I’ve gone off track probably a dozen times, but have been blessed enough to avoid laying the bike down, if only by the skin of my teeth several times. Everytime I road the bike (carefully) back on track and back to the paddock. I have no interest in ‘crashing to learn’ at my age and with a $100k bike underneath me, and almost every ‘bad’ crash I’ve seen was either from an experienced rider having a mechanical failure like no brakes coming into a high speed corner, or most commonly, an inexperienced rider deciding to try and keep up with a guy whose 10 to 20 seconds faster that just passed them. Potential for big bike and body breaking crashes that last one. Because you don’t have the technique and form and the line and the physics on your side to take that corner at the same speeds as the guy 20 seconds faster, and because you are inexperienced when things go sideways (literally) you have an over the top (literally lol) reaction that sends you tumbling end over end (often without an airbag cause you are new and over confident) and then you are going for a helicopter ride.
So I’ve taken a VERY methodical approach to getting faster. Even intra-trackday I ‘warm up’ to speed. My 1st session I treat like a sighting lap even if I’ve been to the track half a dozen times, I usually only do 3 or 4 laps the 1st session getting progressively faster each lap, then I end the session early, go back and check my tire pressures, and visualize the track before the next session. Sometimes it takes me half the day to get mentally and physically warmed up enough where I’m hungry to ‘push’ a bit. If I’m not ‘feeling it’ on a given session or lap I give no ..... about doing it slow and getting off track early in the session to mentally reset.
I want fast times, cause it’s fun, but I don’t want it so bad that I’m willing to take a helicopter ride for it. I’ve seen some life changing serious injuries from guys pushing past their abilities without enough experience to manage their panic reactions.
Brain bleeds and spinal column injuries that are life changing.
Only after 18 months of doing this am I finally reasonably confident about managing my own panic reactions and pushing
At auto club speedway when it was open there was one corner in the infield that was a safe place to progressively get use to losing and regaining grip at the rear wheel, so I got reasonably comfortable with that fairly early on. I was still scared of losing front grip though and how I’d manage that until my last track day at Big Willow where I tucked the front a bit several times progressively and recovered it. Eventually I may go down, but I’m pretty confident that I can manage it in a way that avoids major injury, at least from my own mistakes.
I’m a bit more concerned about other riders now…I’ve been riding in Group A lately and there’s been a consistent hand full of guys that are making some pretty aggressive and questionable decisions about when and how to pass, going shoulder to shoulder at close to the limits of traction and passing at apex’s etc. I’m more worried about some of those guys taking me out in an uncontrolled way.
