Quick Chucky recap.
Ken and I carpooled to the track. During our four hour trip, Ken and I discussed everything from geopolitics to sexual preferences (Ken likes Asian women and took some great pics at the track to prove it Don't forget to post 'em up Ken. Ducati Pete will appreciate them.) We got to the track at dusk. Lowrance, and Duke of Wrath were already there. We circled the wagons and cordoned off a SD only area (well, not really, we had one CBR interloper). Had a nice BBQ, cigar, and too much beer 'til the witching hour.
The track is literally in the middle of nowhere, so everyone slept in tents or trailers (no hook ups). Cool fresh desert air made for a good night's sleep though I woke up with a nagging hangover and no hot coffee to combat it.
Session One - Lap 2:
The widow maker of this track is a high speed straight, followed by an uphill left, an off camber downhill right and another downhill left in short succession. On the second lap, yours truly is one the gas heading down the straight rapidly approaching the braking zone when a I4 Yamaha (not sure if it was an R6 or R1) goes flying by. I actually muttered, "he's way too hot" in my helmet. He made the first turn, but ran really wide on the exit and was completely off the line for the right hander. He tried to lean more (probably braked more too), but was pretty much at the limit already, so he went down in a shower of sparks, followed by dust as he slid into the desert. This happened about 20 feet in front of me. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera mounted. He was fine, but the track organization's policy was to have uninjured crashers sit on the track until the session ended. So, the poor bastard's day was not only over on lap two, but he had to watch all the other riders in the group complete lap after lap when he stood there.
The rest of the day was uneventful for me. I had fun learning the track. Its a great track for the SD. Not super fast, not super technical, but lots of flowing turns that allow you to try different entrances and exits and gauge the results. The track seemed to be made of basalt, so it was super grippy as well.
Pow Wow With the Track Photographer:
Many thanks to SDNerd for having Ed Sorbo along. Ed helped me change the super beast I had complained about into the Superduke it was designed to be. Just dialing out all the rebound made the bike more controllable, but, who would have thought that cranking all the rebound out and all the compression dampening in would actually make the bike behave better on the track? Those changes allowed me push harder, yet have more control on corner entrances, and even allowed me to make some mid-corner corrections without fear of chucking the bike. Ed took my bike with him and he's going to install proper weight springs for my fat ass.
In all, there were six SD's at the track: SDNerd, Kenscott, Lowrance, Duke of Wrath, your's truly, and a gent named Josh who we met there by virtue of this SD ownership. It was Ken's first time on the track and he was awarded two victory laps during the first session (I'll let him explain if he wants too.)
Count the Dukes (Hint: there are five):
The thong panties:
Couldn't get an action photo of her riding by on a Sumo with her boyfriend, but it was special.
SD Casualty:
As SDNerd said, "that will buff right out:"
