To complain about CMP. Of course i had a good time, how can you not when your on the track. That being said there were tons of problems and im not satisfied. I know STT doesnt give credits for f**ked up track days but, quite frankly i want my money back. 1. Corner workers sucked. They were waving flags at nothing and not waving flags when needed. Someone actually put their kickstand down and started taking their helmet off and the corner worker did nothing. The flags just werent being thrown consistantly. I know this is more CMP than STT, but STT should set standards for the workers that the track uses in order for them to receive money. 2. Session times. Ive did a few days with STT and others and let me tell you ive never, I repeat NEVER, seen such incosistint session times. There were 5 min sessions followed by what seemed like 30 min sessions. I thought it was susposed to be 20 mins BETWEEN CHECKERDS, not when ever they feel like it. I only got ONE, yes ONE session in before lunch on sunday. Then it took them an hour to clean oil up after lunch so we lost another session. 3. The group break ups were rediculous. I understand that STT wants to make as much money as possible but they shouldnt be grouping up people of vastly different skill levels just to get an extra buck. I was easily turning Intermeidate laps on Sunday, but since it was overbooked i was not able to be bumped up and was stuck trying to ride faster than the others in my group saftly. I understand that this isnt going to accomplish anything, but maybe ill feel alittle better if I rant a little. Ive did plenty of track days with STT and i have to say this just isnt up to their standard; Days are usually much better oragnized. I know the people in charge there were doing the best they could but I blame most of the things that went wrong this weekend to the fact that STT booked two tracks for this weekend. I only had one wreck, i never slid in turn one, and i was getting my knee down in the lefthanders so i still had fun. I do believe that if i didnt have to worry if there was a bike laying in the middle of the next turn or if when i passed a slow rider they would cut over on me i could have had a much better weekend and learned a lot more. Im getting off my soapbox now.
If an event is sold out in the group you want to ride in and you sign up for a group you feel is below your ability, DON'T complain about the other riders abilities, sign up early and guarantee yourself the group you feel you should ride with.
Well, i wasnt ready for Intermediat to start with but later in the day I was hoping i could bump up if the intructors thought it was ok. I had never been to CMP and was on a new bike so I wasnt expecting to be as fast as I was.
i also noticed the sesion times were in and out of sync. now, i was runing N but it seemed that N group ran shorter times. matter of fact i had a lap timer and was only out for 15mins on most. were as the I and A groups had 25-30 mins. now i can under stand if that is standard as we (the N group) in general was/is expected to do this for instruction but on the sun following i was ridding all over the N and really should have been in the I but there was no room. no problem as i did only sign up for the N group but it woul dhave been nice to get a better taste of I group passing. also the is a lot speculation as to why we could not get into the gate on fri after noon and could only be there at 7am sat. for me it wasnt such a bad thing but... i am sure a lot of guys/gals that came for a much longer drive woult have like at least a heads up or even a call to tell them so that they could make plans on this. and the gate fee i was unprepared for this as well. see my post were i asked this. (track prep for cmp) the track told me that stt was covering this. so i had to drive back to town to get cash. if i missed it some were then its my fault but i did look for this info. the instrutors(spell) are top notch. my hat off to you guys. really. sorry about sun, 1 group on second setion i got ahead of my self and pasted you. but you put me in my place quickly. other than that for my first track days i am happy and cant wait to get more at other tracks. the yellow gs with the
Rangerbrown, were you the guys in the cube van? If so we were parked across the road with the huge ez-up and two trailers with STR on the side.
(COUGH) ummm thats Box van........ Yep well he was the truck parked directly beside that on the left, but he was still hangin with us. That kid Chris, sounds like you had a tuff one man. I wouldnt sweat it, Mark and the gang are very reseptive to this,. I dont think they booked 2 tracks on one weekend, one of thdates got changed and they had to bite the bullet. Granted it is a money making organization but they were at a rock in a hard place. As per the corner workers and flags, I fully agree that something screwy was going on. There were a couple of folks that ended up taking some victory laps. Im going to kind of go the way of OSHOW on the group sign up aspect. Its always best to sign up for intermediate if you have an idea of whats going on even with a new bike. I too was on a completely different bike and im really pleased I signed up for intermediate. Take that with a grain of salt though too because if you really didnt feel that comfortable than N is your best bet. It wasnt so much that I was overbooked, rather no one wanted advance. Either hope your experiences are better in the future.
