03tlrmo

After watching Danny Eslick at laguna sliding like he was on a flat track. It looked cool but not one time did I really see him get ahead by doing that I personally think because they didn't show the replay of his crash but he probably toasted his tires doing that. If you seen the pics of everyones rears that were using proper corner entry techniques I could imagine what his looked like. I told my wife if he keeps that up he's gonna wreck and he did. Like I said it looks cool but it didn't put him in the lead not once.

I have to say steering input is correct. On my local track there is a small tight chicane that goes right to left. When you are entering the chicane you are dropping from 4th gear to 2nd or 1st. While doing this your trail braking pretty deep into the right hander. Then flick it over to the left and then apply the throttle as you bring the bike upright and get ready for the next turn. So I think to bring the bike upright or flick it over is a steering input while the throttle is mainly to carry momentum for faster times. If you are waiting until the bike is close to upright to apply the throttle you are applying the throttle to late. I start applying the throttle as soon as I can in midturn or I should say rolling on the throttle. Just my 2 cents.

Jef4y said it best I am not even that fast on the track yet but I have noticed when I come up on slower riders they are trying their hardest to drag a knee. Because you are low to the ground doesn't necessarily mean you are traveling fast. I personally think your trying to hard if you live by a mountain I would try the no brakes coasting down the mountain that Keith Code talks about it really helps you with smooth corner entrance.

Yeah I do not mean anything with the braking side I meant the tires breaking loose and how to control with your throttle not to loose it. Instead of getting the sphincter pucker or sr you react to what you need to do.

I decided to go to level one instead of getting my racing license in november. I am just curious as to what track you guys run at firebird? How much gas would get me through the day?

Keith, after reading this article it builds my confidence in what I thought I was doing wrong to I know for a fact what I am doing wrong. I am braking way too much almost every corner I am kicking myself because I am not caring enough speed. I could probably use a couple of extra downshift a gear in some spots instead of the brakes.

I just hate when your coming into a corner and you think "I'm too hot!". You squeeze a little brakes then when your cornering you say "You dumb@$$ you could have gone in with that speed now your rpms are way too low to get a good drive out of a corner." This is where I am practicing right now if I can get this right I know I will be putting down expert times I need to shed 13 seconds to be on of the fastest and I know this is where their are at. Too much braking, lower corner speed, slower to get to next corner, do this every corner and that adds up to alot of time. I tried the no brake thing going down a mountain. It's not the same on the track canyons are more flowing the track corners com up so fast and are alot sharper.

Thanks! yeah it's a funky angle to take a picture at. Your right it's the carousel what you don't see is my problem I move over on the bike but when I go to put my knee down it pops right back up. I don't lose stability in the turn but I know proper form the knee should come down. I went to that website but it says you can't post until you go for a ride or something. Problem is that I no longer have a streetbike it's a wreck and thats followed with no license suspended tags the list goes on and on. The main one is that I just don't belong on the street I got in trouble so to speak on the trackday they didn't say no names but I know it was pointed at me. I kept passing in the corners and in begginners your not supposed to do that. The people were going slow they riding completely upright I'm not losing tracktime because somebody is a fartknocker, I paid $160 I wanna go fast. how can you learn if you don't try.

Keiths book is probably the reason why I did so good for my first trackday. I read that book forward and backward, it's memorized. The biggest thing that stuck with me was, get braking and body position done before you enter the turn. It works so all day I worked on getting that process faster and deeper into the braking zone and I got faster every time I rolled on the track. How is team az trackdays? I like the way aztrackdays are set up but I need as much practice as possible. Plus I turned into a track junkie. I have a tlr that I wrecked and was going to fix so I can keep riding in the street, but I get to much tickets I don't know how to go slow. I'm trying to sell it or part it out I need my own suit and back protector but nobody likes the tlr don't know why it's a powerful bike. Check it out not bad for a first timer and someone who has only been on a bike for a year period. By the end of the day my knee was dragging. If you see anything please say it will give me something else to think about IMG_2733.bmp

I was there when the lap record was broken he was flying. I was in beginners it was my very first trackday I will be at supersquid next session, hopefully not to long there as it was the class with the most crashes. I am cautious with 1:00 goal but I believe in momentum. I ended the day with an instructor saying he tried to catch me but couldn't and for me to go ahead and go up to superstreet next session along with the instructor I was trying to catch. I never forced the issue the biggest thing that slowed me down was consistency. I'm not on that board never heard of it I am on this one and southwest racing as tlreese I need to change since I am trying to get rid of my tlr and focus on racing in that league. I didn't time myself but probably will at east since that is where I have a comparison who knows maybe I'm as slow as butter but I really don't think so. They told me at the beginning most people don't drag their knee on their first trackday and I did. I'll tell you one thing relaxation if your not relaxed and confident youll never get faster. Are you going to be out there next week? What do you ride? Do you live in Pheonix? I live in Tucson if your gonna be out there in 2 weeks for a trackday I'm on a black and white gsxr introduce yourself I don't know anyone out there but my wife (crew cheif).

No, I will be out on the 19th on the east track. I plan on timming myself if I score a 1 minute or less I will go ahead and start racing. Since the top amature scored a 1:00 and the top expert a 00:56 I will be able to compete. I passed amature racers on the trackday but I seen the races and I know they are slow I don't want to just be in the race I want to compete. I lucked out though I bought a 01 600 gsxr for a fairly decent price (cheap as hell considering the mechanic from emgo suzuki put it together). I mean the bike rails through the turns the only time I felt a wobble was when my foot and peg scraped the ground and I have my rearsets all the way up.

I had my first trackday on the west track at pheonix firebird. I would like to thank this forum and Keith Codes articles for making my first experience a great one. I was on my new 01 600 gsxr race bike(it's new to me) and I was the fastest beginner on the street lapping 1000cc in the session. I am trying to put money away so I can get to a class. If reading totw2 and keiths articles helped me that much I can't wait to see what the class does for you.

I think more now that it has been a couple of days. It comes down to now what I think is an SR. The experience I had just built confidence in my throttle control which is helping me keep the bike in the power band throughout the turn. I will still be purchasing a dirt bike soon. They are alot of fun.

Any Idea when the 2006 schedule will come out would like to get my spot and need to start saving now but also have to plan vacation from work and stuff like that. Just worried don't want to lose a spot because of late registration would like to pay in advance way in advance. I also have to attend code race by the end of the year(2006) so I can race 2007.

Good post as always. Thanks for keeping it real, and giving some great advice in a respectable manner. Plus your race reports are a great motivation to get myself out on the track in the wera west 2007 season. I will be obtaining a gixxer 600 this year cut down from my 1000 vtwin tlr I wanted to race, due to some of your advice. And I will be attending Keiths school and code race. Hope you get to have more fruitfull seasons of racing.