HOT TRACK FOR A COOL FALL WEEKEND
Carolina Motorsports Park, aka "Kershaw", November 23-24, 2002
A little frosty for the first session of the day on Saturday. A mandatory 2 laps under the white flag allowed riders to study the track and warm the tires.
Our last track day weekend of the season started out on a cold, snowy, late November afternoon. The weather forecast called for 2 inches of snow, temperatures in the 20s and high winds. It was hard for us to believe the weather forecast for Kershaw, SC was calling for weekend temps in the 50s and sunny. But we packed up the Falco and camping gear and headed to the Carolina Motorsports Park, aka Kershaw or CMP, located about 60 miles south of Charlotte North Carolina. We planned to meet our friends, Monte and Bonnie from Sportbiketracktime.com for a weekend trackday event put on by TeamPromotion.com.

click image for enlargement

Glen Goldman, founder of TeamPromotion.com

Glen's custom Aprilia

Lois & Mark Sheldon, Bonnie & Monte of Sportbiketracktime.com, Nanc & Ron

Watching the action at Pit Straight

Nanc and her Falco

Sharon and Aaron Stevenson of Cornerspeed.com

The Track
TeamPromotion.com offers trackdays up and down the east cost with Pocono, PA as their home track. Similar to SportbikeTrackTime.com, TeamPromotion.com has Aprilia as one of their major sponsors and their bikes are available for rental. We met the founder of TeamPromotion.com, Glen Goldman. He's been doing this since1996 and his experience shows. Their typical track day starts with a detailed rider meeting and then the 20-minute sessions begin. Safety seemed to be a big factor, with riders and bikes being carefully "teched" before entering the track. Riders are divided into three skill level groups with the white group being the school or novice riders, red the intermediate group, and blue/black advanced riders. TeamPromotions also offer ART, Advanced Rider Training to riders of all abilities for an additional cost. If you're just there for a trackday, a kind word to one of the instructor/coaches will give you a quick critique of your riding style and some free advise. I must admit, TeamPromotion did a great job of cone placement at the track which pointed out corner entrance, apex, and exit. CMP was well marked with breaking markers as well. They made it easy to figure out the line on this exciting, fast track.

Kershaw is a long track (2.235 miles). Pit exit dumps you directly into turn one, a sharp left hand turn known as Camden Corner. This is followed by 2 Esses leading to a quick left and the Faith, Hope and Charity "carousel" a fun, series of rights. You can actually gain speed and accelerate into the long Outback downhill 150 mph straight of 1,841 feet. Some breaking and then a high speed right through Angel's Angel takes you into a 1,990 foot long straight with a slight "kink" to the right - not enough to slow you down and a real thrill at high speed. You will then need to brake and down shift into Muligans Corner a tight double apex left and transition into Charlies Corner, a sharp right, then Lone Tree a slow right leading into a 1,009 foot long Kershaw Straight and then Last Chance Corner a tight late apex corner leading into Pit Straight. Whew!!

The things that stuck out in our minds about this track are the fun, high speed sections. This track requires lots of shifting and breaking. The track has a good sticky surface, lots of passing room, and lots of runoff. Perhaps not the best track for your first track day, but loads of fun for those looking for a fast track.

The weather turned out to be as forecasted and even better. Saturday temps reached the low 60s and Sunday was even a bit warmer. We saw lots of friends from the Dragon, Mike Cuzak road his GSXR both days and finally got kicked off the track for doing wheelies in the White group. Boomer, Andy, and a few other Dragon riders from Charlotte came down. We also saw some familiar faces from the Johnson City, Tennessee area. STT instructor Mark Sheldon and his wife Lois made the trip from Atlanta, along with some other STT members. We also met Aaron Stevenson, owner of Cornerspeed.net and his friend Sharon. CornerSpeed.net is a racing school based out of VIR and a few days at one of his schools would definitely sharpen skills necessary for trackdays like today.

We really had a great time at Kershaw and glad we took this opportunity for a late season track day. Our offer stands to host Glen Goldman for a weekend of riding the Dragon. Unfortunately, there won't be expertly placed cones showing you all 422 apexes, no braking markers, no clean up crews for loose gravel, dead squirrels, or oil spots. But the Dragon is one fun 11-mile stretch of road that will surely test any rider's skills.

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