Racing Nelson Ledges

Planning and preparation are keys to success so I made sure I had everything in line for another track day at Grattan on 2-3 May.  I had reviewed more youtube video of the track and went over my notes from my last track day.  I had my plan for improvement in place, broken the track into sections and knew how I wanted to attack each.  Matt Carr (co-owner of Indy Ducati / tuner extraordinaire) was out of town on business so I’d be heading up there by myself unless fellow racer Gene Burcham decided to ride up with me. 

Thursday (30 April) I was making my final plans and getting ready to pack for Grattan when Gene called, “Hey man lets race at Nelson Ledges.”  “Nelson Ledges?” I asked.  “How difficult is the track to learn?” “Not too bad.  Besides, you can’t know every track you race at.” Gene replied.  Being ever prudent and favoring preparation over spontaneity I pondered his question for about two seconds, “Sounds like a plan!” I answered.  The idea was born.  I would be racing Nelson Ledges, a track I had never seen on video or otherwise. 

I was admittedly nervous about racing at a brand new track but figured the experience of racing “cold” would be good.  Since packing equipment doesn’t really change from track to track, I turned my attention to learning the track layout.  The method I’ve found most effective is to open up two windows on the internet.  One window is a track map; the other is a video of a motorcycle doing laps of the race track.  I start on the straight and count corners. I will pause the video every few corners to review the map and understand where I’m at.  I repeat this process over and over again until I’ve memorized the track and can visualize it in my head.  Once I have the layout in my head, I’ll continue reviewing video footage watching lines and looking for reference points for braking, turn in, and accelerating.  Reference points are largely subjective based on rider skill level but having an initial plan when I show up gives me a base line to start from. 

With the layout memorized and an initial plan in my head, I drove to Indy Ducati to put a fresh set of Dunlop’s on my 848 and meet Gene.  He would pick my bike up at the shop and we would drive to the track.  We ended up having to drive separately but having a handy-dandy Garmin GPS made the trip uneventful. I made it to the track 15 minutes before the gates shut, parked, and stretched out in my back seat to get some rest. 

TECH AND PRACTICE

I met with Gene first thing in the morning and set up our pit area.  We did a quick track walk.  The patch work and differing tarmac sections made the surface bumpy and the grip seemed to be varied based on section.  This track was shaping up to be much more challenging than I had expected.  After the walk I registered for a hat trick of races.  I planned on racing in C superstock, heavy weight twin’s superbike and superstock.  Tech was uneventful.  My practice group was 600cc novices (practice group 1) so time was short.  Unfortunately by the time I finished tech and got back to the trailer, the first practice session was under way.  I quickly threw on my leathers and did what amounted to a parade lap.  New tires and temps in the mid 40’s meant I took it nice and easy.  The only bit of track knowledge I gained as how bumpy the place was. 

Next time practice came around I was ready.  I went out on third call and rolled onto the track with everyone else.  My first hot lap opened my eyes to just how fast the track really is.  Video doesn’t do this place justice.  The layout looks simple but is actually very fast and flowing.  The entry to turn one is at the top of second gear / bottom of third.  Making the track even more challenging was the complete and utter lack of runoff.  The grassy area off the track is rutted and cluttered with concrete chunks and trees.  About 50ft off track is a dry rotted tire wall that’s probably been there since the track was made decades ago.  Running straight was not an option at any corner, nor was pushing too hard and crashing. 

I really focused on my lines and gearing selection.  The course flowed so momentum was critical.  Gear selection was a bit difficult to determine as well.  Normally I can stay a bit lower in the rev range of the 848 and use the generous torque available to fire off corners.  As a result I was a gear high coming into and out of most corners, hurting my drive.  The practice ended with me a bit frustrated as I was pretty slow and didn’t feel like I’d made much progress at all.  I came back to the pit area and sat down to talk the session over with Gene.  I needed to make time up everywhere and wanted to get his advice on the best ways to do so.  I also made a point to put my transponder back on the charger based on my Talladega experience.

