Back on the Track

Well, I finally got back out on the track after 2 1/2 years. My last track time was in February 2006 at Buttonwillow Raceway. This time was at a track I had never seen, Reno-Fernley Raceway in Fernley, NV, about 40 miles southeast of Reno. Three friends and I piled into a truck pulling an RV and made the long journey to the track for the weekend of August 9-10. It just so happens that my 53^rd birthday was August 10, so this was sort of a birthday gift to myself. I took my trusty '98 Ducati 748, mainly because I'm very comfortable on that bike on the track, but also because I have full track trim for it - fairing stay, race bodywork, etc. I got some Dunlop slicks mounted up for the weekend too.

Fernley is a pretty technical track. On Saturday we ran only the upper part, only 1.8 miles but with 18 turns. A few of the turns are pretty bumpy and challenging. It's not real fast either - I don't think I ever got out of 4^th gear - and I reached 4^th only on one section where you could get up some speed between turns 16 & 18. This is what that part of the track looks like:

After the first couple of sessions I was feeling pretty discouraged, I felt completely out of sorts on the track. Then, in the third session something clicked and it all came back to me. By the end of the day I was having a blast and getting around pretty well. This was a fun turn (I'm the one on the left):

On Sunday, we got to run the full 3-mile course, with 30 turns plus a nice 1/2-mile front straight:

Wow, what a blast! There's a set of kinks - left, right, left, right - at the end of the straight that you can fly through if you take the correct line and have the cajones for it. Then after a few more turns is a spot they call the Hoot-n-Holler Hill Climb - a very steep hill with 4 turns that you can take pretty fast. Of all the tracks I've ridden, this is the biggest elevation change I've ever seen. This is what we look like coming up the hill. Look very closely, you can see the top of my friend Mark Ellsworth's helmet just above mine, and you can see part of his left shoulder. He's right on my tail - I love this picture because you can't even see his bike:

Overall, I'd have to say my return to the track was everything I'd hoped for - I loved being back out there.

Keep the shiny side up!