I am a bit behind with my blog posts the last few months, as you can see from my Part 2 of our Japan MotoGP trip, which went up almost eleven weeks after the fact. I have a good reason and I may blog about it at some point, but not here or yet.
No, this one is about getting back to Morgan Park to attend Level 3 of California Superbike School back at the end of October. To add to the fun my young bloke, Will, had booked in for Level 1 on the same day. About a week before the day CSS emailed to say that they had secured the track for another day and would anyone like to book more levels. I would have liked to but I had only put in for the one day off work but Will already had the day off so booked in for Level 2 as well. I must say, I am really pleased with his desire to learn how to ride better. While he wants to do it to be faster, I know it will also make him safer as he has quite good situational awareness when on the road (for a young fella).
I was keen to use my GSXR750 for the day but rain was predicted and the Gixxer is on slicks. Another issue is that there is no time to put warmers on after each session as you need to quickly attend a debrief on arrival back at the pits. This would put the slicks through multiple heat cycles in one day, effectively wearing them out.
With this in mind I decided to use my R1 as it had treaded Michelin Power GP tyres on it. Will was going to use his Daytona come hell or high water - not his CBR500 road bike - so we needed to swap the CBR’s near new front Michelin Road 6 onto the Daytona and then purchase a rear Road 6 for it. All for the same reasons I just gave above.
As usual we drove up the afternoon before so as to get a good sleep before the early start. It is nice to have a support driver these days so ‘ol Dad can stare out the window.
We got interrupted sleep as a massive thunderstorm rolled over Warwick that night and proceeded to pound us for about two hours.
The morning dawned clear and calm.
The Daytona had a belly pan absolutely full to the brim with water though. I had told Will to drill a drain hole and install a bung months ago.
Now we would need to pull it off and drill a drain hole under the pressure of getting our bikes scrutineered and signed in for the day. I’ve lost count of the number of “told you so” moments over the last couple of years….. either way, I was still pretty much the first through scrutineering and parked up near the instructor’s bikes.
There had clearly been a lot of rain overnight and the volunteer marshals were busy cleaning up the track where run off had dragged mud aross a few corners.
After a introductory briefing we split up into our respective groups and went to class.
The day progressed as expected…well, with one unexpected mishap. One of the instructors was from the US and for some reason seemed to be carving up our combined Level 3 and 4 on track class. As we were taking it easy and following the drills which required the use of only two gears and minimal braking, it made no sense for him to be carving us up. Well, it ended badly for him after he went up the inside of a long train of us into Turn 4 and had a massive high side right in front of all of us. He fcuked himself up pretty badly and was eventually carted off in an ambulance. Chatting to the owner of this Aussie CSS franchise at lunch, he was pretty pissed off at this.
The rest of the day progressed well and I feel I learnt a lot of new little techniques on how to move around the bike without upsetting its balance and feel more “locked on” in corners.
There were some “light bulb” moments where I realised why the bike was behaving the way it did in certain corners - it was me upsetting it. Now I know how to make it smoother which will equal faster and safer!
Will was having a good day as well. I was hoping he was making notes in the booklet we were given. I think it helped when I told him that one of the fast riders told me she re-reads her notes before every track day to remind herself what she needs to be mindful of.
The day was hot and predictably it built up into an afternoon of thunderstorms. A couple drifted past and just missed during the mid afternoon but one hit us square on, right before our last session.
The rain came down so hard that water was 50mm deep in our pit in about ten minutes. Needless to say we didn’t go out for that last session - even with treaded tyres fitted. It just wasn’t safe.
No problem though, as I was very satisfied with what I had learnt. It is always good to quit while you are ahead, especially when it comes to roaring around at high speeds on a motorcycle.
We grabbed a feed that night at the Horse and Jockey Hotel which is right near our motel. Will needed to hit the hay for his Day 2.
There had been three days of track days prior to CSS and apparently three guys went off in one incident on the high speed Turn 8. This Gixxer belonged to one of the guys in the incident.
Will has seen the MotoGP riders come off and jump up, run back to the pits and grab another bike so often that he probably has an unrealistic idea of what will happen if he has a decent bingle.
It was a sobering reminder of what happens in the real world when you come off..... but in the mean time, shit its fun!😁
Cheers.
*** I didn't take many photos as it is a busy day, so I pinched some from others on the day. They are watermarked by the various photographers. I'm publishing hoping for forgiveness in lieu of permission.😉
