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Pocono North—Oct. 14, 2000
How can I describe the north course? If you’re familiar with pocono raceway, you should know NASCAR turn 3 and the FUSA course. The north course consist of the infield section of the FUSA course after turn 1 and NASCAR turn 3, run in the opposite direction that FUSA runs the infield and the opposite direction NASCAR runs their turn 3.
A brief track description—You come up on the Turn 3 banking which you run down towards the ‘apron’ of the course. It brings you on the back straight where you start running up towards the wall. This brings you to the chicane that TPM puts in to slow things down. It’s a hard right over and then a left back. I was running the banking in 5th gear at 14000 rpm (indictaed, 400 tach is optimistic) and then down shift to second for the chicane.
I’d run second gear into the right-hander, brake, and then go, get third gear and brake for the left hander. The left hander had a bad patch of concrete that wasn’t where you’d wanna be (no traction). Following the left there was another right and then you have small kink left and it’s a right hander back to the banking. There’s a transition bump there that a lot of people went down on. That’s a lap around the North course, as best as I can remember it.
First Session—This one sucked. I checked my air pressure and set it for 30/29. I went out and thought that the 400 was steering really quick. I did one lap and knew my pressures were WAY too high. I came in and dropped to 27.5/26.5 (gauge must be bad, so much for a $50 air pressure gauge). I got three laps in after that. But they were good laps.
Second Session—I started in an early group out. We had one clear lap and then we were in traffic. I hooked up with other guy who wasn’t interested in hanging with the group and we got past a lot of people braking for the chicane and a lot of people through the infield. When we came up on the banking and not one but two red ZX6R’s came blowing by me. It was great though what a confidence booster to be able to ride with some guys, pass some guys, not get stomped by guys. I got knee on both sides, had a blast, really cranking.
Third Session—I decided to get behind a ZX6R that had just moved up into red (I think). So I got around him quick. That’s when I tried waiting for the SV in the red group to come around, never saw him. I had a great time. This time I tried going slow on the banking to get into groups of riders. This was a stupid idea. It wound up throwing me out of rhythm. I spent most of my time riding alone, or stuck in groups of guys who’d let bury me on the banking only to not be able to find a safe place to pass them in the in-field. But it was just awesome to have the confidence in me and my bike to ride with them.
Forth Session—I lined up behind the SV. Nutec gasoline smells really nasty. I was getting high on the starting line. The first lap I kept pace with him. Unfortunately, he was using the lap as a warm up. Next lap around he started pulling me on the straight (man, that nutec smells really bad). Then the infield, where I felt invincible, he smoked me. He smoked me good. I was in shock. I thought for sure I could get him in the infield, but no-can-do. He waxed me. I started riding slow looking for some groups, but nothing. It wasn’t as much fun.
Fifth Session—I don’t really remember how I wound up behind an old school GSX-R and a Buell, but I was. They were really dicing it up, the Buell had the infield, and the GSX-R had the banking. I started slowing down on the banking to let them go ahead of me, but I was still catching them by the end of the infield. So I tried running with them on the banking, but I couldn’t up enough to out brake them. So finally I rode around the banking really slow. Going into the chicane I was passed by what I think was a 900RR and a YZF1000 (could be wrong). The RR checked us up pretty good, which sucked for me who was really on the gas. But I had fun with them through the infield and it was checked flag time.
Sixth (Last) Session—The sun was setting on the track. I wasn’t really riding great in this session. On the third lap, I was bored of riding alone. As I came up on the banking there was an Aprilia that was entering the banking, so I just stuck behind him. I wanted to pass him the infield and figured I’d have others to race with. Because we were going so slow, I had downshifted too many gearing coming into the chicane and hit the rev limiter, passed immediately by a ducati or something. Great, one more bike. I went to pass the Aprilia, but he took my line. So then I stuffed him on the next turn. I didn’t mean to, but he took a weird line, and I was dedicated to my less than perfect line and I wound up stuffing him a bit. Which is too bad. I pulled in after that. I figured getting this aggressive isn’t worth it. The sun was low, the bike was running hot, so it was a day.
Now I don’t want anyone to think that I was the fastest guy out there, because I was far from it, but I wasn’t slowest either (like normal). I may have some of the sessions out of order, but I tried to piece it together out of memory.
It was nice to go to a track and not have something to worry about and be able to focus on having fun. I was surprised at how many of the guys I’ve met over the past year at TPM came up and commented on how much faster I got. That was great. Anyway, that was my TPM-Pocono North 2000 story.
