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The past few weeks have been very busy preparing for the 3rd round on the CCS/SW racing series. First off, I used some of the money I received from my 2007 Most Improved Amateur award, to attended the 2 Day Advanced Riding School at Arroyo Seco Raceway in Deming, MN. The school is taught by Arroyo Seco track owner Roger Heemsbergen, AMA racer Mike Shreve, and local ASMA racers Tiras Banks, Bob McFarland and Scott Bergen at Arroyo Seco Raceway in Deming, NM.

The school focuses heavily on bike setup, linking turns together, throttle control and riding position. Combine this with extensive personalized one on one instruction and the highly challenging Arroyo

The Beast Report

Team: 2up Racing By Myself. / Event: CCS/SW – January 12th and 13th, 2008 – Round #1

Sponsors: Kurveygirl.com / M4 Exhaust / Euro Motorsports of Scottsdale

Preferred Tire Vendor: / Jim Cox Racing (Dunlop Racing Tires)

Spring time temperatures fell upon the Phoenix Arizona area for the first round of the 2008 CCS/SW racing series. Many would find racing in January a bit strange, but for phoenix this is the norm not the exception. The weather was a near perfect with clear skys and

When you learn more in 2 days than the previous 10 years of riding, it’s significant. Such was my experience under the tutelage of Jimmy and Heather Lewis. Jimmy stresses proper body position, peg weighting, throttle/clutch control and picking an appropriate speed as the keys to success.

 I spent a recent weekend with about 30 like-minded nutcases in Primm, Nevada learning how little I really knew about riding off-road. I started riding in the dirt pretty late in life, about age 35. Fortunately, several experienced friends gave me plenty of practical suggestions to get me through my initial rides. And over subsequent years, I acquired additional ideas that helped me refine my craft.  But over the last few years I could smell

I had the pleasure of attending an open track day at Firebird East with AZ Track Time.  This was a unique situation because it was considered a ‘race practice day’.  That meant that only those with a CCS license could attend.  But, since our very own GothicbeaST is in that series, he made the call and got us in.  The cool thing is that there were a total of nineteen (!) people that were there for the day and we could enter and exit the track at our liesure.

A couple months ago I went to Firebird West which was a technical track at 1.1 miles with eleven turns.  The SV was rather well-suited for that situation.  Firebird East, even

I had an absolute blast…the most fun I’ve had in months with my clothes on!

I have to admit that I put myself under a little pressure with the MUST of not crashing.  That and the fact that it had been since 2001 since I was on a track had me a little apprehensive in the beginning.  That said, I can think of worse ways to spend a Saturday!

My newly acquired track bike is a ‘99 SV650 that was already converted to the hard life of track beeotch.  There are three reasons I bought this bike: cheap, needs nothing, and excellent reputation for short courses.  All three proved true.

The day started with the opening session taking place around 8:30am for my

Ever since I bought the SV, the track day topic has caused a little tension.  The reality is that things have changed.  My immediately previous track day record sucked and I now have kids (read: dependents).  It boils down to the battle between an addict andone who doesn’t understand the high.

I tried the technical path and it didn’t make a lot of sense to her.  See, explaining the difference between torque versus horsepower and the linear delivery of the former didn’t help the cause, so I continued.  I then went down the path of how an R1 is not the greatest machine for the track. That was followed by the SV “was easy to ride”.  I capped it off with

I’m going to break this semi-long story into a couple of articles for two reasons - I suck at typing and I can stretch out the number of posts.

I bought my first ’sport’ bike back in 1989 - a 1985 Suzuki GS550ES.  It was a cool bike, but I did not have a cool head and needless to say, I got in a lot of trouble riding it.  During the end of my undergrad college tears at Michigan State University, I bought my second sport bike - a 1987-90 Honda 600 Hurricane.  It was a track bike that had some of the street parts left, but enough to be legal.  I got in less trouble with her (oops…in mean

After about five and a half years of no track days (crashed the last two times in 2001), I ventured out to my first today.  A couple of things:

• I had an absolute ball.
• The SV650 is a great bike.
• I didn’t crash.
• It took a while to get back in the groove.
• I still made a few mistakes.
• I took some Advil when I got home.
• Its not that late but I’m still going to bed.
• I’m beat.
• I’m old.
• I’m sore.
• I had the best time in many months!

I’ll elaborate more over the next few days, but its sleepy time right now.

Step 1 - Get a track bike that is expendable (not enough investment to total out and be financially impacted).

Step 2 - Register for a track day.

This is where I am.  I registered for a track day on February 17th at Firebird West.  My original intention was for Feb 18th at Firebird Main, but the organizer recommended the prior day due to it being a shorter handling course and my bike being an SV650.

Stealing a pic from a previous article by gothicbeaST, this is the course layout:

I am registered through aztracktime.com and they seem to have a pretty good system.  They try to keep the rider amount per shift at 1 rider per 0.1 miles.  I think the above track

Ok, where should AB do his first trackday?

1. November 4th at Firebird West, Phoenix, AZ: TrackTime AZ (My Personally Favorite)

• Nice 1.1 mile track, very tight and a good learning track. I am still learning this track

• Advantage: Close to AB’s home.

• Disadvantage: Not the Uber Hot 3+ Mile super track.

• Note: You can also ride on the AZTrackDay hosted events at the same track.

2. November 25th/26th at California Speedway, Ontario, CA: Hosted by Fastrack Riders (I have never been to one of there events)

• It is the AMA Track, got to go big the first time out

• Advantage: Uber Fast AMA Track, for some high speed fun.

• Keep reading >>