I've always been dreaming of riding my motorcycle on a race track, free of speed limits and idiots in cars. And recently, I did so, thanks to the Total Control Advanced Rider Course.
They had us do various classroom exercises between the 6 20-minute track sessions. We learned about trail braking, proper body position, proper line selection, and suspension setup, among other things.
While on the track, the 1st session was about line selection, the 2nd session was about trail braking, the 3rd session was about body position, the 4th session was about practicing weaknesses, and for the last two sessions we could try to go as fast as we could.
We were split into 7 groups during the sessions, with group 1 being the fastest and group 7 being the slowest (many cruisers in that group). I started out in group 5 but I was more similarly paced to group 4. Some of my riding buddies came along and some were about the same speed or a little slower than me, but a couple were far faster and ended up lapping me while dragging knee. (I'm not at that point yet)
I've done my fair share of spirited street riding but the speed and adrenaline is dwarfed by that on the track. I had a couple sketchy moments, once where I rode over the painted line for track entry from the pit and the rear slipped quite a bit, and another where I was trying to make a pass then my line was blocked and I went wide and panic braked, entering into the grass at 35mph. I stayed calm and I did not go down, but gosh that was scary.
Overall, I had a lot of fun, learned and leaned a lot, and can't wait for my next track day. I'm just hoping it didn't ruin street riding forever. RIP my wallet.
