Though I voted don't care I just want to ride, we really should run the chicane. It is a little safer. It also does feel good when you actually do get that chicane right.
I guess I'd feel different about it if I had gotten to do it while dry and felt comfortable pushing through the chicane. It's rained the last 3 times at Road Atlanta!!
Haha when I first went to Road Atlanta, I couldn't get it right ever but that made me like it - I wanted to beat it! This past weekend proved to me I can't; it wins. I'm not riding but I say the chicane sucks hahahaha
I voted for the chicane also. It is safer, which is why it was created in the first place. But to be honest, it is kinda fun. There are lots of corners all over the SE where you can be lazy, turn the bike in slow and just go on around it. That chicane is something different. I can assure you, there IS a "flow" through there, you just gotta find it.
I gladly accept this as a challenge and will seek someone who can pull me through there with a good smooth flow.
You got it. :thumb: The trick is to stay athletic on the bike. Up on the balls of your feet with your butt actually off the seat the entire time. To carry good speed through there, you have to make a committed effort to move your body side to side. When I go through there at race pace, im on the brakes the entire time. I have the throttle pinned up T1 and over the hill, then get on the brakes and grab a downshift as I go past the curbing on the left side (I believe that might be what they call T2). And I will carry enough speed into it that I have to trail brake as I am flipping the bike back and forth through there. Then I get off the brakes and go WOT as I go over the curbing on the left hand side (exiting the chicane). Not only does being on the brakes help me scrub speed to make the tight turns, but being on the brakes also gives you a geometrical advantage to help the bike turn. Obviously that is something that has to be worked up to and you need really good feel of the brakes and front end. I am not telling you to go try it right off the bat, I am just saying that is how I do it.
That reminds me of a Solo race last year or the year before that. I was on Pole and had Danny Eslick, Tommy Acquino, Huntley Nash, Cory West and several other really fast dudes gridded behind me. I told Lora "If I get off the line and lead into T1, you HAVE to get a picture of me in front of all these dudes. I won't be in front of them long, so HURRY!". ound: It didn't happen, I didn't get a very good launch. Nash was the only dude I was able to keep behind me and he stuffed me going into T6 so it was short lived.
first year expert, scared shitless that i was gonna get my ass handed to me with white plates, especially running a 600 class and not my normal "old fart" race where i could hold my own pretty well. Gridded about 6 rows back, got one of the best starts of my life with some of the fastest experts of the day in front of me (this was 2004 i think). Got the hole shot, as i went into T1, i was laughing out loud yelling in my helmet "holy shit! im in first place!!" As i got to the top of the hill and headed towards the Chicane, i said the exact same words, but i was no longer laughing, and screamed it in terror figuring i was gonna get asspacked going in. Here is the shot VHS photography got as we came thru the chicane. I was almost to T5 before the first "fast" guy got by me. I knew it wouldnt last, but this was a pic ive treasured ever since. and even tho i wont be there, i love the chicane. rode it this past summer with NESBA NOT using the chicane, and didnt like it as much even tho when i first started racing, the chicane wasnt there.
That would have been a sweet photo op. I've had some great and not-so-great memories from there over the years. One year was better than I could have imagined, the following year - I left the day after we arrived and had shoulder surgery later that month.
I got this one ahead of a couple slow guys Last year at Barber.......LOL.... Jake was on Vanns bike after he won the Championship... PJ was just kicking tail as usual... What a great day...