This day went a bit better than the day before for two reasons. 1) No parts fell off of my bike and 2) not as many people were crashing.

THe morning started out normal enough. waking up with the dawn, stumbling to find the showers (which are quite nice although a bit rustic), and with little bike preparation to be done i had time to eat some breakfast and sit around and watch the other riders set up their pits. Then of course the riders meeting started and as they were describing the debri flag, my axle nut situation from the day before was used as an example. thats another 45 seconds off off my 15 minutes of fame.

Since i didnt get much track time the day before, my morning sessions were a bit rickety. As my pace started to increase, my brake fading issue cropped up its ugly head again. Going into turn 1 the brakes seemed to take a while to heat up and THEN the bike would begin to stop and normal feeling returned to the lever. Back at the pits, i realized that my brake lever is adjustable so i set it so the lever was farther from the grip. This allows the lever to me squeezed more before reaching the grip and seemed to be a good solution for my brake fade. now when the brakes were not working as i thought they should, i was able to compensate by squeezing more. I still wasnt entirely confident with the brakes so i found myself braking early for most corners.

I am not sure if i really like this track any more. My track preference seems to be leaning more towards fast, flowing tracks. VIR south is more violent than flowing. IT has a long uphill straight that is quite fast (i saw 160mph on my speedometer when i had to start braking) followed my a 180 degree, two tun complex that is essentially a decreasing radius tun. For me, this combination requires high speeds, then really hard on the brakes, then a had/fast turn, then accelerate as hard as possible on the exit. It seems that most of the turns are tight and doesnt allow me to get into a nice flowing rhythm. INstead i am either hard on the brakes, turning really hard or hard on the gas. THis could also be due to bad lines. Maybe if i was able to have two full days, i could find the proper lines and techniques for this track.

It was nice riding around with friends and not casing lap times. In fact, i never even placed my lap timer on my bike. I think i didnt want to face the fact that i am a bit slower than i was last year. i definately feel slower and not as smooth or confident. Obviously more track time would help, but i dont think that is realistic this season.

All in all, although i did not get as much track time as i would have liked, i had a great time.

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