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This past sunday (28th) I attended my first trackday on the kat at Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, MI. My dad and brother also attended with their ZX-6R's. We all rode in the Novice class, but in different groups. Unfortunately, we had no one there to take pics since we were all on track at the same time, and there was no track photographer there either. 
The track: www.gingermanraceway.com
Gingerman is a very tight, somewhat unforgiving track. If you turn in early on pretty much any of the corners and run wide, you're off in the grass. I did it twice out of turn two. It actually rewards a late turn in. Most people were referring to it as a point-and-shoot type track, since it doesn't have a lot of flow to it like bigger tracks. Personally, I think it is great for a smaller displacement bike (500-750cc). The liter bikes carried so much speed through the two straights that they had to brake way earlier than us slower 600's, which is when we could overtake them by braking late or downshifting enough to not brake at all in a few turns.
Regarding the kat and my progress:
I was fairly impressed with how well I could hang with most of the riders in the novice group. There were of course a few faster than me, but I was far from being the slowest out there. I got the usual snickers out of a few riders when they saw me roll up on the 'tuna'. Then I rightfully handed their azzes to them on the track. That was gratifying. With the aid of track coaches following and critiquing what I was doing, I was able to improve and move up a couple groups throughout the day. (I started in group 5 of 6, since it was my first ever trackday.) The final session of the day, I went out with the group 1 coach. We were allowed to pretty much let it all hang out the last 2 sessions, witht he only rule being no passing in the turns. You could dive in if you had the room, but you had better have the space tomake it happen. Otherwise it was kept to corner exits and straights. The only place I got overtaken was on the straights by big cc bikes. My brother passed me once on the front straight, but he told me he played hell trying to catch me through the back corner section(5-10). One other thing I nearly forgot...I did this trackday running Shinko Advance 005 radials. Never even thought twice about them, stuck great and never gave any signs of giving up.
All in all, I had a great day and learned a LOT. I highly recommend STT for your on track instruction school if you get the chance. They are a great group of people, and the track coaches are better at telling you what you did right than what you did 'wrong'. www.sportbiketracktime.com
Now I need to go order some new toe sliders for my boots....I could probably get another day out of the knee pucks though.
The track: www.gingermanraceway.com
Gingerman is a very tight, somewhat unforgiving track. If you turn in early on pretty much any of the corners and run wide, you're off in the grass. I did it twice out of turn two. It actually rewards a late turn in. Most people were referring to it as a point-and-shoot type track, since it doesn't have a lot of flow to it like bigger tracks. Personally, I think it is great for a smaller displacement bike (500-750cc). The liter bikes carried so much speed through the two straights that they had to brake way earlier than us slower 600's, which is when we could overtake them by braking late or downshifting enough to not brake at all in a few turns.
Regarding the kat and my progress:
I was fairly impressed with how well I could hang with most of the riders in the novice group. There were of course a few faster than me, but I was far from being the slowest out there. I got the usual snickers out of a few riders when they saw me roll up on the 'tuna'. Then I rightfully handed their azzes to them on the track. That was gratifying. With the aid of track coaches following and critiquing what I was doing, I was able to improve and move up a couple groups throughout the day. (I started in group 5 of 6, since it was my first ever trackday.) The final session of the day, I went out with the group 1 coach. We were allowed to pretty much let it all hang out the last 2 sessions, witht he only rule being no passing in the turns. You could dive in if you had the room, but you had better have the space tomake it happen. Otherwise it was kept to corner exits and straights. The only place I got overtaken was on the straights by big cc bikes. My brother passed me once on the front straight, but he told me he played hell trying to catch me through the back corner section(5-10). One other thing I nearly forgot...I did this trackday running Shinko Advance 005 radials. Never even thought twice about them, stuck great and never gave any signs of giving up.
All in all, I had a great day and learned a LOT. I highly recommend STT for your on track instruction school if you get the chance. They are a great group of people, and the track coaches are better at telling you what you did right than what you did 'wrong'. www.sportbiketracktime.com
Now I need to go order some new toe sliders for my boots....I could probably get another day out of the knee pucks though.
well, that and i didn't take my camera...but dad had his....so it's his fault....yeah, that's it....
so many roads so little time 
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