AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

Basics

Tire pressure: 31/22 (Michelin Slick, Pilot Power Race)

I pitted between 2 other guys named Greg. Pretty random, but a great deal, since one of them had a generator. He was nice enough to let me run my tire warmers and battery charger all day long. Those tire warmers are pretty nice when the temp’s 30 degrees on the drive up.

The day started a bit rough, since I found myself running the sighting laps with the power way low. Felt like it was firing on one cylinder. I went ahead and ran 2 laps in the first A group session before pulling off due to the ridiculously low power. A guy named Dave, on another SV, came over when the tank was up and pointed out the obvious coil wire I’d bumped off when messing with my charging setup over the weekend. All good, and back in the game with the next session.

The new cams (’03 into ‘00, with timing changes, etc) worked pretty well. It didn’t feel a ton faster, but I was wheelie-ing out of 8 in 3rd gear at 100mph coming down into the bus stop. Fun stuff.

Session Notes

1:00pm

Best: 1:50.8

• Backed off, focused on body position, smoothness, hitting the chosen apex
• Still wearing down my right puck funny (Not sure what I’m doing unevenly with my body)
• Staying wide on entry to turn 2 is great, but pushing wide at apex
  • Need to start turn-in sooner
• Let myself be caught behind slower riders. Need to think past them.
• Found I can be pretty deep into 7 on the brakes and run wide but still get around fine, just changing the exit line.
• Did look up past the riders to focus on the track ahead while on the carousel.
  • Need to do this more and have consistent enough lines that I don’t have to think about my line, just knowing exactly where it will be, and mapping whether his line will cross min, and at what time.

Next:

• Focus on symetrical body position
• Visualize lines 2 turns out
• Try an earlier apex on 2 with the same wide start

2pm session

Best: 1:48.6

• Focused on smoother & lighter
• Started getting another shift done in the bus stop transition
• Overdid the earlier apex on 2 a tad, but overall better
• Ok through ES’s. Need to do last left sooner.

Next:

• Focus on symmetric body position and tight crouch
• Visualize the whole line – where you are now and in the next ten seconds
• Things to do again
  • Wide approach to 2
  • Shift in bus stop
  • Ignoring faster riders
• Dont swing wide for 8. Stay crouched and focus on really quick change overs.

3pm session

Best: 1:52.0

• Pushed harder this session with little gain
• Not sure if approach to 8 is working

Next:

• Super smooth, zero extra movement.
• Try wider 8 again.

4pm session

• Lap times no better than 1:51.
• Too tired to go much faster
• I let myself push way too hard early in the day, burning out

Take aways:

• Go slowly.
• Get rid of the lap timer for the first half of the day.
• Pick a turn at a time and learn an aggressive but repeatable brake, downshift, turn-in sequence.