Look at the Monkeys

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Sorry it has taken me so long to get all this stuff gathered up and typed up. We had about 3 or 4 different people taking pictures that weekend and I wanted to collect all the pictures and go through them to put them in the album. I really did have an amazing weekend though, even though there were a few mishaps. All this took place over Memorial Day weekend. We left on Friday, May 25th from Jacksonville, FL where we all drove up to Savannah, GA to meet at Roebling Road race track. This was my 4th time at the track (wow, I am already starting to loose count!) and my first time at a track other than JenningsGP. When we arrived there were some race car teams finishing up practice sessions at the track. We all just waited outside the track until gates were opened for us. Our group from Jacksonville was the first one there so we all took up one whole side of the track pits. After a great night of BBQ and hanging out with friends we woke up the next morning ready to ride. The riding, like always, was split up into 3 sessions: novice (AKA mall security), intermediate (Police), and expert (FBI). I was riding in the novice group because this was my first time at this track and most of my really fast friends were riding in intermediate and I was afraid to ride with them because I figured I would not be fast enough. The day started out with expert group going first. Then intermediate and this is where it went down hill. Our good friend Josh crashed in the first session. Now I have seen quite a few crashes at the track, and so far I had never seen anyone get very hurt (even though some bikes have been left in not mint condition), but Josh unfortunately broke his leg during the crash.

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Many people would come to complain about the track because there is not a lot of room off of the track if you crash to ride off the track. Because he had to go to the hospital no one could ride while the ambulance was gone. Josh is ok now. His leg is broken, but he is in high spirits and it will heal in time. Also, his bike is pretty fine also. By the time novice group got out it was after lunch. My first time on this track, was, well…slow. But that is fine. It was only slow because the first novice session is always spent going slow learning the track layout and the proper lines through the turns. After that things sped up quite a bit. I was going fond of this track quickly. I love right hand turns, and long sweeping turns, and going fast. This track has all of these, but it makes it quite different. Roebling has a very long straight away. I was able to get my bike well over 160mph which is crazy when you have to hit your brakes and go into a right hand turn into turn 1. This was also my first time at the track using a lap timer, which tells you how long it takes you to go around the track. I was very excited as the day went on because the novice kids started getting faster, which meant it was easier to pass people (because they are no longer all bunched up into a huge mass of bikes). While I will not say I was the fastest one in novice (I might have been),

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I defiantly was one of the fastest. Me, Steve, Logan, and Matt were all much faster than anyone else in novice. By the end of the day I dropped my lap times almost 20 seconds from the beginning of the day. I went from 1:40, to 1:35, to 1:29, to 1:26s. By the end of the day I felt like I was flying and I was because my lap times were the same as my friends in the intermediate (Police) group. The rest of the day was sent goofing off, eating birthday cake (it was my birthday after all), and having a good time. We all went out to eat in Savannah at various places and went to bed ready to race another day.
The next day I wanted to try and move up to intermediate class, which they said I could once they got more stickers. So the first session out in novice I ran my all time best of 1:25, and it felt amazing. After that session I bumped up and soon I was getting ready to ride with a majority of my friends. This was very exciting and intimidating at the same time. These are people who are very fast. Most of them got me into track riding and have been riding for years, and here I was on my 4th track day, 8 months since I first rode on the track right behind them. We went out and had some fun.

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I could probably talk all day about how amazing it felt. I was afraid I would get caught in the dust behind them, but the amazing part was I stuck right behind them, and even passed a few of them! It didn’t even matter how fast we were going or what our times were, just the fact that we were all out there next to each other was so much fun and addicting! The second session out with them is where I hit the dirt. I was keeping up with all of them and I was following my friend Jimmy down the straight away into turn one. I applied my brakes very late so that I could keep up with him into the turn and I started to turn into turn 1. There I was right behind him in turn one, going close to 100mph with my knee on the ground when, before I knew it, my bike just slid out from under me and I began sliding. It felt like I was watching the whole thing from a TV, but before I knew it I was stopped and on the ground.

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I got up, looked at myself, and gave everyone thumbs up. The medic people came out and asked me if I was ok. I looked fine other than a few small holes in my jacket, which I could see some blood through. We lifted up my bike and it pretty much looked fine. Once I got back into the pit I cleaned my wound and assessed the bike. Total damage was just about nothing. The side of the bike was a little scratched up, and my brake level broke in one spot. The scratches were not bad and the brake level was fixed with a zip tie. That was it! One zip tie and tightening up a bolt or 2 and it was fixed. Maybe I just got lucky because it was the day after my birthday, I do not know, but I was back out riding the next session. I am really glad I went out again or else I would have had that crash looming over me until I rode again, which may not be for a month or two.

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The good news is that even after I crashed, I was still doing lap times only about 1 to 2 seconds off my best times. So I felt good about that. A couple more people crashed including Mike, Steve, Ralph, and Jeff, but no one was majority hurt (other than Josh) and no one from our group had a bike that was too badly damaged.
So it was pretty much a great weekend, other than some crashed. We all had a great time and gained some major speed. I can not wait to get back to JenningsGP and test my new skills on the home track though.
~Kyle

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