2024 - End of the [Big] Track Season
Biggest season yet
I just finished my last [big] track day of the season at Buttonwillow, the same place where the season started. As with years past, I stayed on the West Coast. For context, I’m a motorcycle enthusiast who rides track, street, and dirt and I have no racing aspirations but just want to be better in every way possible. Precision and control are my primary objectives and as I continue to work on that, I’m finding that lap times improve.
2024 Stats
Tracks ridden: Buttonwillow (2 different configs), Thunderhill West, Thunderhill East, Sonoma, Ridge, Weathertech Laguna Seca
Days ridden: 40 (42 counting partial days), not counting kart track days
Bikes ridden: Triumph Daytona 765, Aprilia Tuono V4, Kawasaki Ninja 400, BMW S1000 RR (K67); friends bikes - Triumph Street Triple RS, Aprilia RS660, 1st or 2nd gen BMW S1000 RR, Aprilia RSV4, several Yamahas-MT-09 SP, Tracer GT, R7, R6, a FAST GSX-R1000, and a few others
Providers ridden with: Track Daz, Fun Track Dayz, Carters at the Track, Pacific Track Time, Z2, Volant Vivere, Fast Track Riders, 2 Fast, Track Time, Let’s Ride
Track Miles ridden: est. 5,096 (the Tuono is an estimate as it saw a few street miles but was mostly on track; the N400 saw some kart track mileage which was deducted); The Daytona alone was just under 2,900 miles
Maximum full laps in a day: 116 (not counting in and out laps), Thunderhill West, a 2.0 mile track, riding in 3 groups
Highlights: spending time on track with extraordinary coaches, sharing riding groups with Joe Roberts, Kayla Yaakov, Wyatt Farris, Andy DiBrino, Josh Hayes, Bryce Prince, JD Beach, Max Biaggi, Andrew Lee, James Rispoli, Tyler O’Hara, Cody Wyman, and so many others.
Favorite day: Volant Vivere Sonoma day - I hired Mike Canfield to be my in-garage technician and we dialed in the Daytona, it was low headcount so I was able to get a few good laps in, and Andrew Lee took my bike out and gave Mike and me some useful feedback.
This season I’ve been working on a couple of things (besides trying to improve my own pace). Suspension setup on the Daytona has been fascinating and a big learning experience for me. This bike’s setup (for me) has been really interesting and challenging but It’s getting really good now—we’re seeing suspension numbers we expect and the rear is staying on the ground during hard braking. In this process I’ve been getting a much greater sense of what proper suspension geometry feels like and how to push the front down at the right time to get the bike there. This is going to be an ever-evolving thing. As a result of this I’ve become much more conscious of how I use my brakes at turn-in (see Ken Hill’s article). I can’t even begin to pretend that I understand *how* to set up the suspension; for that I rely upon the infinite wisdom of Mike Canfield and Ken Hill. Riding the Tuono and now the BMW is acclimating me more so to angry bikes and trying to ride them quickly (which makes the Daytona feel so chill). Next year I’m thinking the BMW and the Daytona will be my primary bikes for track riding (except on the smaller tracks like Thunderhill West where the Ninja 400 is my go-to). My plan, with the super sport and the liter bike, is to ride a couple of sessions on one and switch to the other while reviewing data between sessions to see what I can take away from each and layer onto the other. For instance, when I got the BMW, it was setup much more firmly than I like, I took it out and ONLY made front preload adjustments on the first day. I knew the front was too stiff for me so I told myself I needed to come into T2 (Thunderhill East) a bit faster so I could use more brake pressure to get the front end geometry where I wanted it. All of a sudden I was coming out of T1 about 7-8 mph faster than I did on the Daytona. Well, if I can do that on the liter bike, why can’t I just stay on the throttle half a second or so more on the Daytona to match that speed? I think one can feed the other and vice versa, a nice symbiotic relationship.
Another late season revelation for me was greater lower body connection to the bike. I don’t look at photos much anymore but when I did, I noticed that I was sitting pretty upright on the bike. I thought maybe I should get a bit lower so I started to remind myself to lower my upper torso. Suddenly I realized my outer leg lock to the tank was more solid and then I started locking my outer foot into the peg and heel guard more closely and kind of pulled the bike down into the corner with me (at least that’s the sensation). It was using this trigger (lowering my chest) that it dawned upon me that I was engaging my core (what Ken Hill talks about). I never really could ‘engage my core’ consciously while riding but lowering my chest made it happen and the light bulb went off. This still isn’t muscle memory, it will continue to require conscious thought and you may already be doing this or maybe it’s not the right thing for you to focus on at this point in your riding, but it’s something I’m keeping in mind now. I’ll definitely be working on this in the off-season training, particularly at the kart track.
