joseph mitro

i don't know James-man, but something tells me he was joking

sjanes

i was teaching at an event a week ago and one of the other instructors had a well known and very successful professional athlete as a student. He remarked later that this student was the most focused person he's ever met and that when he told him to do something, he just did it. Some people just have a natural ability that makes them successful at these types of things.

9-kevin-11

James -

Good to see you out there (I had lunch with you today). Hope things went well for you!!! I had a blast today! The track didn't get greasy in the late afternoon - it was soooo nice to run on!

kev

Greg Smith

I've been riding dirt bikes for about 13yrs you know, only ever raced once though. So there goes your "good experiences" argument, haha.

Veloce Raptor

Either I didn't know that, or I had forgotten it. Either way, there is always one exception to every rule.

TD in DC

haha

I used to race YZ 250s . . .

Greg Smith

I'm honored to be that exception!

Willard Bridgham 3

Raced a sherpa tss at Laconia long, long ago. Only real Bultaco heads know about their road-racing machines.

Bultaco discovered, just as did Porsche, that , if you water-cool an engine, the specific horsepower possible is quite a bit higher.

James-man

First session it was on. 2nd day session 1 had some rain, so on again. The rest of the time it was off. The track is among the safest out there with plenty of run off so there is not as much of a fear factor concerning loss of control.

The whole weekend, there were only 2 grossly overcooked turns, he recovered nicely.

I had no problem with the stability management off - he proved himself right away, and it is probably better to develop good throttle application and braking habits early, then have to relearn. Assuming he remembers his line the next time out, I think he is ready to work on car rotation with some lift-throttle oversteering.

It all sounds so wrong and unlikely, but true.

kurt M

I too have had nothing but good weekends when I had AF or Navy pilots for students. In order to be a good pilot youhave top be a good learner. Listen, learn and remember the details. An "off" in a fighter sucks.

OTOH my father was a fighter pilot and he always said fighter pilots were a chosen few. He said thay you had to be just smart enough to fly the thing and just dumb enough to do it. He was one of the smartest men I ever knew, blowing up angry people before they shoot you for a living in 3 wars excepted. II, Korea and Nam.

James-man

Point taken.

Gary R.

Sherpa was their Trials bike wasn't it? My brother had a 350 Sherpa T, could pull stumps with it!

gbaker

Someone who crashed and missed?

gerry100

Every little boy wants to be a fighter pilot at some point.

As a taxpayer and surface dweller I'm glad that the Govt has a rigorous selection process for who gets to drive our $40MM machines.

Not only do they have to be focused,smart and good learners but to get to the fighters they must have a metric sh*tload of natural ability.

Should be no surprise they can perform ""well" on a track as compared to those of us equipped only with some disposable income and determination.

As far as the bad experince with Military pilots on the track - I'll bet it was the old nemesis of learning - ego.

Willard Bridgham 3

Sherpa Tss was a water-cooled, two-stroke, single cylinder road racer. They used the name sherpa w/o the tss for other bikes.

How's that for hijacking..........