Trent,
I consider you a friend and enjoy talking with you and reading your posts, and seeing you in the paddock and on the track. I hope you heal up as fast as possible and get your mind settled down and get back out here with us. But I gotta jump in here and say a thing or two.
You already have recognized what needs to be done to correct the issues. But I think you are coming at it from the wrong angle. You keep focusing on the mechanics of the bike, the track, the tires, etc.
The issue is your approach to riding. You keep looking at it like A+B=Faster, and keep adding equipment variables and combinations/permutations to the equation to try to acheive faster and faster quicker. But you know better. You let the rush and the competitiveness get in the way of what you know is a more wholistic path to achievement of speed and skills.
From your posts, you seem have achieved this more full mind-body approach in shooting and karate, but have not yet applied it to your riding.
It's not just the machine mechanicals + the body position + doing X action at Y time. It's all of that PLUS a mindset. You've been in the wrong mindset to achieve.
Pretty much everyone here knows I highsided on a litrebike at my first trackday. That was my first ever motorcycle crash in over 35 years of riding. It scared the living crap out of me, and if I had managed to break my collarbone or sustain any serious injury, I probably would have quit. But I was lucky, and only badly bruised, and like you I'm too damn stubborn to quit while a machine has the better of me, so I came back - slow as crap and frightened out of my mind for two more days before I'd even allow myself to think about whether or not I'd come back or quit. And I became an addict in those two days.
I spent the next year and a half trying to do what you've been doing - albeit it at a much slower pace - trying to manhandle the machine into doing what I want it to do - chasing pace while still being very afraid of pushing myself into another heavy duty crash. I managed to crash several times doing that, and nearly cause others to crash a few times as well.
I had a crappy year last summer, and was very frustrated by the time we were at ACC in September. I vented to Chad, who gave me some blunt feedback (Thanks), and worked with me to calm me down the next day. But I was still on the same track and doing the same things. Discussions at Road Atlanta last December started the change for me. That rainy afternoon where Alan, you and I sat talking started the dim glow of the light in my thick skull. "Learn how to work with the bike." So I stopped worrying about being the slowest guy in B and started trying to learn how to work in harmony with the bike rather than to control the bike. Six track days later, with the support of the NESBA CR's and staff, I'm running very near the front of B, having a lot more fun, feeling more confident about playing in traffic, and even setting up and executing some passes. (For me, these are big deals.)
All because I finally gave up trying to do it my way, and took a different approach of trying to use the pointers/feedback/instruction offered to work with the bike rather than to control the bike.
[And I know I crashed in June and am in the healing process myself - I still am making mistakes and have much more to learn. My bad decisions were made a full corner back, because I hadn't been looking far enough ahead to match my newly increased pace.]
A long story to get to my point. You need a new approach in your mind. You need to set aside your competitive nature for a while, and listen to the truths folks here are trying to impart, rather than to rebut each argument individually. You need to not worry about people passing you, and dial your competitive nature back a notch (or three). Track Days aren't a competitive sport, and for someone who has a need to compete at everything, that's hard to cope with.
This is an individual sport, where the achievement and improvement is measured for each one of us independently of the others out there. It's more like you pick something to work on for the day, and work at it, regardless of what the others in your group are doing. No one out here is trying to "beat" you at this game. You don't have to "win" every time.
It's not the adrenaline, it's the need to compete that appears to me to be the problem.
You have good solid skills. You are a better rider than many out there, including me. You have a lot to give to others in this sport. But you let your need to compete get in the way of all that, and it costs you big. And hurts, especially as the speed increases. So stop it. Find a way to turn it off during track days. This includes competing with yourself in your mind, too.
So turn off the competition mindset, set aside the ego. If you want to try a 600, you can take mine out if you want. We want you to stay with us, without injury, and as a healthy member of the NESBA family. The choice of how to move forward from here is yours.
