Nashville is great, or so I hear...

Note: This post is also badly late...the weekend described below happened in September...

One of the cool things about having moved to Nashville is that there’s a track right here in town, and WERA races there. On the weekend of September 16th, the final WERA Mid-central Sportsman Series race was right here at home In Nashville...sweet. Races at Nashville are lots of fun these days, as I get to hang out with my new Nashville friends, I can drive home and sleep in my own bed every night, plus I get to save lots of cash due to the lack of a 300 mile drive. On top of all of that , it was the last regional race in the Mid-central, and that’s the region I consider ‘home.’ So, with all of these factors in my mind and in my heart, I filled the cooler with drinks and sandwiches, packed up the truck and trailer, and drove to Birmingham, Alabama.

See, I’m not really a big fan of the road course at Nashville, and there happened to be a trackday weekend going on at Barber Motorsports Park. What’s more, my buddies at Floribama Riders were putting it on, and they needed control riders to help out, which meant that I didn’t have to pay. On top of all of that, the very next week was to be the WERA National Challenge weekend at Barber, which meant that I’d have the whole weekend to tune myself up for that event. AS I didn’t have a horse in the regional points race as it were, I didn’t lose any sleep over missing the Nashville regional WERA weekend.

One of the really fun parts about a Floribama track day is that they allow 2-up rides on the track. My plan was to outfit the TL-R with handles welded to the spare gas tank, so that passengers could easily hold on. I wish I could say that I thought this up on my own, but the reality is that I saw shots of the 2-up Ducati MotoGP bike at Laguna, and I said “oh, I’m doing that.” I found a guy on TLPlanet.com selling a passenger seat and pegs, so I was all set. Sadly, it turned out that the spare tank I had didn’t have a working fuel pump, so the handle-equipped tank didn’t make it.

Still, the 2-up bike was a hit. Over the course of the weekend I gave track rides to many different people ranging from non-motorcycling wives who wanted to see what the fuss was about, to serious track riders either seeking some bit of guidance with racing lines or just a fun diversion. At one point I went out with my friend Jimmy Vanderhaar with the mutually agreed-upon goal of really trying to get after it a bit, and see how fast we could comfortably go. We got down under 1:50 for a couple of laps, and even got both of our knees down together in a few corners…fun stuff. As a point of reference, my fastest laps around Barber by myself are in the 1:40 range (haven’t quite gotten to the 1:39’s yet), so I think 1:49 2-up is pretty quick, relatively speaking.

Next year I plan to have a better 2-up setup, complete with grab handles on the tank for increased passenger stability and confidence. Of course not everyone wants to “get after it’ as it were, but I really had a great time giving rides to all of the different folks. It was very satisfying to see the huge smiles on the faces of my passengers post-ride. That was all of the feedback I needed to know that I’ll be back at it again next time around…so bring your leathers to the track!

Apart form all the fun of riding 2-up, I also was lucky enough to help out a few beginning track riders with line selection, as well as answer a few basic questions on various techniques like RPM matching on downshifts, the purpose of hanging off, etc. I am by no means a pro instructor, but I think I relate to people well, and I have a good sense of what I am qualified to teach, and what I’m not. I absolutely love getting the chance to help folks better enjoy their time at the track, so I jump at any chance I get to control-ride and/or instruct at track days. I’m really looking forward to doing lots more of this next season.

Yet another task set for this weekend (yikes I was busy) was to break in the SV650 that Gill and I have gotten together for endurance racing. It had a fresh motor and needed to be broken in, so I planned to ride it and do so. I say planned because after one lap I was black flagged (taken off the track) because the bike was smoking on deceleration…not good. The good news was that the motor ran fine, wasn’t making any bad noises, and wasn’t leaking.

We talked it over, and decided that maybe the rings just weren’t seated yet. So, out we went for a second attempt, after explaining to race control that we were confident that nothing was leaking, and the motor wasn’t about to come apart. The short story is that the bike still smoked…in fact it still smokes today (more on this later).

Even the SV problems failed to dampen my mood. I was riding a really fun bike (the TL-R) on a track I loved, hanging out with friends, and in general, having a blast. Remember all that whining and complaining I was doing earlier this year? “Oh, woe is me…I’m not having fun…I’m afraid…waaaaaah waaaaaaaaaahhhh!” Well, it went something like that anyway. Ya, well…sorry about that. I won’t let it happen again.