Track day

wow. first day at track: Thunderhill 109 fahrenheit.

amazing. I can’t believe how exciting, scary, exhilerating, and demanding it was. But the experience was priceless. Great instructors. 15-turn course. more to follow.

Shirley not in this, the Asian hub, Formosa?

I spent three days on a track in Thailand in December…fantastic and terrifying!

Please tell me more…

Hi guys. I’m relocating to Taipei soon. I understand that there are no big tracks in Taiwan. How difficult is it to get to Thailand or another country with real tracks? How do you get a track bike? How safe are the tracks? Good pavement? Good run-off? Good facilities? Medical?

TIA

[quote=“dogged”]Shirley not in this, the Asian hub, Formosa?

I spent three days on a track in Thailand in December…fantastic and terrifying!

Please tell me more…[/quote]

nope. i went to one in California.

Easy and relatively cheap to get to Thailand. Not sure about the track costs though, I have also heard of a track in Zhuhai, though whether that’s just for cars or not I really don;t know.

Dogged?

HG

I’ve driven at Thunderhill too, as well as Buttonwillow and Sears Point (now Infineon). Jack how often do you go to the track? There’s a small track down near Changhwa, heard it’s ok–mostly for drifting but haven’t checked it out personally.

One option is go to Malaysia for trackdays. In Malaysia there are 2 tracks, Johor Circuit and Sepang which has a regular trackdays for cars and bikes. Johor Circuit is very close to Singapore but track is old and safety areas are not that good. And I’m not sure where to rent a good bike.

Sepang has more or less regular Sunday (sometimes saturday/sunday) trackday if there’s not event during that weekend. Like before F1 race, the track is closed about one month. During weekdays track might be open as well but I’m not sure about that how it is. Sepang is just a great track. Tarmac is smooth and lots of grip. Safety areas are wide enough if something goes very wrong. But its very hard for the brakes and stock brakes might start to fade after couple of laps.

Bike is not a problem. There is a place where to rent -05 CBR600RR bikes (total 4) with reasonable price 1000RM per day. But if its only a 3hour trackday rent can be negotiated. Not sure do they have leathers, boots and helmets for rent. Trackday entrance fee is or used to be 100RM per 3hours. RM is around 3,7 against the US$.

Hello all. Don’t worry…MORDETH is unbanned and back to solve all problems on VROOM VROOM. In fact…in future don’t even bother with posting questions…just PM them to me…that way I don’t need to search for them.

Hehe…umm…anyway…I know a group of guys who do track weekends in China. There are two large tracks that I know of. The one they go to is close to Hong Kong but inside the mainland. If you get about 15 or more guys…then the whole track is yours for two days. You can ride as much or as little as you like. You can choose from any of the bikes the track owns…and they have everything from CB400s to GSXR 1000s…all fitted with race only tires of course.

The bikes are insured so if you crash you just pay a deductable. One of my friends crashed badly and they told him not to worry about the damages.

I asked my good friend what would be the total cost for all of this (flight, hotel, track, bikes…everything). He said if you searched on the internet and found out about this yourself it would cost about 30,000nt. But they pay closer to 20k each as they’ve been a few times and have a relationship with the track owners.

The track has about 16 corners and you reach 270 on the straights and there are corners that you can take at speeds above 200.

I’m doing this for sure. Rossi watch out!

Are you still in California? If so, pm me. I’m going back to T-hill in late July and August. This is my first time on a track, but I’m addicted.

On a side note, I just put on a set of Metzler M3. The tire compound is quite different from my old Dunlop 208. The bike turns on a dime now, effortless. I love it.

I’m excited to hear there’s places we can do trackdays at in Asia. woohoo!

OK. So this is quite appealing but I don’t have a lot of bike experience. I had a 100CC for about 4 months in the UK and similar again for similar time in Vietnam but that time was an automatic. I failed my bike test twice in the UK (on big bikes). Should I get a bit more experience before going to a track, or will the track help me to get more experienced in a safer environment?

If it helps I am an adrenalin fiend.

[quote=“Edgar Allen”]OK. So this is quite appealing but I don’t have a lot of bike experience. I had a 100CC for about 4 months in the UK and similar again for similar time in Vietnam but that time was an automatic. I failed my bike test twice in the UK (on big bikes). Should I get a bit more experience before going to a track, or will the track help me to get more experienced in a safer environment?

If it helps I am an adrenalin fiend.[/quote]

Some of the Asian guys that go have very little experience. “You learn more on a track in one day than you’d learn on the street in a month”…I’ve heard this said a few times. So even if you can’t quite keep up with the rest of the guys…you’d still be doing your motorbike skills a great service.

Cool, PM when you all organise something. Cost unlikely to be an issue, ditto destination…could it be the first Forumosa track day? Can we get some girls along in leathers? hmmmm

Hell- I’m in too! Haven’t ridden anything decent for years though, stuck on this strange little island!

[quote=“Mordeth”]I know a group of guys who do track weekends in China. There are two large tracks that I know of. The one they go to is close to Hong Kong but inside the mainland. If you get about 15 or more guys…then the whole track is yours for two days. You can ride as much or as little as you like. You can choose from any of the bikes the track owns…and they have everything from CB400s to GSXR 1000s…all fitted with race only tires of course.
[/quote]

Hi Mordeth, can you share some more info please, like if I can join and when the next one is!!!

I plan to go back to Thailand in December to spend three days on the track again, although the track may be shut for rennovations (hopefully more run-off!). Also hoping to ride Buttonwillow in a couple of weeks…any tips Matchgrade?

Cheers!

Sorry, I didn’t ride Buttonwillow but drove (or rather, drifted) on it a number of times, both east and west loop and in both directions. The runoffs are great; very few walls, all dirt so it’s quite safe.

I just hit up a track in Changhwa and chickenshit that I am couldn’t get any nice drifts with good entry speed since the tire walls were quite formidable. Plus the track was tiny compared to Buttonwillow, maybe 1/20th the size.