Twisting Asphalt - A SoCal Ducati Motorcycle Blog

I don’t know about anyone else but the beginning of the holiday season always seems to make me a bit reflective and this year is no different. Historically this is the time of the year when MotorMilt makes some sort of offhanded comment about how we need to get away while we’re taking a short break during a ride. Over the past several years we’ve traveled to Morro Bay, Montecito and even San Francisco right around the Thanksgiving holiday break, if not exactly on it. Last year we stayed a bit closer to home (see last years post “My Kind of Thanksgiving”) because of our new found infatuation with the Ducs. All of these different rides have been memorable in their own ways and for a collection of both introspective and jointly shared experiences. Yet this year because MotorMilt is still recovering from his knee surgury the reality is that we won’t be going on a memorable Thanksgiving ride. Throughout MM’s recovery it had simply never dawned on me that we’d miss an opportunity at a joint holiday ride. Perhaps I simply didn’t want to go there mentally or knowning me I just never put two and two together. In either case, over the weekend the realization that we won’t be going for a ride this Thursday started to really bum me out…

Yet fate it seems has interveined in rather surprising way… While surfing the net I stumbled on to a discussion over on the SoCal Monster forum (which is part of the Ducati Monster List) about an upcoming trackday event that’s being put on by an organization called Trackdaz. As I read the thread it was hard not to notice that everyone posting seemed to have great things to say about the company. So I found myself wondering who these Trackdaz folks were… Being the inquisitive type a couple of clicks later and I was on their site checking out their upcoming schedule only to find out that they are running a trackday this upcoming weekend on the Big Track at Willow Springs. My mind immediately jumped to the obvious conclusion that if there MotorMilt and I couldn’t go for a lengthy ride up the coast, a trackday was the next best thing… So twenty minutes later after convincing MM that this was a good idea, I was signed up and ready to roll…

As with many things in life, this will be yet another new experience. First and foremost beause the Big Track at Willow is vastly different than the Streets course. It’s larger and faster. The straights are longer and you can carry perhaps two to three times the speed into the corners. Often I heard folks who’ve ridden both saying that the Streets course is ‘technical’ while the Big Track is just ‘flat out fast’. Sunday I’ll find out, but right now I’m absolutely stoked to run it…

Part of my excitement and to be honest, some of my apprehension is due to the fact that the Trackdaz folks require several things that I’ve never dealt with before; such as removing the mirrors, pulling the fuses and using a water/wetwetter mix. Here’s a portion of their trackday requirements…

Now none of this is completely rediculous, but it’s new so once again the adventure continues … I have no doubt this will be a fun weekend…

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