SMP Long - 25th of August, 2014. Hosted by SMP.

Spent another day at the track and had a blast as usual, however things were a little unorganized this time around. Last time I went to an SMP hosted event, it wasn't too many riders and we only ran two groups, it was easy to keep track of everyone and the sessions were ran smooth enough that it wasn't a bother. This time around it was 50+ riders and a bit of a cluster-f*** for the lack of a better term.

Rider's meeting went well, the person holding the meeting asked the crowd, long or pro track? In which everyone responded by saying "long". Great, I love the long track, it is more technical and really puts you to work. Then she asks "How many groups do you want to run?" - What? There was 50+ riders, all with different riding experience. Everyone said "Two groups" - ok, whatever. now on to the tech part - there was none. One of the first sessions, someone's sprocket shattered into 5 pieces and in another there was a front fender laying in the middle of the track. Both could have been avoided had there been an actual tech inspection.

After the first session they decided to change it to three groups, no big deal. So now we have three groups, mixing the flags didn't help, it was originally blue flag (fast) and green flag (novice), then they decided to switch it up to novice (blue flag), intermediate (white flag) and expert (green flag).
I didn't even know about this until a friend of mine mentioned it.

I've even seen riders going out into two groups to get more track time. I don't think I'll be returning to an SMP hosted event again unless they implement some basic rules. Aside from the great weather and good company, it was a bit of a mess.

Now, onto the good stuff. I probably should have been riding in intermediate, but I felt like novice was a good place to start. These aren't the usual suspects that show up to the Rider's Choice days, so I didn't know the skill set of the people around me and didn't want to cause any traffic or hold anyone back.

I didn't get much accomplished in the way of lap times as there was always someone ahead me running at a slower pace. So I focused my energy on a couple of corners, mainly the hairpins where I needed to work on proper entrance and exit. Finally realized my gearing needed work as I would have a hard time stretching out 2nd gear coming out of the hairpins. That being said, I'll be putting the Marchesini wheels with the new gearing sooner rather than later as the season is coming to an end.

Here are a few pictures from the day, I can see improvements in my body position, the screw driver grip really helped. Still need improvements but not as bad as before:

 Once again, many thanks to Heather Bashow @ DeerHaven Photography for the great shots! 

All in all it was a great day in the company of good people at a place that I love. I'll be going there again on the 7th with Rider's Choice riding in intermediate. 

Hoping to try the new RDT track at Mosport on the 1st for the first time. Good times ahead!