1st track day video - Barber Motorsports Park

[mbridge51]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaOlOQeioOY]YouTube - 1st Track Day[/ame]


Well, for what its worth, here's a short video of my 1st ever track day. It was at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. The only bike I could keep up with was another FZ6R.

Most all the other bikes were R6's, R1's, CBR's, GSXR's, ZX6R's and a bunch of Ducati's.... most all lighter weight, with more horsepower, better brakes, and better suspensions. Granted, this was my 1st time on the track and I'm a novice, but the FZ6R just could not torque up and pull in the straights like the bikes mentioned above. It was clear how superior the other bikes brakes and suspensions were, relative to how hard they could brake without their front suspensions bottoming out quite as bad as the FZ6R.

The Barber course is very technical and the last thing that I wanted to do was damage myself or the bike, so I took it a little slower than if I had previously been on the track. I did the track day through the NESBA organization and was impressed with how they ran the event. There were about 40 bikes in the beginner class and only about 10 of us seemed like actual beginners. One guy in the beginner class drove from Phoenix, had two R6's, a motorhome, tire warmers & other gear, and a mechanic with 21 years experience working on Yamaha's. I witnessed quite a few wrecks and the ambulance had to haul a few people off during the day.

Riding the FZ6R in that environment was still a blast and I would do it again through NESBA.

Sorry if the video is hard to watch...first time trying to post a video.

 

[flyingminno]

Good video and nice job for your first tack day. Granted, the 6R isn't as capable on the track as other bikes, but I bet you were more comfortable on the ride home than mostly everyone. Though to improve, you might want to try staying in our torque band rather than up shifting early. Other than that, later braking and more daring lines will help you.

 

[Heineken]

Good job! REPRESENT!!!
)

 

[99vengeur]

Nice job. Barber is VERY technical to start out on for your first trackday. :thumbup:

I completely agree with minno. To be better on the track, you probably should have stayed in 2-3 gear the entire time. Let that engine whine out in the upper rpm range, that's where our power is. You could run the whole track with your rpms in the 7-10,000 range no problem.

 

[mbridge51]

Nice job. Barber is VERY technical to start out on for your first trackday. :thumbup:

I completely agree with minno. To be better on the track, you probably should have stayed in 2-3 gear the entire time. Let that engine whine out in the upper rpm range, that's where our power is. You could run the whole track with your rpms in the 7-10,000 range no problem.

Thanks for the feeback and I agree with it. Running at higher RPM would have really helped me to pull out of the curves with more speed and gain speed faster. It took about 2 or 3 sessions just to get a good handle on the track and different lines. People were running off the track into the kitty litter and grass frequently.

When was the last time you did Barber and what other tracks have you done track days at? VIR and Road Atlanta are not very far away from me and I'm thinking about one of them.

 

[99vengeur]

I actually haven't done any official trackdays. I am about eight hours from the nearest NESBA track, and I don't have a way to trailer the bike there. So I would have to ride to and from the track (not fun!) or rent something to haul the bike.

However, I am really close to some tracks in LA and TX. I went to a trackday as a mechanical support team member, but didn't actually ride. I need to get some time for me to actually participate.