Took the Big Black Whale to Good Friday track day at the high-speed Auto Club Speedway in Fontucky CA yesterday. Absolutely fantastic day for safe fast fun with some cloud cover light breezes and ~80 F.

I haven’t really ridden that much this past winter because of the finally normal winter weather and the local mountains with a lot of snow and wet roads so the 1st session I left the pits in TC2 just to be safe and get back into hanging off like the deranged monkey again. This was also the 1st time with the Pirelli Supercorsa bada bing tires and warmers – very sweet indeed. The 1st session is follow the leader with 2 sighting laps, back into a full stop at the grid then groups of 4 bikes in lumps to play. One of the many great features of this track besides 23 safe corners is the front straight accessed by a high speed left hand sweeper onto 3500 ft of the NASCAR banked oval track – throttle pinned in 5th ~ 150 mph for me. At the end of the 1st lap session I was like wtf why is this this whale not accelerating like I remember? Oh yeah, TC2 …. So in the 2nd session I switched to TC1 and back to normal – all is good.

The real world affect for my skill in the mid group – where I am consistently the bottom of the heap of lap times in the group but also the only BBW out there, was a 6% decrease in my lap times just due to the delta of TC2 to TC1. It surprised me it was that much difference in perfect track conditions with great tires.

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And you left just minutes shy of 1pm. I saw a 14 on a trailer as it drove out of the pit gate. So it was you!

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Si el Jefe'

I had a cheeseburger for lunch and couldn't wake up from the food induced coma and my hand were just starting to cramp too

Were you riding too, I didn't see any old Norton's out there Friday? I thought about pinging you before this, wish I would have!

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I didn't see any old Norton's out there Friday?

That's this coming Friday for the AHRMA race at Willow. No riding for me, but warming up the rider for next week. I helped pit 2 bikes instead. There's a venue for you next week. See if the Boss will let you out. That or bring her.

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the front straight accessed by a high speed left hand sweeper onto 3500 ft of the NASCAR banked oval track – throttle pinned in 5th ~ 150 mph for me.

That sounds like so much fun! I am going to have to figure out some way to ride fast legally. It costs money but the cost of getting busted on the street is awfully high for me now too.

The BBW hung in there. You keep this up, you'll be getting a skinny mini. That's what all th track junkies end up doing. Remember ironheadmike from last year? I see him on FB. Now nothing but a ZX-10 track bike build. The 14R is poised for sale. I think he should keep both.

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It was a blast and safe, guess that is relative though. I believe the Supercorsa's and warmers had the percieved affect of slowing things down for me so I didn't feel rushed and I had more fun on the bike. Even with a new track toy I would at best be in the middle of the pack. One day someday in the future gonna do the CA Superbike 2 day training on their BMW S100RR, which is like an adult vacation on Laguna Seca in Monterrey and then see if a track bike or a lighter bitch I can slap around is really what I want.

I grew up going to Road America as a kid, I can still remember the sounds of the CAN AM cars downshifting into Canada corner and accelerating up the hill. If I was within a few hundred miles of that circuit I would be on that front straight every summer, BBW or 10RR whatever. When I retire end of next yr I'll end up about 400 miles closer than now - so maybe someday I'll get there.

NOLTT said smooth is fast, and I think I was smoother this time out

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I grew up going to Road America as a kid,

Yeah, been there a few times, heard bikes do ride that track too. Never saw a racing event there nor have I figured out how to get on the track. ironheadmike was there on his 14R. Yeah, that would be the track for a hyperbike. Still it would require common sense. You'd be doing 190 down that main straight.

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