2011 Boston Moto Elite Track Day Membership Info Posted!

Due to overwhelming demand for additional Elite membership availability, we have posted initial details for the 2011 Elite Membership Program on our website (click here).  We have taken input from long conversations with current and prospective members and have come up with "The Evolution of Track Time," our best effort at providing everyone with affordable, flexible, rain-guarantee protected, maximum track time.

Next year will include track days at the best tracks on the East Coast, flexible "tiered" membership options, and as you have all come to expect, the absolute most... "Track Time - Period."

Members from 2010 have first opportunity to renew for 2011, and additional spots are LIMITED.  When they are gone, they're gone.  Don't miss your chance to become an Elite member... and have your say on our schedule for 2011 heard! 

 

RIP - Peter Lenz

The road racing and motorcycle community lost a bright young star this past weekend when 13 year old up-and-coming USGPRU star Peter Lenz passed away from injuries sustained during the USGPRU MotoGP support race. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Lenz family. A memorial fund has been established in his honor, you can learn more by clicking on the image below. Rest in Peace Peter.

 

2010 Loudon Classic Wrap Up!

Congratulations to Scotty Greenwood who rode to an impressive win in the 87th Loudon Classic on Sunday.  You certainly have earned it Scott!

TeamConti was well-represented throughout the weekend, securing numerous top four finishes to lay claim to the Continental contingency payouts that are up for grabs in every race, every class, regardless of grid size. 

Top earner again - Ryan Nolin #178 took three more top four finishes (including another win!) and was able to run successive races on a soft-compound rear tire without tearing suffered in earlier rounds, a result of getting his rear shock dialed in by Peter Kates of GMD Computrack. 

Jason Markham #336 took home an hard fought 5th place in Supertwins, missing out on the 4th spot after stretching his ContiRaceAttack Slick rear tire through three weekends of racing (taking two wins in the process) and a full day of testing... all aboard his hulking RC-51 superbike.  While this demonstrates the longevity offered by Continental tires that's creating a buzz through the paddock, Jason admitted after the race his strategy should have included a new rear tire in between morning practices. He conceded "One of the things I like most about the ContiRaceAttack tires are their smooth and linear feedback.  Even once the tire went off and the bike started to move around, I was able to comfortably finish off the race.  I just wish I had a fresh tire on so I could have pushed even harder." 

 

We'd like to congratulate ALL racers who took part in the 87th Annual Loudon Classic, and we're looking forward to Round 5 of the Loudon Road Racing Series.  Especially July 13-14th where we'll be at the track Tuesday and Wednesday, offering FREE test and tune on ContiRaceAttacks for those who are curious how the Contis stack up.

ContiRaceAttack Gaining Strength in the Loudon Road Racing Series

The opening round of the 2010 Loudon Road Racing Series (LRRS) season saw the New England debut of Continental Tires and the ContiRaceAttack line.   15 riders gave the ContiRaceAttack tires a try from the opening round and began racking up the contingency payouts and strong finishes from the start with over 8 contingency claims already processed as rewards for finishing in the top 4 (in any class).  The balance of performance and longevity offered by the German tire brand has already begun to pay back riders' in multiple classes and license levels. 

May 15 & 16 saw LRRS riders back in action, and Team Conti added a handful of new riders to their ranks.  Special congratulations to Nate Peck (Novice #508) who cut 3 seconds (in his first practice) off his personal best lap time from the opening round after making the switch to ContiRaceAttack Competition tires,  further improving another 2 seconds to end the weekend with a strong 3rd place (Novice GTO) and 4th place (Novice MWSS, lowering his season's personal best time to 1m 21s in his final race of the weekend.  

We are looking forward to working with you throughout the season, and a reminder to all racers looking to improve... package your next set of ContiRaceAttacks with a track day and get dialed in!

 

 

Spring Rubber and Track Time Special!

After a long, painful winter's wait for spring... the 2010 track day season is just around the corner!  To celebrate, we're offering the following rubber and track time specials for the 2010 opening event at NHMS on April 27th and 28th.  

 

 

Race Tires:

ContiRaceAttack Competition Set + Track Day - $450 (Click to Order)

Available in 120, 160, 180 and 190 section sizes.

Street Tires:

 

 Multiple popular brands of street tires available for these packages! 

Track Day Experience - Hypersport Street - $475 (Click to Order)

Track Day Experience - Sport Street - $500 (Click to Order)

Available in most popular sizes, size availability varies by tire choice.

