Track day a beginner's blast

Chance to develop street riding skills

Once or twice a year New Mexico’s BMW Motorcycle dealers, Sandia BMW in Albuquerque and Santa Fe BMW try to host a BMW sponsored “track day” for interested BMW riders to hone their street riding skills and get just a taste of the motorcycle racing experience.

The dealerships foot the bill for 50 complimentary passes to track day, held at Albuquerque’s Sandia Motor Speedway, that features four classes of riders. The racer class is just what it’s named, followed by the experienced and beginner classes and the first-timers class, called “street school.”

After prepping the bikes by removing rear view mirrors and taping over all lights and signals — distractions like headlights are disliked on the track, and you really don’t need to see what’s behind you — and running all equipment trough a technical checkpoint to make sure boots, leathers, and helmets meet track standards and that all bikes are in top working order, street school holds class.

The young instructors of street school do an admirable job of communicating a fairly large amount of information in a very short period of time. Rules of the track are a crucial part of the schooling, as is safety, of course. Some valuable tips about finding the best “line” through the course are given, along with throttle, braking, countersteering, and vision lessons.

Nervous because you’ve never been on a track before? As you enter the course following closely behind your instructor in a small group of four riders you hope first that you won’t fall down, that you’ll remember all the tips and that you’ll not embarrass yourself. First time out, you go pretty slow, maybe even too slow, but then again maybe not. After 30 minutes or so on the track it’s time for lunch.

It’s a BMW sponsored event, so of course there are bratwurst and potato salad. And there’s a very large German Chocolate Cake decorated just like a BMW logo. Getting the theme?

The second round on the track is much faster, and the skills begin to surface. The 1.8 mile course includes a grandstand straightaway that begs for speed. Turn one is a right that’s sweeping and wide and exits into a slight uphill that hides turn two until you’re right on top of it. Turn three is a tightly pinched left hairpin that is sharply banked. If you take the right line you can just about chop the hairpin in half and blast out of it with good inertia, transitioning into turn four, a sweeping left that sets up turn five, a tight go-around right that almost feels like a complete circle. Turn six is another right that’s about a 90 degree turn and opens to a short throttle-up straightaway and turn seven, a tight right that becomes the long grandstand straightaway – back bigtime on throttle and start it all over again. Whew!

Fifteen laps later your head and hands are buzzing and as the signal for “time up” is given you exit the track laughing out loud inside your helmet. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing; no wonder so many people spend so much time trying to coax their physiology into giving it up to the brain. Track day is an activity recommended for any level rider, you can feel your skill grow as you round the course, and feel more confident as you reenter the public roadways on the journey home — it’s time well spent.