EDITORIAL
A Bad Day at the Track
Author: K3 Chris Onwiler
It’s all fun until someone gets hurt…
Nothing beats the high that we get from flying our machines around a racetrack. Unfortunately, that high comes with risk. We wear protective gear, prep our bikes with infinite care and try to ride within our personal limits. Still, inevitably, sometimes things go wrong. Machines get torn up. People get hurt. I headed to the July 5/6 STT event at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in high spirits. Road A is one fast, fun mamma of a track. I’d be traveling with my racing teammate and fellow TrackdayMag.com Editor David Vaughn, while Sgt. Phil Bresnahan, the retired soldier for whom we built our Operation Racetrack Freedom Kawasaki, would be joining us on the second day. There was a 50% chance of precipitation in the forecast but since all three of us have rain tires, we weren’t worried. Come hell or high water, we were set for some serious fun. I spent most of the first day aboard Dave’s 2005 GSXR 750. I’d mounted rain tires to the Aprilia and in spite of the Weather Channel’s dire predictions, the conditions were mostly dry. Dave had a college paper due and wasn’t planning to ride the first day so he generously offered to let me use his Gixxer while we waited for that huge green blip on the radar to arrive. It’s been a few years since my last ride aboard one of Suzuki’s 750-class weapons and I’d forgotten just what a fine balance those machines strike between middleweight handling and literbike power. Suffice it to say that I was having a ball aboard my borrowed mount! It did finally rain and I got a chance to take the CrankyApe.com Penny Pasta Aprilia out for a slosh but for those hours when the track stayed moisture free, my heart belonged to my teammate’s 750. Assuming that Tuesday would bring much the same conditions as Monday, I swapped DOT race rubber onto my own bike. I would be coaching novice at any rate, so tire selection wouldn’t be much of an issue since I’d be riding far below the machine’s potential. Dave was coaching Advanced and while he’s been struggling with suspension issues this year, he’d finally caught his stride and was turning the kind of lap times that he could be proud of. Sgt Phil arrived and since his machine was equipped with rain tires as well, he too made the swap to DOT race rubber, missing his first session in the process. As I returned to our pit following my second Novice session, Sgt. Bres was just heading out on the Operation Racetrack Freedom Kawasaki for his first ride of the day with the Intermediate group. The grin on his face was easy to see even through the eye port of his helmet. Yes indeed, we were three friends living the trackday dream at one of America’s most awesome venues. Could life possibly get any better? (Cue ominous music…)
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