Some of you may remember that my Shorai battery bit the dust during round 1 at Putnam Park, and during my prepping the bike for last weekend's round at Gateway Motorsports Park, I found the reason - my OEM R/R finally failed, at a little over 32,000 miles... it was sending almost 18 volts to the battery!

After sorting out the fueling issue in the pilot circuit, putting the bike back together, and washing it, we loaded everything up and headed for the track.
I got to GMP Friday afternoon, and helped to deploy the air fence, then got registered, went through tech, and set up in the paddock.

I had replaced the battery with a temporary 4-cell Alien Motion unit, but at the track, before the first session, I upgraded to the 8-cell version, so I'd be able to better support the total-loss system.

 

Saturday

Most of Saturday was spent working with control riders and fast racers, getting to know the track, but the 3 sessions where I was no longer tagging on the back of someone, were as follows:

1) Average lap time of 1:31.547 with a fastest lap of 1:28.415
2) Average lap time of 1:30.782 with a fastest lap of 1:27.897
3) Average lap time of 1:27.753 with a fastest lap of 1:26.843

Sunday

Sunday was a struggle between excitement, and extreme sadness, as in the race before mine, a rider lost his life.
I ran 3 sessions, but skipped the two sessions in the afternoon, before my race, partially to rest a bit, but mostly to absorb what had just happened.
My three Sunday sessions were as follows:

1) Average lap time of 1:26.898 with a fastest lap of 1:25.717
2) Average lap time of 1:24.361 with a fastest lap of 1:21.235
3) Average lap time of 1:24.860 with a fastest lap of 1:21.837

I was a little slower in the race, which I kind of expected, as I was quite shaken up with the loss of a fellow racer - my race had an average lap time of 1:24.485 with a fastest lap of 1:22.632 - this race included one brief grass-tracking excursion at the exit of 6B.

These are not great, or even good lap times, really, but it's a baseline for improvement at a track I've never seen before.

The super fast guys at this track are running 1:11's to 1:13's, and sometimes dipping under the 1:10's, but as you can imagine, this is in the fastest class, with guys ALL on much newer, faster, and lighter equipment, and with many weekends at this track.

The winner of my Sunday race was running in the 1:14's to 1:15's... he was running a 2013 BMW S1000RR! I'm just doing what I can with this old beast!

I was very happy with the improvement to the shift action, and though I experienced some clutch slippage the first times I was running hard down the straight, once I put a little slack back in the lever, the EBC Kevlar clutch was superb, and felt great when I launched it in my race.

The Dunlop slicks were fantastic - good feel, and no grip issues whatsoever.

So it was a successful weekend for me, all told, as I had no mechanical problems, no crashes, got to know the track a little bit, and steadily got faster in the practice sessions - I'll be back at this track in August, and HPT is up next, the weekend of July 11th - 12th.

 

The loss sucks man. I would be cautious while absorbing it too. That said, you still see an increase of pace with your lap times from day to day. Seems to me your picking up the nuances of the track quickly. All things considered, an improvement of 6 seconds on one is pretty good in my book in a 48 hour period.
How'd the battery work out for ya

 

under the circumstance of new to you track and fellow rider lost his life id say you did great.. i give you alot of props for even going out there after hearing that hart breaking news... racing as you know is 90% mental and with out a good mental state of mind your proformance will suffer..through out the years i have been at a few races where a life was lost and one of the times it was a very close friend of mine so i understand how you must have felt.. but with no mechanical problems, no crashes for you id call that a good race weekend..

 

All true... I'm pretty happy with the progress, and I'll be back there in August, with some minor changes which will hopefully help... not to mention just more seat time.

It worked great, but the long term will be the only way to know for sure, especially once the total-loss setup is initiated.
I have a great charger for it, which has charging rates selectable from 2 to 5 amps, and all these rates can be used with a cell balancing mode.

 

Once again - all true... I knew that I had to race, as had I not, I might have begin to question the whole idea of it, you know what I mean?
I had to go out, because running that race, despite what had just happened, was entirely necessary to keep momentum through the rest of the season.

The incident was tough, and it went beyond hearing about it - I was watching the race from the timing and scoring tower, and saw everything - I immediately knew who it was, and within the hour I happened to end up relaying information between the riders father, who was also in the race, and individuals at the track, including another racer who was involved.

This is a dangerous sport, and all those involved know it, though it might not be on our minds all that often... this was a sad and sobering experience that forces us all to think about those potential dangers once again.

 

Dude very sorry to read this, and even more sorry for you having to witness it happening...

Makes me wonder is it a good idea after all to plan my first ever track day on my holiday 6.8. Got the track scedule open in another tab...

 

Go with your "gut", man, that's all I can say. If you really want to do it, you've just gotta do it, especially if you think that you'll later regret having not done it.

 

Something I`ve wanted to do ever since I bought a bike, still on the seesaw am I gonna sell or track the cbr when the Daytona eventually gets finished so there`s no doubt about it. Yes the possibility of a spill is there but it IS an old bike not really worth selling so if I don`t hurt myself or others don`t really care if I lose it in a crash since I already got another. It`s one of the oldest race tracks in Finland and only 78km away from our house.

 

Go for it, Mattson, that's what I say... it's also good to know that it's very difficult to lose these bikes in a crash, anyway, as they crash well... tough bikes!