Text by Kenn Stamp - Photos by Superbike Photography 


I finally had the chance to ride a private track day with the local (some say "loco") group that I ride with on some Sunday mornings. Timing was great; I'd drive up to GA, pick-up the Triumph Street Triple, and ride it back to Jennings. Meanwhile Rick (of Avon Viper Extreme review fame) was going to meet me at Jennings with his bike (2001 Suzuki GSX-R 600) and previous editor Mike Emery's bike (Aprilia Tuono) on his trailer.

I was looking forward to riding the Aprilia at Jennings as I had taken it out for a couple of minutes around my neighborhood a few days before and liked the seating position, although the aftermarket pegs that were on the bike were horrible. I also liked the motor and the power it had even though I thought it might be a bit of a handful at the track due to the power hitting all at once.

After freezing my butt off (see the forums for discussion of this topic) riding the Street Triple back from Newnan, GA, I arrived at the Scottish Inn at 8pm. Luckily, I had stopped in there on my way up to GA. and reserved a room because even though I was 4 hours later than my estimated check-in time, the owner saved me his last room. After pulling the Trumpet into the room with me (gotta love being on the ground floor) I was able to look around my humble (and cheap) pied-a-terre as I thawed out. While the room won't be featured on the Travel Channel anytime soon, it was clean and bug free except for one lonely housefly. I took pity upon the fly and let him stay with me since it was going down to 29 degrees that night. He didn't eat much and it was nice having "somebody" to greet me when I woke up.

Saturday morning dawned bright and cold and I once again froze my butt off attempting to find breakfast in a town better known for.....well nothing actually. I'm surprised that Jennings, FL. is even on the map. I thought that there was a Burger King at the next exit up into GA. (3 miles up HWY 75) but I was mistaken. It was TWO exits up from Jennings so I decided that a cereal bar, Powerbar, and a bottle of water was the breakfast of choice this morning. I would have eaten cardboard if it kept me from having to ride an additional 6 miles round trip.

After my arrival at Jennings GP was greeted by stares and people murmuring (who is the idiot that rode his bike to the track in 30 degree weather?), I quickly secured a concrete pad to call my own. Actually I secured two; one for the Triumph and one for the Gixxer and Tuo. Once I took off my helmet the stares turned to recognition and everyone knew who the "idiot" was riding in 30 degree weather. Can't say anyone looked surprised either.....might need to work on my image some.

Rick arrived and we set everything up, unloaded the bikes and go to the pre-ride track briefing. After a lot of "you can't do this or that or this other thing" and approximately 300 different flag colors, combinations, and waving techniques ("now if I hold it like this it means a beetle just crawled on the track, and like this means a blade of grass is broken, and like this".... well, you get the idea) it was back to the bike to get everything ready to ride.

The ChickenHawk Racing tire warmers were temp'd up keeping the Pirelli tires (Supercorsa front, Superbike slick rear) nice and toasty and my Shift Racing leathers were sitting out in the sun getting toasty as well. I had a nifty new toy in the form of a video camera to use that day. Wilco Imaging supplied 2WF with a cool camera from Elmo called the SUV Cam. Basically it is a lipstick cam with a 5 foot cord that runs to a display unit so you can be sure that you are getting the shot you want. I'll have more on the camera in a separate write-up to come but so far it seems to work great.

I decided that having the helmet mounted to my helmet would accomplish two things; One, it would capture some good footage, and Two, I could use the video to help explain looking through curves to some of my students when I teach the Basic Riders Course. I had planned to get all kinds of different camera angles and such but really ran out of time and just stayed with the helmet mount. Next time I'll be more familiar with the camera an more adventurous with the mounting locations.