ThinkFast
Live Long
Saturday, 9/19/2026, Fun TrackDaz - B group
Overall it was a great day. Pitted in a garage next to a father/mother/son/girlfriend foursome, three of them riding (mother was there for support). The father hadn’t ridden on the track for over 30 years. They had a ball.
For some reason the riding was pretty sketchy all day, with red flags in most of the B & C group sessions. A long one in the late morning third C group session led to them calling the morning early and going to lunch from 11:30-12:20. Usually they wouldn’t break until 1:00. There were two ambulances called, and I saw a helo coming in. No word on that, but the announcer said both riders “were ok.”
I don’t know why there were so many red flags. Possibilities include:
I had a blast. Lap timing shows I started out in the 1:40s, gradually working my down to 1:30s, with one session coming in with nearly solid 1:35s. Ended the day with 1:29s, which I could do consistently with a clear track.j
Today my focus was on getting better at pushing my vision farther out and wider; and physical efficiency via relaxing on the bike, using my legs more for turn initiation, line adjustments and bracing against hard braking to take the load off my upper body (thanks, @Holeshot
). I’m happy to report I felt I made good progress on these fronts today, feeling quite good physically as we headed into the last session of the day.
Traffic was a constant issue, often with two conga lines of 6-8 bikes in one lap that I had to contend with. It made for a lot of dicing, particularly with the bigger bikes or sometimes with fast riders on smaller ones. I remember a KTM 390 guy, a Ducati monster, a ZX400RR, another R7, and a Husky 701 Supermoto all gave me a lot to play with during the first half of the sessions. Also some inline 4s, which I could never catch in the straights, but I’d usually round up after the carousel and then check out.
There was a crash in T1 in the middle of a conga line just in front of me. Unlike the last couple times this happened, I finally got my lizard brain under control and looked left of the rider/bike, not at them, and got around without any problem. That was something that was routine back in my racing days, that I apparently lost touch with after all these years. Felt good to get that back - didn’t even phase me.
I didn’t bother registering my lap timer until the afternoon, so I don’t think I saw any times until after my 4th session. That was the one where I had consistent 1:35s, each lap having to contend with traffic.
After the 5th session a FTD control rider followed me off track back to my pit and parked right behind me. As I got my bike turned around I saw him there and thought “Uh oh. What’d I do?” Turns out he just wanted to see if I wanted to move up to A group. He said I was plenty fast enough and there I’d have a lot fewer bikes on track in that group. I told him no thanks, I liked the traffic - really the main attraction for me.
By the 6th and 7th sessions things were clearing out, with some good dicing but no real hold ups. I was also getting better at pushing out my vision and even started using visual reference points - a first for me. I got into 1:29s by the end of the 6th session, and the last two laps of the 7th were my fastest of the day. Probably because of the clear track - not many people even went out for that one. Makes me wonder whether I might’ve turned some faster ones earlier in the day when I was a bit more fresh. Anyway, doesn’t really matter. Not sure I like chasing lap times, tbh. It can’t lead to anything good. But I have to admit it was very satisfying to look at the final set of times for the day and see my name on the personal best time list at number 2 out of the 45 riders in the B-group and #12 overall.
Next Steps
- Warm day - first session temp was already 80; rose to 90 by 11 and hit 95-97 in the afternoon.
- B&C groups were full - 45 transponders registered in B. Only around 15 in A.
- FP1 Laps was onsite issuing free lap timer sticker sensors at tech, with free registration and access to their site to get lap times. https://fp1laps.com/details?iditem=178961744570456 I used ThinkFast as my handle.
Overall it was a great day. Pitted in a garage next to a father/mother/son/girlfriend foursome, three of them riding (mother was there for support). The father hadn’t ridden on the track for over 30 years. They had a ball.
For some reason the riding was pretty sketchy all day, with red flags in most of the B & C group sessions. A long one in the late morning third C group session led to them calling the morning early and going to lunch from 11:30-12:20. Usually they wouldn’t break until 1:00. There were two ambulances called, and I saw a helo coming in. No word on that, but the announcer said both riders “were ok.”
I don’t know why there were so many red flags. Possibilities include:
- Very crowded groups. Maybe because this was mid-September, lots of people signed up early figuring it would be cooler weather; or maybe with summer over less people were out on vacation.
- Lap timers. I found myself wondering whether the free lap timing got into people’s heads, causing them to go for it harder than they should’ve been. There was only one red flag in A group, which only had 15 riders.
- Or maybe Fun Trackdaz has a lower threshold for calling a red flag than other Trackday organizations. Don’t know about that. I know I saw bikes in impact zones and sometimes lying on the track right after a crash either of which would necessitate a move, sometimes across a hot track to get them out of the way. If that was the case for most of these flags (or an injury), then all the Reds was not due to a policy issue.
I had a blast. Lap timing shows I started out in the 1:40s, gradually working my down to 1:30s, with one session coming in with nearly solid 1:35s. Ended the day with 1:29s, which I could do consistently with a clear track.j
Today my focus was on getting better at pushing my vision farther out and wider; and physical efficiency via relaxing on the bike, using my legs more for turn initiation, line adjustments and bracing against hard braking to take the load off my upper body (thanks, @Holeshot
). I’m happy to report I felt I made good progress on these fronts today, feeling quite good physically as we headed into the last session of the day.Traffic was a constant issue, often with two conga lines of 6-8 bikes in one lap that I had to contend with. It made for a lot of dicing, particularly with the bigger bikes or sometimes with fast riders on smaller ones. I remember a KTM 390 guy, a Ducati monster, a ZX400RR, another R7, and a Husky 701 Supermoto all gave me a lot to play with during the first half of the sessions. Also some inline 4s, which I could never catch in the straights, but I’d usually round up after the carousel and then check out.
There was a crash in T1 in the middle of a conga line just in front of me. Unlike the last couple times this happened, I finally got my lizard brain under control and looked left of the rider/bike, not at them, and got around without any problem. That was something that was routine back in my racing days, that I apparently lost touch with after all these years. Felt good to get that back - didn’t even phase me.
I didn’t bother registering my lap timer until the afternoon, so I don’t think I saw any times until after my 4th session. That was the one where I had consistent 1:35s, each lap having to contend with traffic.
After the 5th session a FTD control rider followed me off track back to my pit and parked right behind me. As I got my bike turned around I saw him there and thought “Uh oh. What’d I do?” Turns out he just wanted to see if I wanted to move up to A group. He said I was plenty fast enough and there I’d have a lot fewer bikes on track in that group. I told him no thanks, I liked the traffic - really the main attraction for me.
By the 6th and 7th sessions things were clearing out, with some good dicing but no real hold ups. I was also getting better at pushing out my vision and even started using visual reference points - a first for me. I got into 1:29s by the end of the 6th session, and the last two laps of the 7th were my fastest of the day. Probably because of the clear track - not many people even went out for that one. Makes me wonder whether I might’ve turned some faster ones earlier in the day when I was a bit more fresh. Anyway, doesn’t really matter. Not sure I like chasing lap times, tbh. It can’t lead to anything good. But I have to admit it was very satisfying to look at the final set of times for the day and see my name on the personal best time list at number 2 out of the 45 riders in the B-group and #12 overall.
Next Steps
- Figure out best line into 6W.
- Figure out why the front end chatter into 6; and whether/what to do about it.
- Explore strategies for dealing with 9 better. Maybe find/use a visual reference point???
- Find out whether the shoulder on the rear tire is an issue or something that can be fixed with suspension set up. I think it’s due to acceleration coming off the 10W hairpin.
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