There’s nothing like being at the track with friends, especially when we are all working on our own program. I love being able to get chase video for friends, it’s great when they run chase on me. I’ve really enjoyed working with folks on getting their data setup going and continuing to learn how to improve my own and figuring out new bikes. In reviewing data of top tier national-level riders, I’m starting to see trends in how riders move up the ranks, what sorts of skills they build and what they have a feel for those things. Next I hope to identify a pathway for myself and others to build those skills to continue the improvement. In riding the BMW at Thunderhill, my top speed was 158 mph, on the Daytona it was about 147 mph. What’s wild is how much faster that extra ~10 mph feels. That’s going to be a fun thing to work up to—precision when you’re moving over 220 feet per second is tricky.
It’s not all good, we can do better
With all the good stuff put out there, I do have to say that this year was also the most disturbing riding season since I started down this path in 2018. The last half I was either witness to or was made aware of really poor decisions had some unfortunate consequences. I was in Washington state, in the same session and riding group when one rider forgot/overlooked the fact that the provider was running the chicane (as most already do) and he hit another rider at full tilt on a liter bike. The rider who was hit died on the spot. I’ve seen video from days I’ve attended where some really poor passing decisions resulted in significant injuries to other riders. I’m not sure what happened or why but it seems like a lot of people have forgotten about the fact that this sport can have serious consequences. It has the potential to be ridiculously dangerous just on our own but if we don’t take it seriously but our poor decisions can have catastrophic consequences for others too. We all want a lap time but at what cost? Is that the motivation for some of these poor decisions? Are people getting a red mist at track days? I do not know. The other part of it is that we need to own up to our mistakes. No, technically it’s not a requirement but really more of a moral obligation as I see it. Own your shit, be an adult. I like the way that Dustin from Track Day says it during his riders meetings about thinking about a pass: If a part of you says, shit, this is going to be sketchy, then DON’T DO IT! Seriously, if there’s the slightest bit of you that feels like it could put another rider at risk, wait or go through the hot pits. Are you trying to impress someone? How impressed are they when you take someone out? Are you in a group with wildly different pace (think B group). Well, if you’re accurate and at the faster end, ask a control rider or instructor to review you. Maybe get a couple of opinions. What’s the key measure? Apexes! I don’t care how fast you are, if you can’t consistently hit apexes, slow down and focus on that. Only add speed when you can be consistent and precise. If you can’t control your bike or aren’t sure of what the rider in front of you is about to do, you have no right making close passes. Don’t blame accidents on slower riders, it’s the faster rider’s responsibility to pass for the other rider’s comfort. You know what you signed up for. As you get faster, it may be harder to get a lap time because you’re coming up on traffic more frequently. Make courteous passes and use that as a skill-building exercise. There’s a lot you can work on outside of just a lap time. I hope I speak for many when I say I’m more impressed by someone who nails every apex every lap every session than I am by someone just sending it and apexes are optional. At the very top level of the sport, world-level especially, what happens when they miss an apex? They either fall down or lose a position or three. A friend of mine told me recently that a marginally faster rider behind him was frustrated because my friend was ‘blocking’ him from passing. No, I was there too, my friend was simply hitting apexes and using his controls well. If you want to pass, it’s your responsibility to compromise your line and do it in a way that it doesn’t disrupt the other rider.
I know we sometimes go somewhere else in our mind when we get to the track. I’ve used my track days as my therapy sessions when I’ve had some really crummy family stuff going on, but I use it as a way to regain focus. It’s not just throwing myself out there on a racetrack with bikes that can maim or kill us, use it as a way to hyper-focus on the task at hand and break it down into small bite sized pieces that all come together. You win the track day when you go home with a bike covered it molten tire and bug guts and you’re drained but elated on the drive home. You know you’ve done it right if you feel muscle aches for the next day or two and you have a sense of calm about you. If you’re coming home frustrated and dejected (and/or your bike in multiple pieces), you’re doing it wrong. Doing anything well and making progress is incredibly satisfying—strive for that.
Back to the positives
As far as performance, I feel like my precision continues to improve and I am still seeing appreciable lap time improvements, though it’s getting harder to get a lap time (mentioned earlier). At most of the tracks mentioned earlier, I’m consistently 2 - 3 seconds faster than I was in 2023 when I can get a clean lap and while I encounter traffic more frequently, I can get through it better now but there’s still work to be done there.
I’ve shared this video elsewhere but this was one of the most fun sessions of the season (Track Time, a provider normally only at The Ridge in Washington did their season closer/customer appreciation event in California). I went out and ran chase on a friend at Thunderhill West for a few laps, then took off on my own for a few laps then ran chase on another staff member. We were all on Ninja 400s (largely stock) and it was super fun. Yeah, I went faster on my big bike, but had nowhere as much fun.