Well, myself and NYCSTRIPES were at Thunderbolt raceway yesterday for TPM's first excursion on this new track. It is an inspiring layout. It is fast AND technical. Lots of LOOOOONG sweepers that decrease radius at the close of the corner so VERY late apexes. Lots of steering with the throttle.
. Really hard on tires.... that is to be expected. Just like Lightning, its gets better as the speed increases but its by no means a hard on the throttle everywhere layout like lightning. It's got some elevation changes that can be a little unsettleing at first. The layout we ran yesterday was with the two chicanes included. This will be my favored layout. The exit of the first chicane is over a blind entrance right hander. If you get it wrong you will be going off road to the left. At speed my bike was getting a little unsettled there but I suspect that has more to do with the inferiority of my stock suspension. This track will show you the limitations of your suspension.
There are LOTS of GREAT passing areas. This is gonna be a great place for dicing with another rider of equal skill. Fast guys are gonna be really fast here, as expected.
There is a short strait after the exit of the second chicane that has a hill in the middle that I found I had to short shift before the top of or the front was going skyward. It took me about 2 sessions before I knew where the track was going. It's gonna take me a long time before I will be able to really be aggressive with this track. Me and Kenny were doing steady 1;46's by the end of the day although my laptimer was only picking up till around 2:00pm. Think we may have been going a little faster the following sessions but not much. Fast guys I'm sure were quite a bit faster.
All comments.... either positive or negative are happily welcomed