The Fastest Road in The West

3 Mondays ago I strapped by trusty EX500 onto my beat up Pathfinder and went down to Willow Springs International Raceway, dubbed "the fastest road in the west" I can say one thing for sure, they ain't kidding!

I started off by driving down to my parents house on Sunday. For some reason I was in a hurry, and bombing down I5 at 85mph with my bike on the back. That was not good on the gas mileage, and I think I was getting something extra awful like 13mpg. My trip home I kept it under 75mph, and I got a better 16mpg. When you're traveling 400 miles 3 mpg can really add up. I hung out with mom and dad, and that was cool. Considering that they only live 8 hours away I don't see them very often. When I got to Bear Valley Springs there was snow on the ground. By the time I got up to their house at 6000' there was at least a foot of snow. It was a little hairy getting up, and down their driveway with my bike wagging on the back, but made it none the less.

I got up at 5am on Monday morning, and followed my dad down the mountain. I got to the track just before 7am, and the gates where closed. I was a bit shocked. Up here in NorCal the tracks usually open the gates at 6:30am, and bikes on track by 8:30am.
I would find this to be a theme for the rest of the day. I don't know if it's best to call the atmosphere laid back, or unprofessional, but the guys I normally ride with are a lot more polished.

I rolled out onto the track around 9am. WSIR, also called the big track as they have several different tracks at the facility, is 2.25 miles long with only 9 turns, and two of those are actually one really long turn. It is really amazing how long you go really fast. Turns 1,2, and 6 are taken in 5th gear, and Turns 8and 9 are taken in 6th gear. Turn 9 exits onto the front straight. With the way my bike is geared 5th is something like 90-100mph, and 6th tops out at 120mph. I'm not kidding. I was taking turn 8 with 6th gear topped, and bending it in, nothing flicks at 120mph, getting all the way over on the side of the tire, and staying there for what seemed like ever. I even bounced my knee off the ground a couple of times. Over the course of a lap I would down shift only twice, and up shift three times. That's a really long time to be holding the throttle wide flat open. It's so different for me. At Sears Pt I down shift at almost the entrance of every turn, and up shift at the exit of every turn. It's something like 24 shift movements per lap, and at willow it was 6.

In my second session I had a bit of an altercation with another rider. He'd come across my front wheel on the brakes, and I almost ran into the back of him. I hate it when riders on big horse power bikes pass me, then park it in the turn. I went and found him in the pits and we had a "discussion". It ended with the track promoter separating us. We shook hands and essentially said stay out of my way. One thing that had come up was I said it was my first time at the track, and I was still learning, and he'd said I didn't belong in the A group. In my 5th session of the day I passed him on the outside of T2, and he passed me back on the front straight. When I went around him again in 2, I made sure to keep up the pace all the way through the rest of the lap to try to gap him enough so he couldn't motor me on the straight, he didn't. After that session he found me in the pits, and said to me, "I guess you learned the track" with a big smile.

It was a great day of riding. Of course I had gone down there to do my evaluation for the California Superbike School. I didn't get in. I didn't know the curriculum well enough. Oh well. They said if I took a couple of their schools I could make a good instructor as I ride really well. We'll see. It was a long drive back, but nice watching the sunset over the mountains.

Tomorrow I'm headed off to Thunderhill Raceway where I used to think Turns 7, and 8 where fast. I curious to see how that plays out. I've been going to the gym pretty often, and I saw my personal trainer again yesterday. I think I'm making some good progress, and tomorrows bike flogging will let me know for sure.