I generally hate having my picture taken, but this is an exception to that:

My friend’s wife came out to ECR a few weekend ago and took pictures.  She got on the inside of turn 10 and took this and a bunch of others.

I’m going to see if we can use this for my drivers license and passport.

It has been raining nonstop for the past….well forever.  Soccer got cancelled so I didn’t get to watch my daughter play.  Then I went to the track.  MSR was open and the 1.3 mile track (my favorite) was open for members.  Too bad it was marginal at best.  One bad wet spot on the entrance to one of my favorite turns.  Could live with it by changing my line a little.  The killer though was a nice ankle deep pond on the exit to the final turn going on to the front straight.  Basically it was so bad that you would essentially have to brake and then coast through way up high to avoid the water, but still be in the wet.

So basically there was no way to put together a good lap for anybody at any skill level.  With those factors it wasn’t worth spending the money, even if I need to work on my skills.

Then the weather continues Sunday and more of it today.  Seriously.  I thought I lived in Texas.  Isn’t it supposed to be dry here?  We’ve gotten more rain than Seattle.  At this rate my house is going to get washed out to the gulf.

All this weather really has me feeling like doing a whole lot of nothing.  This weekend looks like it should clear up.  Maybe I’ll get a track day in on Sunday.  And maybe my daughter will get to play soccer.

Looking around on YouTube I found these videos by Ty Howard who I plan to work with in a few months:.

Body Position:

Braking

This year I’m mostly going to focus on riding at Eagles Canyon so:

Very cool having the prospect of 1:1 coaching with a guy who has won a bunch of club and national championships.  Part of me wants him to get a factory sponsorship.  The other part doesn’t because then he’ll be too busy to offer coaching.

And yeah, I’m being a traitor to CSS this year.  I just don’t see having the time to travel somewhere to do level 4 a couple more times.  Real bummer too because I love Keith's program.  Actually, CSS ought to get Ty to be one of their coaches.  That would be freaking awesome.

I went out and spent the day as a guest at Eagles Canyon.  I’ve been there once before, but it’s worth repeating: what a great track!  Lots of nice elevation changes, plenty of turns both way.  It fits in nicely with my other local favorites. 

In fact I like it so much I’m probably going to spring for a membership in a few months so I can get out there more often.

My last track day was in August and that was the first track day following my low side at Cresson.  So needless to say I have a lot of confidence to build back.  We can ignore the bit of unpleasantness from October*.  Anyway, I was seriously slow.  My friend Jim was managing to lap me once each half hour session.  I’m not pleased, but he’s been working his butt off and has become respectably quick.  He also has managed not to do anything stupid like break an elbow or anything else unmentionable.

I think if I can get out there another 2 or 3 times in the next two months I’ll recover most of my former ‘speed’ and be ready to start developing my skills again.  I’m hoping to do a few coaching sessions with Ty Howard.  I think that will help me get my times down further.

Couple of things that were really cool:

1. There were only two bikes on the track!  The entire day!  Two bikes!  If you’ve ever done a track day you know what its like to have 20 or 30 other bikes of varying skill on the track with you.  It can be a real headache.  Just imagine only having one other bike.  Plenty of space to just work on your own skills.  It was paradise.

2. There were 4 Porsches and a Ferrari in the car group.  5 cars!  The Ferrari driver was seriously fast.  And what a sound.  It was really nice seeing those cars used for what they were made for instead of being driven my some shriveled up yuppie snot on his way to Starbucks or the golf course.

3. My other friends in the TSBA came out to visit me.  Biggest SMR I’ve seen to date.  Actually, the came out to see how many times Jim could pass me in a session.  Luckily I kept it down to 1.  But they still managed to get some shots in.  They’re all heart.

I wish I had brought out my good camera.  All I had was my cell phone, so these will have to do:

First: this is the only way to load and unload a bike.  The parking lot in the upper pit is split level so I can backup to the upper level.  The back gate is about eight inches off the ground so the ramp is almost flat.  Easiest load up ever.

Jim’s bike has the gold wheel.  If you enlarge the image you can see the boogers.  My tire did not have any.  The difference is Jim is getting really good drives out of corners.  It causes the tire to get hot and the rubber starts to ball up and make boogers.  Right now I’m really not twisting the throttle very hard on the way out.  Heck, I’m not twisting the throttle very much at all.  I was being passed by grey haired old ladies in Lincolns.

The TSBA crowd on their way to BBQ after a quick parade lap around the track.

And last: this is the crowd for our track day.  You could lay down in the pit area and take a nap and not worry about being run over.

So my year is off to an excellent start.  I’m super exhausted, I got in a bunch of laps but had no surprises.  I’m really looking forward to getting out more this year.

*if you don’t know what I’m referring too: good. 

This is what we in the profession refer to as a bad day:

borrowed from:  Photo of the Day - Not for the Squeamish at Twowheelsblog.

I seriously hope both riders walked away from that with nothing more than bruised egos.