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Tony
the views and opinions expressed by tony (cbrf2boy) are the ramblings of a total idiot. sbw.com, it's administrators, moderators, and members don't necessarily agree with and are not responsible for anything this idiot has to say.
for more ramblings try cbrf2boy
How can I describe the north course? If you’re familiar with pocono raceway, you should know NASCAR turn 3 and the FUSA course. The north course consist of the infield section of the FUSA course after turn 1 and NASCAR turn 3, run in the opposite direction that FUSA runs the infield and the opposite direction NASCAR runs their turn 3.
A brief track description—You come up on the Turn 3 banking which you run down towards the ‘apron’ of the course. It brings you on the back straight where you start running up towards the wall. This brings you to the chicane that TPM puts in to slow things down. It’s a hard right over and then a left back. I was running the banking in 5th gear at 14000 rpm (indictaed, 400 tach is optimistic) and then down shift to second for the chicane.
I’d run second gear into the right-hander, brake, and then go, get third gear and brake for the left hander. The left hander had a bad patch of concrete that wasn’t where you’d wanna be (no traction). Following the left there was another right and then you have small kink left and it’s a right hander back to the banking. There’s a transition bump there that a lot of people went down on. That’s a lap around the North course, as best as I can remember it.
First Session—This one sucked. I checked my air pressure and set it for 30/29. I went out and thought that the 400 was steering really quick. I did one lap and knew my pressures were WAY too high. I came in and dropped to 27.5/26.5 (gauge must be bad, so much for a $50 air pressure gauge). I got three laps in after that. But they were good laps.
Second Session—I started in an early group out. We had one clear lap and then we were in traffic. I hooked up with other guy who wasn’t interested in hanging with the group and we got past a lot of people braking for the chicane and a lot of people through the infield. When we came up on the banking and not one but two red ZX6R’s came blowing by me. It was great though what a confidence booster to be able to ride with some guys, pass some guys, not get stomped by guys. I got knee on both sides, had a blast, really cranking.
Third Session—I decided to get behind a ZX6R that had just moved up into red (I think). So I got around him quick. That’s when I tried waiting for the SV in the red group to come around, never saw him. I had a great time. This time I tried going slow on the banking to get into groups of riders. This was a stupid idea. It wound up throwing me out of rhythm. I spent most of my time riding alone, or stuck in groups of guys who’d let bury me on the banking only to not be able to find a safe place to pass them in the in-field. But it was just awesome to have the confidence in me and my bike to ride with them.
Forth Session—I lined up behind the SV. Nutec gasoline smells really nasty. I was getting high on the starting line. The first lap I kept pace with him. Unfortunately, he was using the lap as a warm up. Next lap around he started pulling me on the straight (man, that nutec smells really bad). Then the infield, where I felt invincible, he smoked me. He smoked me good. I was in shock. I thought for sure I could get him in the infield, but no-can-do. He waxed me. I started riding slow looking for some groups, but nothing. It wasn’t as much fun.
Fifth Session—I don’t really remember how I wound up behind an old school GSX-R and a Buell, but I was. They were really dicing it up, the Buell had the infield, and the GSX-R had the banking. I started slowing down on the banking to let them go ahead of me, but I was still catching them by the end of the infield. So I tried running with them on the banking, but I couldn’t up enough to out brake them. So finally I rode around the banking really slow. Going into the chicane I was passed by what I think was a 900RR and a YZF1000 (could be wrong). The RR checked us up pretty good, which sucked for me who was really on the gas. But I had fun with them through the infield and it was checked flag time.
Sixth (Last) Session—The sun was setting on the track. I wasn’t really riding great in this session. On the third lap, I was bored of riding alone. As I came up on the banking there was an Aprilia that was entering the banking, so I just stuck behind him. I wanted to pass him the infield and figured I’d have others to race with. Because we were going so slow, I had downshifted too many gearing coming into the chicane and hit the rev limiter, passed immediately by a ducati or something. Great, one more bike. I went to pass the Aprilia, but he took my line. So then I stuffed him on the next turn. I didn’t mean to, but he took a weird line, and I was dedicated to my less than perfect line and I wound up stuffing him a bit. Which is too bad. I pulled in after that. I figured getting this aggressive isn’t worth it. The sun was low, the bike was running hot, so it was a day.
Now I don’t want anyone to think that I was the fastest guy out there, because I was far from it, but I wasn’t slowest either (like normal). I may have some of the sessions out of order, but I tried to piece it together out of memory.
It was nice to go to a track and not have something to worry about and be able to focus on having fun. I was surprised at how many of the guys I’ve met over the past year at TPM came up and commented on how much faster I got. That was great. Anyway, that was my TPM-Pocono North 2000 story.
------------------
Tony
the views and opinions expressed by tony (cbrf2boy) are the ramblings of a total idiot. sbw.com, it's administrators, moderators, and members don't necessarily agree with and are not responsible for anything this idiot has to say.
for more ramblings try cbrf2boy
sorry.
