Donkey Puncher go fast!

I got an email from Donkey Puncher today. He raced his motorsickle at Beaverun.

Here is the track layout and a video of the race from another racer's bike. (DP in directly in front of this guy at the start.)

While watching the race, you may want to have the track layout up in a separate window and read DP's description of the track, turn-by-turn. At least, that's how I watched it. Some other things to pay attention to are the speedometer (wow) and how far over these guys lean the bikes in the turns (gah!).

Here is a walk though of a lap.

From a dead stop you have just enough time from the start finish line to shift into 4th gear. I would imagine the speed being around 110 mph before downshifting back into 3rd for the blind entry left hander. There is steel curbing at the apex of turn 1 and it’s best to stay off of it. If you run too deep into 1 you will be messed up for the next 3 turns. At the apex of one if you are one of the fast guys you should be Wide Open Throttle through turns 2 and 3. I am more like 3/4 throttle. Turn 4 is a moderate braking zone and this is where I seemed to spin the most. I was not carrying enough speed through turn 4 and when I would realize I was going too slow I would give it gas and spin the rear. On at least 2 occasions I was on the rumble strips and would clip a small section of grass before re-entering the track surface.

Turn five is a 90 degree right hander that starts your uphill ascent. There is a piece of patching in this turn that makes me nervous, but I never lost traction. We are still in 3rd year heading up the hill. You approach turn 6 in what feels like less than a second. It’s a very fast transition to a left hand turn. You have to be careful not to bounce your knee off the curbing here because if you don’t carry enough speed you will be inside of the apex.

Turn 7 is one of the more difficult turns for me since it is totally blind. The only reason you know there is even a turn is because you have been there before, there is no other indication until you are right on top of it. You need to pitch the bike onto it’s right ride before you see where the road goes. This is difficult. Just after the apex of 7 you are at full throttle shifting into 4th gear. Everything is scraping here. Your knee, toes, and foot pegs. There is a bit of a straight away and you can make 5th gear right after Turn 8, which is called the 1st kink. Turn 9 or the second kink is where you don’t want to pass. You can pass here but you take a substantial risk of running wide. Remember the Armco barriers? Yes chances are of you run wide here you will hit them. There are only a few hay bales setup here and chances are your bike will clear them out of the way for you just before you hit the wall.

Turn 10 is a popular braking zone as you downshift 3 gears into 3rd. You ascend again onto the front straight in this uphill and off-camber right hander. I slid the rear tire here constantly. My boots need new toe sliders because of this turn also. You need to be in 4th year before the kink on the front straight which is turn 11. By the time you hit the start finish line you are back to 5th or 6th gear, depending on your gearing. You need to be on the brakes hard at the 3rd braking marker in order to make Turn 1 again. This makes for some nervous, rear tire raising moments when you come up on a slower rider.