Mark Junge at Vesrah Suzuki invited Joe and me to a day on the track at Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL. Unfortunately Joe is in Asia on business but I got to go.
Mark brought along a Supersport 600, a Superstock 1000 and an SV1000 as samples of his road racing world. He also rented a BMW135i for the day so we could spend time abusing 4 tires at once instead of just 2.
Jacobi and the Vesrah line up.
We were on the north track which is the faster of the two circuits at Autobahn. It has only 3 left-hand turns and strings of double apex rights. The left front tire of the Bimmer took a beating.
Autobahn is pretty much another planet for those of us that don’t have money like the club members do. The place is overflowing with toys that disposable income can buy. Many club members buy trackside land and build multi-story garage/apartment just so they have a place to relax between track sessions or track days.
One of the mega garage/apartments surrounding the track.
And the cars. A gaggle of $120,000 Porsche GT3s did lap after lap after lap in between our moto sessions. There was also a Viper ACS and several race prepped Z06 Vetts along side some a Mazda-powered open and closed wheel racers. Cool stuff.
Mazdo power.
Porsche money.
I did 33 laps on the Suzuki GSX-R600 and 3 laps on Mark’s GSX-R1000. The 600 had plenty of poop but was docile no matter where I was on the track. The 1000 was a beast and had me on the ropes no matter what I did.
Mark is doing some engine maping for me. I don't know the difference but I dig the technology.
Mark weighs more than me so the suspension might not have been optimal on either bike. But the 1000 was really sure footed and gave great feedback. I’ve never felt as if I had enough track time to be able to distinguish what I liked in a road race bike and what I didn’t but I liked the ergonomics and feedback on the 1000 a ton.
Mark’s 1000 doesn’t have a sophisticate engine management system like the World and AMA Superbikes do so its 185 rear wheel horsepower runs rampant. I did a 100 meter long, 6 inch high wheelie totally on accident down one straight. That was pretty scary but because the bike has so much feedback you can feel your way through the scary stuff.
Can you see the smile on my face? Even being a passenger was a good time.
Back to the BMW. Mark’s teammate John Jacobi spent the day peeling the rubber off the tires. The 135i had lots of go but it was difficult to predict when it would go because of the automatic transmission, engine management and direction management. The tranny didn’t know you wanted to be in 2nd gear coming out of turns and even if you put it there on purpose the lag was so great it slowed you down and killed the thrill. The traction control definitely saved me from looping out but it also damped the fun. The real show stopper but ass saver was how active the direction management stuff was. I don’t know exactly what the system is called but it knows when you’ve stepped out of line and does its best to shut the car down and straighten it out.
Half way. By the end the cords were showing.
The really fun and fast laps came from not only hitting every turn just so but also from keeping the electronics from kicking in. Jacobi had it wired by the end of the day and was putting the hurt on the less experienced but far out powered GT3 drivers.
Thanks, Mark for the great experience!
The 600
