On June 23rd six Fire Fighters, five on bikes and one filming/pics, went to Mike Sullivan Race School at Portland International Raceway
We are agressive street riders and that experience paid off big time. This was our first time ever at the track and after the first session out we were moved from level I to level II as we were lapping them and it was getting dangerous.
By lunch time Mike Sullivan's wife came over and said we were "making the level II riders look bad" (insert ego trip here) and that we were being bumped to level III. This all happened by lunch time. Once in level III things got more competitive, but two of us, Busa included, were beating about 70% of the guys out there. The other 30% were making us look like candy asses. By this time the instruction had all but stopped and we were just about all out racing.
On one of the laps where I was following the instructor and he shows us the proper line/speed for the course I got a little carried away. There is a long straight after turn 9 were you can get up to 180mph if you have the balls/brakes to bleed off all that speed before having to tip it into turn 1. Well we got onto the straight and my throttle got the best of me and I had to let the big dog eat (high speed recall shows a corrected 182mph). I dropped the instructor like a bad habit on the stretch and he disappeared. However, once we hit that corner at the end he candy assed me and showed me the door. Those guys are quick. Back in the classroom he made a comment that I found funny, he said "I heard you open the throttle on that thing and sail by me, I snapped my throttle open for a second to catch you and then said to myself forget it, he's on a Hayabusa!"
Our goal for the day was to have fun and get our knee sliders scuffed in. I accomplished both by my 3rd lap around the course. Oh what a feeling having the toe and knee slider going at the same time, damn. The Busa handled far better on the track than I could have imagined, I was impressed.
One of our FF's on an R6 went down on a low side mid-day and bent up his left forward control, no injury. We got him fixed up in the pits and back on the track. The second time he went down on the last lap of the day. A low side that turned into a high side flip and the bike was totaled, still no injury. The second FF went down on a 04 GSXR 1K right in front of me, we actually got the wreck on film but I don't have a copy yet. Sliders and leathers did their job and the bike/rider continued. The following video clips and pics are just from my camera and the track pic guy. We have hours of digital video from the other FF that we are going to make into an awesome movie so this is just a snippet.
We are agressive street riders and that experience paid off big time. This was our first time ever at the track and after the first session out we were moved from level I to level II as we were lapping them and it was getting dangerous.
By lunch time Mike Sullivan's wife came over and said we were "making the level II riders look bad" (insert ego trip here) and that we were being bumped to level III. This all happened by lunch time. Once in level III things got more competitive, but two of us, Busa included, were beating about 70% of the guys out there. The other 30% were making us look like candy asses. By this time the instruction had all but stopped and we were just about all out racing.
On one of the laps where I was following the instructor and he shows us the proper line/speed for the course I got a little carried away. There is a long straight after turn 9 were you can get up to 180mph if you have the balls/brakes to bleed off all that speed before having to tip it into turn 1. Well we got onto the straight and my throttle got the best of me and I had to let the big dog eat (high speed recall shows a corrected 182mph). I dropped the instructor like a bad habit on the stretch and he disappeared. However, once we hit that corner at the end he candy assed me and showed me the door. Those guys are quick. Back in the classroom he made a comment that I found funny, he said "I heard you open the throttle on that thing and sail by me, I snapped my throttle open for a second to catch you and then said to myself forget it, he's on a Hayabusa!"
Our goal for the day was to have fun and get our knee sliders scuffed in. I accomplished both by my 3rd lap around the course. Oh what a feeling having the toe and knee slider going at the same time, damn. The Busa handled far better on the track than I could have imagined, I was impressed.
One of our FF's on an R6 went down on a low side mid-day and bent up his left forward control, no injury. We got him fixed up in the pits and back on the track. The second time he went down on the last lap of the day. A low side that turned into a high side flip and the bike was totaled, still no injury. The second FF went down on a 04 GSXR 1K right in front of me, we actually got the wreck on film but I don't have a copy yet. Sliders and leathers did their job and the bike/rider continued. The following video clips and pics are just from my camera and the track pic guy. We have hours of digital video from the other FF that we are going to make into an awesome movie so this is just a snippet.