Summit Point, Wv
May 13, 2001

Though Summit Point would be considered my home track, I was never really comfortable or very fast there. For more practice, I went down for a CCS weekend in May. Jen came along, but Dave did not make the trip. We got to the track around 10pm Friday night, where I proceeded to chat it up with my other race friends at the track that weekend. After the chatting and setting up the pit area, we didn't get to bed until well after midnight.

Here I am following a bunch of riders through turn six.

Headed through turn nine and toward the hill that spills into turn ten.

Again following riders into turn six.

Finally passing riders through turn six. The real action was always right before turn six or after in turns seven and eight. Before turn six there was a short (really short) straight after turn five, so it was always a drag race to beat the riders around you into turn six. Turn seven was a quick right hander followed immediately by turn eight - a quick left hander. If you set it up just right with a rider you were trying to pass, you could cut under them through seven or cut around them in turn eight flicking the bike faster through the turns then they were. If you didn't set it up just right, you were shut out and left struggling to make up the loss through turn nine.  Turn nine was a very fast turn and didn't forgive many loses.

All alone entering turn six. Turn six was Summit Points carousel. A carousel turn is generally a long consistant radious turn.

Dave and I got in the habit of passing on the outside of turn 1 and were made fun of for it. Turn one at Summit was kind of tricky. The outside was generally no-man's land. It was full of debris and errant riders who couldn't hold the tight inside line. We liked it because turn one generally became a parking lot with everyone trying to take the same line at the same time. While everyone else was nearly parked, we'd zip around them on the outside. You had to be quick about it, or you'd quickly get cut-off trying to get back on the line on the other side of the turn. Here's a picture of me taking the outside.

Here I am leading a Yamaha TZ 250 into turn one. If I'm not mistaken, I think he passed me somewhere on the backside of the course.