AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

The off-season is over. It’s game time, baby.

I spent this weekend up at Thunderhill with ZoomZoom – one of many weekends I’ll be spending with them, since I’m a season pass holder this year. Among the convenience benefits, like getting tech inspection in your pit area, season pass holders get to ride A and B group all day long… twice the track time, at less than the regular price for the day (if you do the math for the whole year). Having that extra time is phenomenal. It totally removes pressure to “go faster” with each lap, and allows me time to coach other riders, play with body position, look at track surface characteristics, etc.

As Jason was betting, I never touched the SV. I got on the R6 and never stopped. I’m pretty sure I won’t be racing the SV at all this year, and it’ll probably be up for sale in May. Why? A) the R6 is way more fun, period. It’s great really having some power to play with. It’s only my ability that keeps me from chasing and catching nearly anyone on the track. B) The power delivery is so different on the two bikes that I’d be chasing my tail trying to develop my abilities/set up for a track on both bikes in parallel. Too many different things to manage. I’ll learn way faster on one.

I spent most of Saturday just trying to get used to the much higher corner approach speeds, and discovered some weird body position stuff. Apparently, I moved very differently for right hand turns vs. left hand turns. It took until Sunday morning to generally sort that out, but it made everything much more comfortable, relaxed and in control the rest of the weekend.

I was hoping to beat my best SV lap time around thunderhill by the end of Sunday (2:00.5), but I only managed 2:01’s. However, that was a very consistent, comfortable trackday lap time. Getting a new rear tire Sunday afternoon really helped… I was sliding around on the used tire that came on the bike, keeping me from getting on the gas early.

The best part of the weekend was just hangin out with the crew again. I’ve missed all my racing buddies and it was refreshing to dice it up on the track and BS in the pits over beer in the evenings.

This year might just be even more fun than last year.

Jason playing with Bailey.