August 27, 2008

Burnin’ Rubber Part 2

Last week Jon introduced us to the concept of participating in a ‘track days’ event, this week we’ll peek over his shoulder as he navigates the technical road race circuit at Calabogie.

Turn 2 is a 113 degree right hander with a 3% slope towards the apex. On the brakes while downshifting in to turn 2, I can feel the back end wiggling around and sliding which can make hitting the apex a little tough. (watch that curb!)

Turn 3 is tough. It is blind and you crest a hill just as you enter which can make the rear tire spin and slide, so you have to be very gentle on the throttle. But if I get it even half right, I can shift from 2^nd to 3^rd gear going in to turn 4.

In 3^rd gear I can get a lot of drive out of turn 4. I want to pin it right through 4, but the R1 scares me a little…OK maybe a lot! There’s so much power you can spin the rear tire almost at will. Even as I exit turn 4 in 3^rd gear, once I open the throttle all the way, the front wheel starts to come up. Crazy, crazy, crazy!

The back straight going in to turn 5 is a bit down hill, so you pick up a lot of speed quickly. And you can’t really see turn 5 until you’re until you’re right on top of it. 5 & 6 are both medium radius right-handers, with 6 being at the bottom of a hill, so you can actually see the whole corner.

Turn 7 is to the left and not so tight… but it is completely blind. I never did get this corner nailed. Sometimes I’d go in wide and other times too tight. Once I even hit the curb. It wasn’t until the end of the day that my buddy Paul (very fast guy) told me to look out for the tall tree on the horizon as you enter 7. Huh? That tree he tells me, is the marker he uses to figure out where the bloody apex of the corner is!!! Here’s a link to a video on the Calabogie web site of a Porsche 911 GT3 running a lap. At 47 seconds in to the video you can see this tall tree Paul uses as a marker. Now I know why he goes around me in 3^rd gear like I’m parked! BTW, Paul’s lap times were typically in the 2-minute 9-second range, but he did dip in to the 2:08’s on his ’06 R1 LE! That’s about 10 seconds faster than the Porsche in the video. Amazing what a modern sport bike is capable of.

Turn 8 is called “Temptation” and is probably the hardest corner to figure out, especially on a bike. It is a 219-degree multi-radius left-hander, which gets very tight at the end. You have to try to stay to the outside edge of the track, all the way around the first two radii. If you don’t stay wide, you will have to slow down even more for the final part of the turn. But you are near maximum lean for the entire corner, so applying the brakes towards the end is not so easy. You can trail brake up to the final apex but that is quite tricky. If you don’t get your initial entry speed right, you could tuck the front end or run wide. Needless to say, I am slow through this corner!

Turn 9a is another semi-blind corner at the crest of a small hill. As you lean over and crest the hill, if you don’t back off the throttle a little, the back tire will spin and the rear end will slide. Can be scary at 150 km/h!

Turn 10 and 11 are very nice medium radius right handers that you can see. But 12 is a tight right-hand hairpin, that goes in to a down hill right-left ess bend.

Turn 14, called “The Hook” is also tricky. The fastest line is a late apex, but I always find myself getting dragged in early.

Turn 15 known as “The Spoon” is both the fastest corner and scariest to enter. The entrance to the Spoon is over a hill at the highest point on the track where you can easily be going over 100 km/h… but you can’t see the track in front of you. The entrance to the Spoon is completely blind, and I still haven’t figured out which damn tree to look at! But once you crest the hill, you can accelerate downhill all the way to the apex where the compression forces press you against your tank as you blast through at well over 160 km/h.

Turn 16 is also blind, but not as scary as The Spoon, and then you head down in to the final 4-turn sequence. You can almost combine turns 17, 18 and 19 in to one long corner. But your line will go from the outside edge of the track to the inside curb and back, three times. And you have to be careful not to go too wide in 19 or you won’t have room to set up for “Wilson’s”, the final tight left-hander that leads on to the front straight.

Getting back on the throttle around Wilson’s is tricky. The tires are hot and want to spin. And it’s easy to wheelie too, which can slow you down. But getting a good drive out of Wilson’s is key to better lap times.

The next thing you know, you’re back at turn 1. Seven laps later and I’m so tired I’m praying for the checkered flag. Can you say, out of shape? lol

By the end of the day I am wiped out. I’m tired but the weary feeling from adrenaline and exercise feels good. And I’m already planning for the next track day, which will be at Mosport… my absolute favorite track.

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