I'm finally getting the hang of this!

Good day readers. I hope this day finds you as happy and healthy as I am. Why am I so buoyant and annoyingly chipper you ask? Because race season officially started yesterday with the AFT opener at Daytona. It was the first race of the American Flat Track calendar with a TT race inside the famous Daytona Speedway. It was a good race and I was able to watch it all, from the practice sessions to the twins finale, on Fans Choice TV for free! I also hit the Flat Track during the week and had a great day of Turing left and going moderately quickly. Read on for more.

What you see in the picture above is my motorcycle shrine in my office at work. I made a couple of additions in the form of a cool piece of background art and a mini replica of my CRF450R. Since we have been having some rainy weather as of late, I made an offering to banish the rain away. It must have worked since I had great weather for the track. Whenever I feel my job getting the better of me, I stop and look at my shrine. I grab one of the bikes and do a couple of laps around my desk. My co-workers may stare, but it bothers me not. I know what I like and I don't care who knows.

During the week and over the weekend with the weather looking gray, I finished up the paint on my hot shoe. It came out looking very nice. I really enjoy having this well crafted piece of gear. There is just something satisfying being able to pick up and hold an object made by a craftsman that loves doing what they do. Gary Kinzler over at Lightshoe is good at making these and it shows in the workmanship of the shoe. I would say that it is almost a shame to scratch it, but that would be doing the shoe and Gary a disservice. This thing is made to get dirty and beat on and I fully intend to get my money's worth out of it.

The paint dried just in time for the rain to pass leaving the track in a really good state. After getting to the track and getting my first laps in on a very grippy track, I took a moment to enjoy the setting. I was all alone at the Flat Track and appreciated every second of it. The track's surface was perfect with the light rain and cool temps. I was getting into the corners with more speed than any previous session. I was two-wheeling it for the most part, but the speed and grip were phenomenal. This speed set me up for a very good day overall. Because I had confidence going into the corners faster, I was able to start backing it in more thanks to the riding advice of Go in my earlier outings. I should back up a second to define a few terms. Two-wheeling is when you keep your tires in line more like an asphalt race track corner. Backing it in is when you get the rear tire to break traction and control both your speed and direction using a combination of throttle and steering angle to point the bike where you want to go with the rear tire.

During the afternoon over each session the track started to dry out. Since I had worked myself up to being comfortable at a good speed the rear end of the bike started to break itself loose more predictably as I rolled off the throttle and tipped it into the corner. As my technique, speed and deteriorating rear tire grip all started coming together, I was able to really get good practice on bike control. All of the body movements that I have seen the pros do on YouTube started to make sense. I was able to pitch the bike into a slide at will and work on controlling my angle and line with the back end of the bike. I almost tucked the front a few times and was able to save it with my hot shoe. A few other times the back end started to come around a bit too much on me and I was able to correct it with steering input. I really started to feel a direct connection between my throttle and the bike's attitude through the corners. Before I get on further, I want to show you what I real race bike looks like. This is the SCFTA #11 bike of my dirt mentor, Jim Medlin. Jim has been instrumental in helping me get up to speed as fast as I have through his wealth of information.

Jim joined me a little later in the day after I had done 4 or 5 sessions on the track. The track had dried out pretty much completely by the time Jim got there. While he was unpacking his kit, I got to check out his sweet bike. It is a C & J framed, CRF450 engined,  "framer" race bike. Framers are bikes that have a purpose built Flat Track frame wrapped around the engine of your choice. As light as my stock framed CRF450 is, Jim's bike beats mine by about 75 pounds or so at a svelte 205 lbs. When looking at the bike up close, you could just see all of the things that the frame builders did to make the bike for the sole purpose of turing left and going fast. The right side foot peg was low and forward for better control of the left handed power sldies. The left peg was high and back for better traction and ground clearance. The triple trees had adjustable angle. No unnecessary weight was added to the bike. One of these days I will build myself something like this. 

Jim and I got out on the track and I was immediately lost in his dust. Jim has been racing for the last few years after a 20+ year break from the track. It didn't show in his riding as he was out there pitching that bike around the corners with ease. Jim raced around SoCal back in the day with a bunch of the other fast riders that still get out and rip. The 50+ expert class at the SCFTA races has some of the best competition around. Jim and I talked tires, gearing, track conditions and anything else related to racing. I tried to soak it all in and add it to my knowledge base for the future. While I wouldn't consider myself a track veteran, I had gotten very comfortable being out on the road tracks. Making the switch to Flat Track took that comfort away. I feel like that this session really gave me the breakthrough I needed and was Flat Tracking for real for the first time. I have come far in just the five track days I've done at Milestone. I can't wait to get back out there and lock in these skills. 

Here is Jim showing me just how to get it done. Jim had a bad track accident a few months ago and this was only his second time back out practicing. You wouldn't know it by his speed, but he did say he was getting arm pump from gripping too hard on the controls. I new what he meant as I have been fighting the same feeling. When the bike starts getting loose, I instinctively grip the bars hard wearing out my hands, wrists and forearms in short order. I have to make conscious effort to relax on the bars during each lap. Jim filmed each of the sessions that he went out on the track. He made a bunch of laps shadowing me so that I could see the video and learn from what I was doing. I can't wait to see how it looked. I tried taking some time lapse still pics with my GoPro, but only got 5 shots of the 377 that the camera took. None of them made me look as fast as I felt so thats why they aren't part of this post. It will be a few more weeks until I can't back out on the track. In the meantime I hope to get out and get some road riding in on my Yamaha FZ1.

Well that makes a post. I hope you enjoy my recollection of the day. The AFT races proved a great start to the season with some exciting action in both the Singles and Twins classes. It looks to be another good year for the sport. The next AFT race is not for another few weeks, but in the meantime there will be some MotoGP and WSBK to hold me over. I can't forget the Daytona 200 race this Saturday. I may not be able to watch that one live if the weather clears. Take care friends. Ride safe.

Blue