Cascade Tracktime Report – March 22 @ PIR
1:13.63… not too shabby I think, for having only three days under my belt
Chris Sarbora @ PIR, 3-22-08
We had beautiful weather today. Monta and I took our time getting to the track in the morning as it was quite literally freezing, and we ended up each skipping our first session as well – we both rode yesterday, so we were familiar with the track conditions. Once the fog and clouds burned off, however, it was clear blue skies all day.
I spent most of the day working on the same things I was yesterday – entrance to T1, line through T4, entrance to T7, and lean angle/corner speed. Toward the end of the day I hooked up with Matt Presting, OMRRA #122/WMRRA #322, who is based out of Vancouver and has loads more experience than I around PIR. He’s on a stock-motor ’04 CBR600RR, which is effectively the exact same equipment as me, but is maddeningly about a consistent second faster around the track than me, so I followed him and went over video with him after a couple sessions. He showed me a couple points where I could improve, and I worked on those for the last session. Matt, if you’re reading this, thanks for the help and watch out cuz you’re #1 in my sights at the moment
My Bridgestones lasted all day and amazingly still look like they could go even longer. I’m extremely happy with these tires – I sincerely hope Bridgestone gets their trackside vendor situation sorted out, because this is some great rubber. When they slide it’s progressive and gentle, and what little feedback there was to give from PIR’s surface (aside from “super smooth and perfect”!) they transmitted back to me perfectly. I’ll certainly get a lot more familiar with their feedback characteristics when I try them out at Pacific this coming Friday, at Adrenaline Freaks.
Plug for AF: Come out if you can! They run the best and some of the cheapest trackdays around, and are usually right before WMRRA weekends so there are tons of fast guys to learn from. Not to mention, the PNWRiders Racing team will be at every AF event at Pacific, and we’ll all be more than happy to help you out and lead you around.
I’d like to throw out another huge thanks to Monta, anyexcuse2ride here on the forums, for housing me, feeding me, and sharing his family with me over the last couple days. Without him, I wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun this weekend. Plus, he improved leaps and bounds over these two days! He listens and has a cool head on him, which is the perfect combination for learning to go fast. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in A group in the next month or two
All in all, I’ve had a spectacular four days and I am now sore as hell but I can’t stop smiling. Racing is certainly a drug, I am high as a kite on it right now and I damn sure can’t wait until AF and WMRRA this coming weekend to get my next fix.
