These were from this weekend at Summit Point where the weather couldn't make up its damn mind. Both days had a mixture of dry races and wet races. First one was GT500 in the dry, and this was one of my favorite races so far, fighting it out with a guy that has been at a similar pace as me at every weekend that I've raced so far. There were a few turns where I was faster than him and some where he was faster than me. In the end I got him by 0.041 seconds at the line!


Second one was probably one of the most frustrating races I've had because the rain started just minutes before the race. I hauled ass trying to swap to rain tires and I barely made it out for the warm-up lap just in time thanks to a couple of guys who helped me out with one of the tires when they saw I was running out of time. I think this was the only time I've ever been more tired BEFORE the start of a race than at the end of a race lol. The other frustrating part is I couldn't make the pass for 3rd place. I was pushing pretty hard for those conditions and almost crashed into the guy a couple of times but just couldn't make that pass safely. Disappointing because I really wanted that podium place. When I looked at lap times I realized my best time was only 0.4 seconds slower than the winner's best time, and 1.8 seconds faster than the guy in 2nd place, but unfortunately I lost way too much time on the first couple of laps until I settled in and got used to the wet track.

Awesome man, nice work. What's a race weekend on the 300 cost you vs a TD weekend?

It depends on how many races you do. This weekend was a twin sprints, meaning almost every class races twice (once on Saturday and once on Sunday). So I did 5 races, but normally I do 4. If you preregister, the first race is 85 and the others are 65. You also get 2-3 practice sessions on Saturday and a couple of sessions on Sunday included in that. So normally you can run 4 races and a few practice sessions for $280. If you want to calculate $/lap racing is more expensive, but don’t think of it that way. I’m sure nobody that races thinks of it that way. For me it’s more about the quality of the laps and riding and how much fun I’m having. In that regards I do think you get more out of it for the money.

I agree it's not really an apples to apples comparison. There is an intensity and anticipation that is so much different with a race weekend than a track day. It's hard to describe to someone who hasn't experienced it. I think the camaraderie between racers is also a little more than amongst trackday riders. Yeah you might meet some new people and make friends at a track day, but it's not the same as racing the same guys in a series over multiple rounds of a season.

Very nice.

I wish Laguna Seca didn't have so many stupid sound rules so that the AFM would have a round here . I've been too lazy to drive up to Thunderhill and Sonoma .

Super cool man! Nice work!

Um. You forgot the most expensive part of a race weekend. Tires!

300 can't be to bad on tires I guess...?

Yep! Exactly! Especially when you get people that barely know you to come to your aid in swapping tires in the rain, when they just announced 2nd call for the race! You don't get that sort of camaraderie anywhere else as far as I'm concerned!

Umm...I'm trying to give out as little cost info as possible to not scare the guy away from trying it! Way to ruin it! I purposely didn't mention the money spent on tires, gas, travel, food, beer, gate fee, etc. lol

But to be fair, the little bikes are easy on tires. Some of the guys I'm racing with are throwing money away on tires in my opinion, but I'm still on the same set I've started with. I've got 4 weekends plus a track day so far on my current set and I plan on using them at the next round at NJMP as well. Then I'll probably get a new set after that just because I'll be doing an endurance race so I want a fresh set for that. So a $360 set of tires (the 110/140 tires are cheaper) for 5 weekends and a track day isn't bad at all.

I see everything as a dollar sign, so ya I added all that up in my head hahaha
But really the price doesn't sound that bad compared to a track day. Still need tires for a trackday, probably getting a little less out of mine on the ZX6 anyhow, always paying for gas...usually 2 tanks in a weekend (for the truck alone), food I've figured how to do on the cheap luckily. Either way you gotta pay to play in the end. I'm definitely interested in trying some racing within the next 2 years I would say. If I do it I'm looking at either the little bike classes or probably twins to start. Not sure I wanna go all in with the 600 class to start, plus I'm definitely one of those people that think little light-weight bikes are too much fun.

Are you doing the endurance race at VIR in August? have seen a bunch of ads from N2 on that one.

Not really, because tires are still an expense for track days, unless you are running novice on street tires. But anyone who is making a personal comparison between the cost of track days versus racing, is going to be riding somewhat similar paces whether racing or track days, so the tire expense will be similar. Yeah you push a little harder during a race weekend, but you also don't put in as many laps. It's basically a wash.

Doh! My bad! Racing is cheap! Everyone should race!

I think that's the right approach. Don't do what I did and start out on a liter bike lol

Honestly I would get a lightweight (like an FZ-07) right now if it wasn't for the fact that they grid them up at the same time as the little bikes. We share most of our races with the lightweights, so having a bike for each class does me no good. So you have to pick one or the other. Both classes I think would be fun, but from what I've noticed the little bike classes tend to have a few more people on the grid, plus they score them combined (experts and amateurs). With the lightweights it's not uncommon to have only like 3-4 amateurs on the grid which doesn't make it all that fun. Sure you get much better results that way and a higher chance of winning a championship, but is that really that much fun??

Yes, I'm doing the WERA endurance race at VIR in August. It'll be my first event with WERA and my first time at VIR.

I agree racing small bikes is more fun per dollar than big bikes. The only reason I'm not considering getting rid of my ZX6R racebike right now is because I am on an endurance team running a 250/300 ninja. If the budget is tight for a certain weekend, I can just leave the ZX6R at home and still get plenty of laps racing the 250/300.

For many years I only ran small bikes (bandit 400, fully built ascot single with FZR 400 front and rear suspension, SV650, etc.)