Ouch. You can see the rider impact the wall. I hope he is ok. NCM is really fun, but they need to move some walls. Some of us old timers remember wheel chair alley, AKA the kink at Road America. (very fun, very dangerous) Tracks should be getting safer,not worse. :crutch:
Experience, good markers, no coasting.... Thats how you go faster. Think about how many corners the track has... If your 10 seconds off pace then you need to shave off a little bit at each corner. I just helped my buddy last weekend drop 10 full seconds because he was coasting into every single corner. Which.... Was how he was taught in Novice,not a bad thing... By end of day I had him trailing into every corner and all we did was work on corner setup, brake markers, and entry speed.
Oh yeah. 70's and 80's WERA racing there. Before the chicane was introduced prior to the back straight off of the carousel. You could get a great run down that straight. And that was with bikes with an average of -40HP compared to today. Yes. NCM needs to address this before a rider gets seriously hurt. Com'on. Let's get proactive on this.
I would throw in something I heard a long time ago. Sometimes you have to go slower to go faster. Throw out that laptimer and watching the clock each lap. Back down to 80 to 90% and work on things closing the distance from rolling off throttle to applying the brakes. Braking later. Late apex, early apex. Experiment! You can't do those things well when chasing lap times all the time. One of the biggest eye openers I found can be rear mounting a camera and seeing where people crawl up your ass from getting on the brakes too early or listening to the audio on a forward mounted camera. I was surprised how much coasting I was doing when I was certain I was on the throttle.
Absolutely no reason that crash had to happen. How do you drop time you ask? Show this video to any coach/instructor and they will point out at least a dozen places, for starters, to drop time. If you're there on the 22/23 let me know.
I suggest Pirelli or Michelin Lots more tracktion that Dunlops. tracktion = more grip = more confidence
Yea, I think my next track day I'll just leave the laptimer at the house. It just caused me frustration from not getting faster than a 2:07.08. My whole day was a flop really. Next event I'll just work on riding at a 80-90% pace and work on lines and brake points and stuff like that. I plan to sign up for the 22nd, doing both days is rough in this summer heat! I need to get back in the gym. Riding at a "I" pace wasn't tiring at all but riding at an "A" pace for the full sessions wore me down. After riding all day I feel like I need to put an IV in myself and run a L of D5w-1/2NS+20K in. Next season I'll plan to be in better shape. I used to go to the gym 4-5 days a week but life got in the way and I've been out for a couple years. Steve, If you're coaching A ill try to get with you and we can work on everything a bit.
Ok I have a question. I mirrored pretty much the same order for my next event. Dunlop N-Tec's med front and med+ rear. I went with the Moto-D single temp warmers which heat to 185. I just noticed on Dunlops website they recommend having the tires on the warmers at 158. Is 185 going to make them too hot and slippery? I am new to the A group also and this will be my first time running slicks.
Can you point out where you saw that temp recommendation on their site? http://stores.racetireservice.com/ I'm not seeing that anywhere. It seems odd that it would be that low. Most slicks have to be run at higher temps (Michelin's optimal range is like 180-200 or so for the rear and 170-180 for the front, or something like that). Most people who get slicks too soon struggle to keep the required temps in the tires for them to work properly, and the tires will actually cool down as you ride. 158 just seems way too low for a slick. I used to run the Dunlop GP-A211 DOT tires which were the same as the slicks but with groves in them. I had tire warmers on them up to like 175 degrees and they were fine. No issues. Plus, your tires will never actually reach the temp specified by the tire warmers....maybe if you leave them on for like 4-5 hours, but nobody does that. If you really want to check actual temps of tires for the sake of curiosity, you can get a pyrometer, which measure the temp just under the surface of the tire (they have a little spike probe that you poke the tire with to measure the temp about 2-3 mm under the surface).
It was in the bottom of the email I recieved for my sale reciept. here: http://www.dunlopracing.com/Warmers.pdf
Let me know how you like the new tires. I'm in the same boat, thinking about making the jump from Q3's (which I love) and was also thinking of staying with Dunlop. After reading what Bart said about Pirelli's and Michelins having more grip though, I might have to reconsider. Doesn't sound like anyone has tried the GP Pro's. Was thinking of starting there since they don't require warmers.
I like them alot, I didn't experience any issues other than getting the rear to spin up a couple times. When the rear did spin up it was much smoother and easier to reel back in than the Q3s. The Q3s tired to kill me via a almost highside. The Dunlop slicks just "stepped slightly" and then went back to gripping. I heard the dunlops last longer than the michelins so thats nice. I would like to try to Michelin cup evos but I haven't seen anywhere to order them online besides ebay and the dunlops are cheaper than ebay prices. Another thing to note was how much lighter the slicks are than the Q3s. As soon as I got on the track I noticed how much quicker the bike transitioned and "fell" into the turns. It took a session or two to get used to.
I worked with Steve all Saturday and dropped another 4 seconds. My new NCM fastest lap is a 2:03.56. I'm averaging a low 2:04 lap time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHxD_xIsc74
If you're talking about these GP-A Pros http://dunlopracing.com/tires-products/gpapro/ They are most definitely race tires and warmers are recommended. I was on a set for the Dave Moss weekend and they felt just like the slicks to me. BTW Dave Grey can get you Dunlop race tires.
It is my experience with the GPA Pro that A) They require warmers like any other race tire, B) Dry (have no idea about wet) grip comparable to a set of slicks and C) Do not last as long as the NTEC Slick. While in a pinch I'd ride them without reservation, I'd rather have the NTEC Slick.