good day".

He's quick but without sounding like a knob I'm confident on a race
bike I'd be quicker. Which is why I'm getting another one. )

How so?

 

Ahh, fair point. I didn't look that closely, just saw no number plate.
In which case he's probably not going as quick as he might.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

As Champ says, it's anything goes to the limit of being dangerous.

He who has the wheel in front always has the advantage, so if
there's somebody already on the apex of the corner that you
want then you have to give way. This leads to the "block pass"
which means that if you can get into the corner quick enough,
you can basically park it there in front of the quicker guy and it's
his job to go around you... a wonderful tactic for getting past
people in sheer desperation ;-)

A perfect racing line doesn't cover the inside of the corner
enough to stop someone barrelling up the inside and being
very late on the brakes to take your apex. They can then
exit the corner at their leisure while you are stuck behind;
fast in, slow out.

However, taking a very defensive (inside) line means that
someone can take brake much deeper into the corner to
"square the corner off", picking the bike upright much
earlier and therefore being able to apply the gas quicker
and get out of the corner before you do; slow in, fast out.

It's all a question of not leaving enough gap either way,
being aware of other riders around you and knowing what
to do should they put a move on.

 

Taunt them, until they crash.

 

I prefer to go straight across their line and "shut the door"
if I see them trying to get past me, as there's nothing worse
than the bike in front going for the bit of tarmac you want.

Works a treat most times, but unfortunately you don't
get to see them crash behind you :-(

 

No bull bars fitted to the bike?

Phil.

 

Indeed but I thought I'd let you get the Manx out of the way first.
We'll talk tomorrow if you ever get off the track. )

 

Daz wrote:

[snip 6 minutes of 3rd party filming Daz's arse]

Are you 'grooming' BGN?

 

What, do you think he wants to turn me queer or something?

 

I wouldn't rule it out, mind you I reckon I'm quite hetero but after
only 6 minutes of Daz's arse I've got this urge to buy tickets to
Kylie's tour & one of those leather policeman's hats, myself.

 

Don't let me stop you.

 

It depends what you're looking to get out of it. It's a nice ego-stroke
if you're faster than someone else on "lesser" machinery[1], but I like
riding a track for the chance to ride a bit of road quickly and
correctly. Less distractions, less outside factors to think of and you
get many goes at the same corner.

I can't say I haven't enjoyed overtaking people on trackdays, but when
people have come past me it hasn't ruined my day. Unless I turn into
one of the MotoGP crowd (a certain Mr. Rossi springs to mind) there
will *always* be someone faster, if not many people.

[1] e.g. stock SV round cadwell <g>