Southwest Roadracing :: View topic

blitzkrieg69 · Newbie Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 2 First Name: Bryan

Hey all, I've been riding and residing in the Phoenix area off and on since '99, but have yet to hit the track down here. I did a few track days up at PIR in Portland, and driving by Firebird on my way to Maricopa makes me cringe. The track doesn't appear to have a very consistant surface, or the proper amount of runoff. Am I just imagining things? Does it just appear that way from the freeway?

Also, I see East and West designations, but I'm guessing I've only seen the East track? Is the West track better?

Thanks in advance

Turns 1-3 are known as the "festival turns", and aren't used that often, but I've had the privelage of a track day when they were.

H8R · Posted: Thu May 27, 2010 9:04 pm Post subject:

You have to take Firebirds tracks at face value. Compared to Miller or Barber there really is no comparison, but that doesn't really mean they aren't worthy of riding. Like anything you do on the track you have choices. East is probably the safest of the three ( the one you can see from the freeway). West and "Main" are interesting. Main uses the NHRA dragstrip straight...

Best thing is just show up during a trackday...and look around.

We have very few crashes that end up using all the run off...you just have to remember there is places you can't push 100%.

You'd have fun...and besides...i will put the people in our paddock up as the nicest in the Nation.

blitzkrieg69 · Newbie Joined: 27 May 2010 Posts: 2 First Name: Bryan

Thanks H8R, and ya, from what I've seen it's a quality group of people. At least now that the bad apple has been weeded out Razz

F. Richard Head · Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 7:06 am Post subject:

East, West and Main are all bike-rideable. The Bondurant course is a car driving school and not at all M/C friendly. AZTrackday rode there once due to an over-booking or something. It was interesting. Scary as there was no run-off, but the track was fun with some mild elevation changes.

Firebird Track Schematics:

http://www.firebirdraceway.com/web/trackrentals.html

Satellite view:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=firebird+raceway,+chandler,+az&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.688845,74.179688&ie=UTF8&hq=firebird+raceway,&hnear=Chandler,+AZ&ll=33.269551,-111.966262&spn=0.0122,0.01811&t=h&z=16

dryheat

Aztrackday · Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 5:04 pm Post subject:

Any track beats the risks of riding on the street

Jasonzilla · Squid Joined: 09 Dec 2008 Posts: 60 First Name: Jason

The Firebird tracks are pretty poor tracks compared to what most people in the US are used to, and the trackdays are run pretty poorly when compared to other trackday hosts. I'll ride it a couple of times a year when I don't have a ride to the other tracks around here, but the trip is worth it to get to the other tracks.

It IS better than nothing, but we now have Inde and Chuckwalla tracks that blow Firebird away. Inde is just a magnificent track that did have a couple of shortcomings as far as runoff, but it's supposedly improved and I can't wait to get back on it.

The owner of Chuckwalla didn't prepare the track so the faster riders will be running through up to a couple of tires a weekend, but once you get the hang of the flow, it's not only fast, but pretty technical as well.

Duchead · Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 9:37 am Post subject:

Duc995 · Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 1:57 pm Post subject:

He's got it half right! Laughing

GixxerJay · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:12 pm Post subject: My 2 cents

I have ridden at a lot of tracks, with a lot of different organizations...

I think the original thread was asking about our tracks compared to others.. PIR for example etc....

Our tracks are ran by family guys and gals. Thats the feel.. It is not where everyone wears the same jerseys and act all bad ass like our friends from local regions. You are correct in that they have a different feel, but they are not ran poorly. How the track is ran will clearly be transparent to you.. Which as a participant.. It should be.. Just show us with a good bike, ready to ride and I bet that's exactly what will happen.
Here are the questions i ask myself when gauging how well an event is ran..
Did anyone get hurt?
Was it on time and as safe as it could be?
Did I have fun?
I can say I have yet to have any of this team fail at any of those..
So until you ride with the organization I think it is easy to see by the many threads... Tis is a good group to ride with and they get the job done so we keep coming back.. I know I do...

As for the tracks. They are are a fun blend of tracks. One heavy rights, one heavy on the left and one with a huge straight where you can actually hit 6th wide open.
They are all flat..
They are no rougher than Arroyo or Willow. You can't be a little bitch and need super smoot pavement to ride here. Real riders need to be able to set suspension.. If you can do this.. You'll be fine...
Better run off than Pahrump and Inde, but it has some scary stuff too...

SO in short, you are wrong about Roadrace SW. They run a tight ship. Some other groups do not, and perhpaps you're getting them confused.

So I'd callenge you to come out, and ride with us. I'd suggest Main or West. Fun tracks... East is cool too...

Duc995 · Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:43 pm Post subject:

Road Race SW run awesome track days! hello1

Southwest Roadracing Forum Index -> Track Days	All times are GMT - 7 Hours
Page 1 of 1