[Mr.Ogre]

Hi All, I attended my first track day at Sydney Motorsports Park in Sydney and I am very excited to share my experience. While I am eager to straight away start sharing my pictures, however I think I should write a little about myself and my riding history.

Please bear with me and I will try and make it concise. Even though I had been riding motorbikes since 2005 it was not until 2011-12 when I got my Duke 200 followed that by a R15 when I actually started focusing on technicalities of riding. Before that I had been riding Pulsars 150-220 and Karizma and it was just clutch, throttle, brake and gear and surprisingly I survived.

Anyways long story short, riding the Duke 200, R15, Ninja 300, Yamaha R3, 650 made me realize how much I wanted to enjoy riding fast but in a controlled environment. Thus began my interest in riding on the tracks. I have been following MotoGP and WorldSBK for more over a decade and always wanted to be able to ride like those riders.

As much as I wanted to go to the tracks in India, it was tough to find time to ride to South India. Hence I tried a couple of track days organised by Vortex racing in Kolhapur on my Yamaha R3. It is a small go karting track, but is good enough to get your techniques right. The sessions with Vortex racing turned out to be addictive and I wanted to do more of it. But life happened and I moved here, and ever since I had deep rooted desire to hit the track in Sydney.

The Sydney Motor Sports Park is barely 30 minutes from where I stay, however it took me 6 whole years to finally be able to ride a superbike on a track. Never had I ever imagined in my wildest dreams that I would live to experience this moment. Even though I am 40+ it was hard to behave my age when I was at the track. Grinning ear to ear like an idiot and trying to soak up the environment.

To summarize the track, it is a venue that is visited very often by motorsports lovers (cars and bikes). The facility is spread across and has very good amenities and facilities (toilets, garages, cafeteria etc.)

Also, the track days are open events where you choose the riding group based on your skill and experience. If you select a group faster than your skill level you are automatically demoted. Having said that I chose the slowest group - white.

This is not a riding program like CSS. It is an open event where the organizers are more than happy to coach riders and help them come up to speed by working on the technicalities.

Before the on-track session you are made to attend a briefing session where they explain to you about various flags and do's and don'ts. And for first timers like me there is an additional 15 minutes session on the track to make you aware of the track layout.

Overall for $355 a day I think it is totally worth it, as it gives you a safe and controlled environment to ride your heart out. Since this was my first time there, my main objective was to come back home with my bike in one piece. I was not in a mood to try and break lap records. Having said that I did pretty good times. I started with 2:17 and by the time I ended the day, I was doing 2:00:00. Regular racers clock 1:40 at this track, and as you can see from the pictures I am still very stiff so clearly there is lot of room to grow.

I went there with my R1 which I had brought a few months ago when I realized I was ready to start doing track session.

I will be visiting the track again this Sunday, however I plan to take my Ninja 1000.

Enough of the boring stuff, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

[Mr.Ogre]

[commander.sri]

Amazing clicks! Thank you sharing the same.

Your R1 looks fabulous and is probably the best looking gen of R1's in my opinion (didn't quite like the last gen's looks, I know - looks subjective ).

Looking forward to your track day pictures with the Ninja 1000. Ride safe, brother.

[Mr.Ogre]

Originally Posted by commander.sri

Amazing clicks! Thank you sharing the same.

Your R1 looks fabulous and is probably the best looking gen of R1's in my opinion (didn't quite like the last gen's looks, I know - looks subjective ).

Looking forward to your track day pictures with the Ninja 1000. Ride safe, brother.

Thanks brother. Exactly my thoughts. It indeed looks mean and fast. This is a 2007 model, I think the cross-plane models started after this. The bike is bone stock with not even an after market slip on.

She is quite fast and scary, however with some patience she can reward with great experience.

[Mr.Ogre]

As promised, I also took my Ninja 1000 to the tracks just two days after I experienced the track on my R1.

While both are 1000 cc beasts but they are as different as chalk and cheese.

I cant say I enjoyed one more than the other because I really loved my time spent with these beautiful machines on the track.

While the R1 is light, nimble and fast, the Ninja is heavy and needs a lot of physical effort. As before the goal was to be home safe and in one piece, having said that I was trying to chase timings and could feel I need to work lot more on my body positioning and the lines I take.

The R1 does not have any of the aids like ABS, traction control or power modes, and the Ninja is just the same with just the ABS present.

What can I say, I like my machines that way. Enough of the boring talks, hope you enjoy the pictures.

[VijayAnand1]

Brilliant. The very essence of it is to enjoy these machines where they actually belong. Strangely as it may sound, once we enter the track environment, the perception completely changes the machine feels different, the man comes out different -- and it's the same feeling, each time, every time. Crisp picture!

Cheers!
VJ