C SUPERSTOCK

This was not a race I was looking forward to.  I was woefully off the pace and Nelson is definitely a track that suits 600’s.  The need for RPM’s everywhere as well as the high speed corners are what a 600 does best.  But bringing a great deal of determination to everything I do, I focused on the task at hand and resolved to do the best I possibly could.

The green flag dropped and we were off.  I got about the best start of my life, actually not getting past by anyone as we headed to turn one.  However, as the pack pinched down, a 125cc cut in front of me.  The smaller bikes carry tons of corner speed but are very weak on acceleration.  As a result, I was screaming at this guy and was forced wide before hitting him.  My back tire touched the dirt, kicking up rocks at onlookers and fellow racers.  I did stay on the track however, and got into turn one without incident.  After a few 600’s screamed past, I latched onto the back of one running a similar pace (read: slow) and worked on improving my speed.  Eight rather slow laps later, the checkered flag was out and I went back to the pit.

Even though the race didn’t go well for me, I did learn that my suspension was way too stiff and my gear selection was all wrong.  I gave Matt a call to discuss setup with him.  I rarely change anything so Matt was actually pretty happy to finally be able to turn knobs on the bike, even though it was over the phone.  We softened the compression front and rear and slowed the rebound down a little bit.  This way the bike would hopefully absorb the multiple bumps that were all over the course as well as some of the abrupt pavement transitions.  Rather than practice, I would have another race to feel things out.

HEAVYWEIGHT TWINS SUPERBIKE

This was a race I was looking forward to.  I always enjoy the twins races because the bikes are generally evenly matched.  There is always the occasional 999 or 1098 but generally the similar engine layout will even out the field a bit.  I was also eager to how the suspension changes would alter the handling characteristics of the bike. 

My start was on par with how poorly they normally are so I was near the back of the pack going into turn one.  Having started from the second to last row of the grid, this wasn’t exactly a huge change from my starting position.  It did give me the opportunity for some passing however, which proved to be quite interesting.  Before I could pick people off however, I needed to be confident in how the bike felt.  From the first turn, I could tell we went in the right direction.  Rather than feeling like it was skipping, the suspension absorbed the bumps and remained stable.  It still turned with the same level of effort and finished corners just fine.  This encouraged me to go faster and start pushing my brake markers deeper.  A race may or may not be the best place to do this but it was all I had. 

In every competition I’ve ever done, be it running, biking, or even go carting, I have this thing about having people in front of me.  I have to catch and pass them.  Sometimes I am able to, sometimes not.  Having a target in front of me always makes me go faster so that’s what I started doing in this race.  There were a few bikes in front of me running a similar pace so I picked mine up to catch them.  Not easy work around Nelson.  Since there really aren’t any heavy braking zones, you have to either out drive someone between corners or on a straight, or reach down, grab a big handful of manliness and pass someone on entry, no easy task considering the amount of corner speed already carried.  My confidence was improving but not enough to fling the bike into a corner with additional reckless abandon when I could pass on either the straight or going into the last couple of corners where the only heavy braking at the track occurred.  I managed to pick off a couple of guys before the checkered flag came out.  This time I finished the race in a bit better spirits and went back to the pit to get ready for my final round.

After getting back to the pit, I jumped on Gene’s scooter and went to check lap times and results from my first race.  I found my name next to three letters: DNS, motorcycle vernacular for Did Not Start.  The people around me could probably hear the mental gears in my head slam into place.  It was at that point that I realized two very important things I had not done.  The first was report to post race tech.  I was so focused and frustrated with my performance that I didn’t ride to tech, an automatic disqualification.  At most tracks, you are forced to pass the tech station when you come off the track.  At Nelson, you have to ride to the end of hot pit lane to get to the tech station.  My second mistake was the aftermath of a good idea poorly executed.  Recall that I wanted to charge my transponder fully for the races.  Well, it was fully charged, and still in my truck!  As they say in the military, good idea, bad execution.  I was so embarrassed.  There was no record of my lap times or race result.  The latter may not have been such a bad thing!