Well this been my first track day ever, I don't have a "what to expect" from STT. That being said I had a blast. I did feel like the novice session were short on sunday and the flagers were waving yellow at nothing sometimes, but oh well. The instructors for the class were great and very helpful. I could see my self progress during the two day event. There were slow people out there, and to some I was probably that slow guy, but the Hot Pitting worked for me. I knew what class I was in and adjusted. I meet a lot of helpful people and new friends. I would still do it all over again. I'm ready for another course. I did learn a lot about road racing my bike. I cornered at speeds I've never done on the street, and got rid of my chicken strips. :lol: If I only got my knee down, oh well maybe next time. One of my goals was to bring my bike home like I started and I didn't go down. Almost in turn 12 when I was on the outside of a rider who low sided. That was a session kill for me even though they Red flagged it. Keith
Hey Chris, I definitely agree with you about the flags and the cornerworkers. That was some of the worst I've seen too. I've got to imagine though that there isn't a whole lot STT could have done about this. The cornerworkers are permanent empoyees at CMP just like Barber or Jennings. They come with STT renting the track for the weekend. I'm guessing they just don't have a real good sense about working with motorcycles and it showed this weekend. I'm sure STT can address it with the track manager, but that doesn't help how the weekend went. Session times were also all over the place. I heard of a few guys blowing the checkered which was definitely cutting into times, but I'm not sure if they just weren't watching for it or the CW's not really waving it? The checkered moving on Sunday seemed to help. I think the grid marshall there at CMP was controlling session times too, so not sure what was going on with times all over the place? As far as groups go, it really comes down to the honesty of the people signing up to make it work correctly. I know making that first move to Int or Adv is scary the frist time you do it, and some people don't wish to do that at a new track so they end up signing up for a lower group, but catch on quick and then of course start riding much faster then others in their group. My suggestion in the future for all riders is that if you normally ride Int, sign up for it, dont drop down a group even if it's a new track. There are bound to be newer riders there in the same boat you are and you'll be fine getting up to speed. Most guys are taking it easy in the morning anyways and getting re-acquainted with the track. Riding both days also presents some issues because it's hard to know how fast you'll get over the weekend and if you will technically be fast enough to move up. When groups sell out, it also makes it tough to move people around with out over crowding the next group and making it unsafe. As far as two track days being on the same weekend, I think as mentioned above, one of the dates got moved on them and they didn't really have a choice. That really did thin out the STT staff between two events which presents it's own issues. I had a good time teaching in Novice and had fun returning to CMP, even with some of the issues.
Cornerworkers I think the flag situation was definately weird this weekend. I know for a fact during another leading trackday provider's events, they instruct the CMP cornerworkers to raise a white flag as a courtesy flag when there is only a single lap left, before running the checkered flag at start/finish, allowing everyone to go around and pit in. I suspect that they were instructed to turn flags the way they did those days. I didn't like that too much, half the riders I rode with got confused, including myself as to when to pit in. I know one session the fat guy waved the flag right as I was abreast the pit entrance. I would really have been pissed if I got black flagged for going around....what should I have done, slammed on the brakes at the last second? I'm not going to complain about the numerous red flags...you can't control Joe running off the track because he thought of a naked lady as he was approaching the carousel..however, it was amazing to discover that the Intermediate group was overbooked and the Advanced group turned into a "hmm, I feel like Ben Spies today so I'll move up" group. Oh well though, I got my track fix, that's all I wanted, and I met some cool people while doing it, not to mention the guy on the red/black 600RR, I think his name was Jeff, with the orange vest showed me some killer lines. All in all, my first days with STT, the good outweighed the bad, but definately room for improvement.... Next time it would be nice to know that there is no tyre service, and no lunch--or Friday camping...I thank the R6 god that I only live 40 miles away from CMP so I didn't have to drive too far to find all this out at the track. I saw the stickies in the forum, but how many regular Sues and Joes actually read this place?
I still had fun. I blame most of the things that caused the weekend not to flow on the track NOT stt. BUT, i do think its STTs job to inform the track of what is needed and require that they run it saftly. Someone needs to tell the officals at CMP that the sessions are susposed to be 20 minutes BETWEEN checkerds.
I agree that the sessions got a little screwy. At one point on day one, I think they ran 10 min sessions... I assume so that each group got an equal # of sessions. Fair enough. And day two, before lunch, it seemed like advanced got a nearly 30 min session... I assume this was because there was no time for another session before lunch. Again, it made sense. I wasn't timing the laps with a stopwatch so I'm not positive about the times. Also, at one point Sat afternoon when the checkered came out (first time I saw it that session), we got pointed at by the corner workers... I Felt bad about what looked like a victory lap :shock: I thought I had been too focused on the track to notice the flag the first time. Well, I just so happened to be running video at the time and after careful examination of the video, it was clear that we didn't get the checkered before the supposed extra lap. I'm sure it was just a slip up, some how... but also looking at the vid that session DID RUN over for me/us as in 22 min... So I don't know what to say... Maybe I screwed up, maybe not... If I did, I appoligize, but I still don't see it on the Vid. Also, I just want to say that I love STT and the folks that make it happen! I think they did a great job, even if they were spred a little thin... I'll be back for sure.
We have addressed these issues wit CMP. I'll be the first to say that corner servies were sub-standard and not up to snuff. If you want to drop them an email and share your view, feel free.