AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

I spent Friday and Saturday up at Thunderhill for 2 days of fun with the ZoomZoom crew.  Jason and Jennifer’s trailer was ground zero for the fun, with Eric Snyder(536), Rick Ford (933), Dave Zavatson(990) pitting with us, and Kristy Miller(636) next door.  With lots of good bbq and cold beverages after hours, this group kept the fun going non-stop.

We ran the track backwards on Friday, providing a unique opportunity to learn a “new” track and practice wrapping my head around new corners and lines in a short amount of time.  It was also a great opportunity to not worry about lap times, and focus on basic body position and bike setup.  We’ll never race this configuration because some of the turns don’t have enough runoff in the event of a get-off.  Taking it back a notch during a trackday minimizes the risk, but it’s not an option for racing.

One of the highlights for Friday’s practice was taking Jason’s bike out for a spin.  For a bike which is theoretically the same (first gen SV650), it felt like a completely different beast.  The overall geometry is different, the suspension oil weight, level, preload, rebound and compression settings are all different.  However, after comparing notes, we felt we could have run our regular pace after a few laps of adapting to the bike.  It was a great opportunity to realize that at our level, while dialing in the bike is important, improving the rider’s ability is far more crucial.

Saturday was a bit more focused on dialing in lap times with the regular counter-clockwise direction.  I haven’t been on the track since last fall, and only spent a half a day on the SV when I first bought it.  I had times down to just under 2:07 by lunchtime, which wasn’t horrible.  Winning times next round should be around 2 flat.   I hooked up with Zoran of TwinWorks for a session after lunch, to get some of his insight.  He chased me for a few laps, then buzzed by for me to follow.  Damn, that dude moves.  He’s willing to get really close to other riders he’s passing, and put the bike on the very edge of the track at speeds where the bike is wobbling a LOT.  That kind of confidence in your skills only comes from lots of seat time.  Chasing him, I dropped another 2 seconds to a 2:05 flat, in regular trackday traffic.  After coming in, we talked through most of the corners, and I learned a bit more about where I can pick up speed.

I also brought my street bike (’06 GSXR 750) for a little fun with 130hp.  I toned things down a lot in the interest of keeping both wheels down with all my nice pretty street plastics in one piece, but still had some fun.  I was turning 2:06s, mostly by blasting by bikes on the front straight.  Ahhhh, power can be fun.

I need to find another day or two of practice at Thunderhill, particularly with some top 10 SV riders.  One session running with Zoran was more useful than a whole day of practicing alone.  I’ll need to find another couple seconds to break into the top 10 in Round 4 at Thunderhill, but I think that should be doable.