I also discussed gearing with Gene.  Turns out, I was running a gear to high.  Rather than going into third, I needed to stay in second, just below the rev limiter for turns one through three, up to third for turn four, fifth gear for the kink, and back to second for six and seven.  This would be a change for me, especially coming out of corners nearly on the limiter.

HEAVYWEIGHT TWINS SUPERSTOCK

The final race of the day and the only one I entered feeling relatively confident.  My transponder was now on my bike and I made a mental note to hit post race tech for the first time of the day.  Now all I had to do was race!  I would be starting from the middle of the first row for my group in the second wave.  Since there were experts on the track at the same time, it would be a two wave start.  I watched the experts in front of us intently, then up to the green flag.  It dropped and everyone took off, even the guys on my row!  I quickly got off the line the best I could and set about making up the gap I had created for myself.  I was totally confused as to what happened but had no time to think about it.  There were people in front of me that I had to catch and I was pissed I had completely missed the start.  Not even just slightly messed it up or got a bad launch as usual, but completely missed it. 

Thankfully I didn’t forget my gearing through the corners.  Gene was right, it worked perfectly.  I was carrying more corner speed because of the suspension changes and getting out of the corners better because of gear selection.  I caught the pack coming out of turn four and drove past a couple of guys going down the back straight to the kink.  The lap felt really good and I had a bit of clear track in front of me.  The amount of time I lost on the start was amazing.  The guys in front of me made the most of their starts and had created a pretty good gap. 

I was gaining ground with every corner which just made me push even harder.  A couple of laps into the race I was coming up to the second place guy.  I went into turn four faster than I had all day and got a huge drive coming onto the straight.  I my plan was to drive past on the straight and beat him into the kink.  Just like in combat however, the other guy has a say so in your plans.  He was going pretty well down the back straight and I ended up getting to his back tire as we were entering the kink.  I had two choices, back off loosing drive or shove my bike underneath and force a pass at around 120mph.  I went for the latter.  The only thought I had as I passed him just before the apex was, “wow, that actually worked”.  I was feeling pretty good but still had one more guy to catch.

For the next several laps I rode faster and faster and the first place ride got closer and closer.  He was steadily coming back to me.  My only concern now was the number of laps I had left.  The white flag came out way too early signifying the start of the last lap, leaving me too much distance to make up.  I continued to push as hard as I could but ended up finishing second place, about a second down.  Even though I was disappointed not to be able to catch the guy and win the race, I was ecstatic to have placed in the top three.  It was great to talk with the winner in post race tech and hear him say he could see me coming but couldn’t get away.  Best of all I had my transponder on so the race result counted!  I rode back to the pit for the final time with a huge smile on my face.  Gene congratulated me heartily and we loaded the trailer.  When the results were posted I checked my times.  As I thought, my times were faster and faster in the final race, with my fastest lap being on the final lap of the weekend.  I collected my trophy and got ready to hit the road. 

CONCLUSIONS

This was a weekend of highs and lows with a few key lessons learned.  I had come to a brand new track, learned it, and performed reasonably well in a single day.  My hours of watching Nelson Ledges youtube video to memorize the track layout had paid dividends.  At the same time, the value of practice time and laps cannot be overstated.  Riding laps really is the only way to get faster. 

Preparation continues to be the key but attention to detail needs to be mentioned.  I was prepared for the weekend however, attention to detail would have made sure the transponder was on my motorcycle and I would have made post race tech, saving me two DNS results. 

Attention to detail would have saved me my missed start in the final race of the day, possibly giving me my first win of my fledgling career.  The start was indeed a two wave start; what I failed to realize was a small group of 600cc experts in front of the twins experts were the first wave.  The second wave was ALL twins class racers, including my group.  I was so focused on the group directly in front of me that I missed the green flag for the group in front of them, a costly error that could have been downright dangerous had there been more riders behind me.  This is a mistake I will never repeat.      

Overall I’m satisfied with the weekend but know I have a lot of room to improve.  I take the following to Grattan in two weeks time:

-My starts are horrible and need to be improved badly.

-Once the transponder is on my bike, it stays on the bike.

-Ride the first lap like it’s the last.  There is no rest in racing