Since I had so much fun at FAST in Shannonville, I decided to see if there was something similar in Phoenix. I lucked out, since the sister company of where I’ve been renting bikes on weekends was having a track day at Firebird International Raceway his weekend. A quick signup online and some money sent by PayPal was all it took to reserve a half-day session and bike.
Unlike the event at FAST (which was 99% rental bikes and training-oriented)… this was a regular “track day” with 4 tiers of riders: beginner (my group), superstreet, intermediate and advanced. The main difference in the beginner group was no passing on corners… and more instruction. 99% of the bikes were owned by the riders, and once the gates opened at 5:30am the lot quickly filled with bikes of every class and construction: from ratty-looking trackbikes lashed to the back of pickups… to amateur race teams with their own covered areas, generators, and flawless racebikes up on stands with tirewarmers all ready to go.
Since I was there for a half-day, I got to ride 4 15-minute sessions, with some classroom training in between each session. Apparently a typical beginner group has about 6 people in it… this time we had closer to triple that, which meant that the track was crowded so very rarely did I get to ride without somebody directly in front of me… and the little air-conditioned trailer that we had class in was well beyond capacity (standing room only: you can see it in the background of this pic):
You can see some of the AZTrackday.com rental bikes below: I was on #92, another SV650S, only this one had rearsets on it (basically the pegs are mounted higher on the bike and father back so you have to fold yourself up a bit more to ride it) and race slicks for tires…
This will be the last time I rent a SV650 for something like this… or I need to move out of the “beginner” group at any other trackday I attend. I was on the only SV rental there… and there were many times I could have passed other beginners in the corners (not allowed) so instead I had to pass on the straights which isn’t the bikes strong point. Almost every other bike in my group had a 50%-250% power advantage… so even if I have to slow down to keep from passing a larger bike in a corner… he would walk away from me on the straights… and I’d just end up on his ass again when I caught up to him in the next corner.
I’m by no means a fast rider… other than a couple short parts of track on a couple of the runs I could never judge my own braking and corner speeds and “do my own thing”… I was always behind bikes I rarely had the speeds to pass on the straights. It was a bit frustrating to only be able to get about half-way past a more powerful bike on the straights and then have to back off to get back in line for the approaching corner. Part of this was the sheer volume of bikes on the track… we had at least double the riders as when I was at the FAST course, on a track of similar size.
As much as I like the idea of riding the same model of bike I own so I’m “familiar” with it… it was getting old holding the bike at full throttle along every moderate straight stretch and rarely making it past people that were very s l o w in the corners.
Here’s a better view of my bike:
I had a couple scares today that could have gone badly…
One was a passing attempt that almost went wrong: coming out of a corner I was well on the inside of the bike in front of me, and I got on the gas early enough that I had a large enough speed advantage that I would get around them this time. But… there’s a line you want to be on for the next corner… and the guy in front of me was going to swing wide in front of my bike to be in the right position for that next corner (I knew that). Only I didn’t expect him to swing back my way so soon. Basically I had to move my bike right out to the far edge of the track at full throttle to squeeze past as he was drifting over my way… I was so far over that I was in serious danger of hitting some of the crumbled pavement right at the edge and ending up in the gravel. The guy I was passing didn’t even know I was there, so it’s not his fault.. it’s my responsibility to pass safely… but I’ll tell you what: I was so close to running off the track I was getting my right foot in position to use the rear brake… which would be my only hope of staying upright if I went out into the gravel, then the grass.
But, I had enough speed that I squeezed by him, and by some miracle I managed to lean the bike back into the track and get through the next corner. I’m sure the guy I passed was surprised to see me there: he was riding pretty close to the side of the track… and I came roaring by on the outside… almost in the weeds 🙂
The second eye-opener was following somebody through a 180 degree corner… actually it’s more like 190 degrees split into 2 corners back-to-back … it’s decreasing radius so it gets tighter near the exit: turn #4, here.
I had been right behind another bike for about a lap and we were coming up on the corner… and we both braked before the entrance. I was at a speed I was comfortable with and could make it through safely… then he slowed down again. Yikes! I couldn’t pass him, I was already leaned in a bit and needed to avoid any heavy braking so I drifted to the outside of the track…
…now I’m heading to the outside of a corner that I know will get tighter really soon now… fingers on the front brake but through sheer force of will keeping myself from using it…
…so even though I was freaked out with my arms stiffened up (bad)… all I could do was lean it over farther and ride it out, diving back to the inside of the corner. In the end we both passed through the corner just fine… and really I wasn’t going that fast and could have leaned the bike over twice as far… but it caught me off guard. Something you need to get used to I guess.
Oh yeah, here I am after my last (4th) session… ending about just before lunch:
I could have paid a bit more and continued with 4 more sessions in the afternoon… and it was tempting because there would have been fewer bikes in my group… but I was just a bit tired, and baking hot in the suit. Wearing head-to-toe black leather suit, gloves, boots and helmet in the summer sun, in Phoenix? Half-day is good enough for me… the afternoon was just going to get hotter…
Two other interesting things happened. One, a brand-new bike burnt to the ground… I didn’t see the bike (other side of the track) but everyone could see black smoke boiling up into the sky. Apparently the owner crashed and punctured his gas tank. He was OK, but the bike burst into flames. By the time the safety guys got there with a couple of fire extinguishers it was already a writeoff.
Oh, and a guy crashed right in front of me.. though I barely saw it 🙂
The very last lap of the very last session, I was behind him heading into turn 8+9. We’re on the far right of the track, and we normally dive to the left into turn 8 which points us right at the apex of turn #9. Now, you’re always supposed to ride your own line and not follow the guy in front of you… it’s common for one person to crash and the guy right behind him does too because he’s either following him, or he target-fixates on the guy in trouble and ends up riding towards him. Well, I had been right behind this guy for awhile, and to be honest I was following him a bit… but I knew where I was on the track and knew I had to brake and turn left into turn 8…
…but the guy in front was going a bit too fast (or his brain at least thought it was too fast), and at the last second he tried to straighten out and brake instead of turn. So I’m behind him expecting a turn… perhaps watching where he was going a bit more that I should have… but something suddenly felt “wrong”, and luckily before my brain even realized what the problem was I dove over the track and through the corner as he slammed on the brakes, and as I was looking to my right entering turn #9 (and slowing since my brain was screaming something was wrong)… all I could see was an explosion of dust and gravel as the guy blew right off the end of the corner.
I was going fast enough I didn’t see what became of him… as soon as my brain really registered “the guy in front of my just crashed” my attention was focused on making it through turn #10. Turns out he layed down his bike, a Ducati, one of the most expensive bikes to repair. Ouch 🙁
So a couple minutes later when I pulled into the pit… sweating inside my leather gear and my eyes open just a bit wider after what I’d just seen… it was a good time to call it a day. Right now I don’t have any pics of myself riding on the track… but in a few days Franco’s Sport Photography should have something on their web site (I hope). Today was fun, and made it through without a scratch! 🙂