[OreoGaborio]

A fellow LRRS expert racer just put this video up on youtube of a LWSS race from earlier in the year...
He and two other friends of mine stalk me through the entire race. Great battle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR03Mr7Rya8

 

[gixxer4Christ]

Sweet!

 

[smashbox]

that track surface looks HORRIBLE! Sweet vid though

 

[OreoGaborio]

It's Loudon. It's supposed to look like that Look on the bright side, there's definitely no shortage of reference points!

Seriously though, it's not that bad. Proper suspension soaks up most of it and what it can't you make up for with good technique (weight on the pegs, loose arms, on the gas early, etc) Loudon is among the most technically challenging tracks in the country for a reason, the course lay-out and track surface itself are both very demanding... and with few places to rest, it's physically demanding as well.... thus incredibly rewarding when you start to get it right.

Some say if you can ride fast at Loudon you can ride fast anywhere. The only thing Loudon doesn't throw at you are long high-speed sweepers. The fastest corner on the track is turn 8 (the right hander that takes you up & over the hill & through the trees... it's at 0:55 in the vid above) and the top experts like myself are only hittin about 110 through there as far as I know.

 

[DRMANIA]

Great video!!!

U r the yellow/short muffler SV that he picks up before the end?

This guy has real good exit response on some of these turns, and u guys (the 2 that he passed in the last lap) seem maybe...tired a little? Never the less, really good video and good racing. Loudon does seem like a pretty tricky place, and those different asphalt patches...seems scary!

 

[OreoGaborio]

Yeah, I'm the last guy he passes, going into T1.

888 has been getting great drives out of the corners all year... Not sure if it's in his set-up or in the fact that he's just got more balls comin outta the corners.

Wish I could say I was tired, but he was just the better rider that day. I've since been getting better drives out of the corners & I've also gotten MUCH better on the brakes going into T1 so hopefully that'll be the last time he ever passes me there

As for when he passed John (the guy in the white leathers), John just didn't set up right for t10 (at the 7:49 mark). He went wide in 9 and ended up being too far to the inside of 10 & couldn't get a good angle out of the corner. Ended up sending him wide and he wasn't able to get the power down early enough.

 

[DRMANIA]

Yeah, I'm the last guy he passes, going into T1.

888 has been getting great drives out of the corners all year... Not sure if it's in his set-up or in the fact that he's just got more balls comin outta the corners.

Wish I could say I was tired, but he was just the better rider that day. I've since been getting better drives out of the corners & I've also gotten MUCH better on the brakes going into T1 so hopefully that'll be the last time he ever passes me there

As for when he passed John (the guy in the white leathers), John just didn't set up right for t10 (at the 7:49 mark). He went wide in 9 and ended up being too far to the inside of 10 & couldn't get a good angle out of the corner. Ended up sending him wide and he wasn't able to get the power down early enough.

Cool! Glad to hear u getting better and better.

I saw another race of u guys from the same day that u fight him on the outside of 9...that was a freakin brave move! I love it how u can really see when a rider is not willing to give up, and that shot of u on the outside, a few inches from him, is just beautiful! Even though I know u had to really slow down, cause the next second all u see on his right is that blue wall...how close were u to that thing????

One thing I've notice about his riding, except for his good drive out of turns, is his habbit to mess up turns 1-3. I know there's never really one infinite line through a corner, and I never rode in Loudon so u r welcome to correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that he keeps going in T1 too early, which causes him to close the throttle (I was watchin and listening to it a few times :eatpop ) for T2, and then mess his exit wide on T3, which he's able to "save" cause he has good exit set up/abilities. I mean, it works for him when he passes u that specific time (should have blocked him ), but look like a waste of time and ground compare to the riders in front of him.
Or is it just me?

 

[OreoGaborio]

Yeah, in that other race you saw he made a great move around the outside of T8 (the high speed right hander that goes under the trees). Like you said, I tried staying on his outside through T9 to be on the inside of T10, but he was able to get a nose in front of me & pinch me off before blue wall, which is actually super thick air fence. Yeah... we get pretty close to that thing sometimes

As far as line goes, T1 (left), 1a (right) and 2 (left) are the first 3 turns of that track and he's actually got a pretty good line through that section even though it might not look like it.

Since there's no straight away after it, T1 is considered an entry turn, that's why we're both taking a very narrow entry. The narrow entry allows us to brake much deeper, carrying more speed into the corner and you can make it a very point & shoot turn and not loose much ground at all. I've actually begun taking an even narrower entry into there than what you see in the vid, which has helped me up my entry speed.

 

[stamford]

Neat video...The corner with the blue barrier looks like a good corner to kill yourself on lol. I'm surprised it looked like yall had different lines in and out of places? You and the rider behind you has similar lines but the guy filming had a lot of different lines goin on. Perhaps I dont know what im talking about or looking at.

Also, wtf was that at 6:52?

 

[DRMANIA]

Since there's no straight away after it, T1 is considered an entry turn, that's why we're both taking a very narrow entry. The narrow entry allows us to brake much deeper, carrying more speed into the corner and you can make it a very point & shoot turn and not loose much ground at all. I've actually begun taking an even narrower entry into there than what you see in the vid, which has helped me up my entry speed.

Funny, that was exactly my point It just seems that a later apex on this T1 will get u a little closer to the left curb at the exit, giving better entry to T2-better in the way of "straighting" out the line and open the throttle much earlier, thus getting more speed to T3 which have a very wide exit to a short straight. It looks like the early entry to T1 might be a little shorter and is good if u r sitting on someone's tail on the finish line (giving u that extra entering speed), but from these videos,at least with this rider, it looks like it's breaking the momentum of this whole section, momentum that might give more speed on the short straight the follows. That extra speed seems to throw him wide out of T1 most of the time, that's what I'm viewing at least.
From my experiece with the little SV, u do need to get high entry speeds, no doubt about it. But in a "rythem section" like that, I would go for the late apex/tight exit one turn before the last one (T2 in this case)- to try and get more entry speed on that last one before the straight. "Point & shoot" doesn't seem the way for me on the 650, but then again...what do I know?:rolleyes
Another reason I would go for this kind of line is because u r breaking from a very high speed straight-braking deeper to preserve that tighter line on T1 puts probably tons of pressure on the front tire, can get risky.

Again, not trying to prove right or wrong here I'm only guessing from these videos, and my own experience- u guys for sure know better this piece of asphalt! Appreciate any info and would love to come there one day.

 

[OreoGaborio]

I understand what you're saying... but it's much less of a rhythm section that it might look and sacrificing some exit speed in T1 for more entry speed is the way to go in that section, even for the 650.

The guy that designed that part of the track (Eric Wood) designed it to be deceptive like that and we're actually using the same line that he uses.

 

[OreoGaborio]

Neat video...The corner with the blue barrier looks like a good corner to kill yourself on lol. I'm surprised it looked like yall had different lines in and out of places? You and the rider behind you has similar lines but the guy filming had a lot of different lines goin on. Perhaps I dont know what im talking about or looking at.

Also, wtf was that at 6:52?

The big blue thing is a piece of air fence. Not nearly as dangerous as it looks, there's other parts of the track that are much more dangerous than that.

The different lines you saw were a combination of different riding styles and guys trying to find openings to get through.

The bike at 6:52 was a GSXR750... he was leading another race that started in the wave behind us.