Qualifying Street Tires:

Hypersport: Bridgestone Battlax BT-003, Continental ContiRaceAttack Street, Dunlop Sportmax Q2, Metzeler Sportec M3, Michelin Power Pure, Pirelli Diablo Rosso

Sport: Bridgestone Battlax BT-021;, Continental ContiSportAttack, ContiRoadAttack, ContiMotion and ContiForce; Metzeler Roadtec Z6 Interact, Michelin Pilot Road 2; Pirelli Diablo Strada

 

Full Line of Continental Street Tires Now Available!

With the arrival of the ContiRaceAttack Competition and Slick line of tires, we saw a hole for the track day enthusiast looking for a capable track day tire that could also serve as a high performing (and longer wearing) street and track tire.  We are extremely pleased to announce that we will be offering the full line of Continental race AND street tires!

You've all heard about our ContiRaceAttack Competition tire thoughts... but for those of you looking for one tire to serve your street and track needs, the following options are now available by special order.  Unlike the race and track only offerings from Continental, the street tires have been available in the U.S. for quite some time, garnering a reputation for incredible grip and longevity.  Beginning with the RaceAttack Street through the ContiMotion, the tires below are listed in descending order of grip and wear characteristics (The RaceAttack Street is a hypersport street tire offering maximum grip for street and track day use, while the ContiMotion is a sport touring tire offering grip and increased longevity and wet weather peformance).

Street tires are by Special Order Only!  Allow 2 weeks for processing.

ContiRaceAttack Street (Starting at $296 per set)

 

ContiSportAttack (Starting at $320 per set)

ContiRoadAttack (Starting at $320 per set)

ContiMotion Sport Touring (Starting at $190 per set)

Other options include the specially designed Super Motard ContiForce SM tire, offering increased cold weather performance, quick warm up times, at an incredible value.

ContiForce Supermoto (Starting at $278 per set)

 

Boston Moto and Sportbike Track Time Partnership!

Boston Moto and Sportbike Track Time (STT) announce a partnership involving mutual membership benefits for select track days. Members from each club are now able to attend select dates (below) and utilize their member benefits when they attend. 

 

This will greatly benefit members of the two clubs with more options to ride at two of the best venues in the North East: New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Monticello Motorclub.

Without any burden of additional membership fees or "guest rate" fees, members of each club (Boston Moto customers and STT members) will access guest events and are able to register through their existing club's website.

There will be representatives of the guest club on the hosting club's day to further insure the members experience is an excellent one. With Boston Moto and STT's new partnership, you now get even more exceptional value and choices for North East track days.  As a result of this reciprocity agreement members of Sportbike Track Time and Boston Moto have 2 additional track day choices in 2010. Both clubs are excited about the added benefits their members will experience by this program.

Boston Moto customers will have the opportunity to ride Monticello Motor Club (North Course) on:

June 21st and June 22nd, click here to register.  Save $25 on riding both days by entering the code: Monti2Day upon checkout.

Elite members may use a "banked" day, or pay separately through the Boston Moto Shop.

For more visit BostonMoto.com and SportbikeTrackTime.com

Video - West Coast Tire Test

Here's a full session from Degsy's helmet cam taken on Day 2 of our West Coast Tire Test.  Thanks to Duncan Moto for hooking us up last minute with the vholdr cameras!

Things start getting good approaching the 13 minute mark.

 

Buttonwillow tire test from Boston Moto on Vimeo.

West Coast Conti Tire Test - Day 2

If you've been following us and are interested in the Continental RaceAttack line of track tires, come and see what the fuss is about at any of our NHMS Track Days. 

 

 

Waking up to a layer of fog and a chill in the air, we made our way to the track for Day 2.  Mark and the guys from The Track Club had moved pits closer to the entrance to the hot pit, and had moved all of our stuff as well... they even had the bikes lined up ready for a day's thrashing... er... testing.  I can't say enough about Mark, Dean and the other Mark (Verbal as we called him) for their help getting the bikes up to snuff and seeing that we were taken care of, you guys absolutely rolled out the red carpet and we are exceedingly grateful!!

 

Superbike Tires had the fleet equipped with fresh rubber including the 636 which featured soft / soft slicks (pic below shows DOTs from the day prior). We were eager to try the soft compound after spending most of Day 1 testing a medium front, endurance (hard) rear compound.

I rolled onto the grid for the first session without tire warmers and gently made my way around the 3 mile circuit (turn by turn guide to Buttonwillow here). Through each corner slowly easing up the pac, paying particular attention to the Off-ramp (turns 1-2) and Sunset sections of the track which have a somewhat "polished" surface.

Coming in after the session, we found the hot pressures were up at 50 psi front AND rear.... the fact I was able to get these brand new tires up to temp from BONE cold with 50 psi in them safely is.... pretty impressive.  Tire warmers are strongly recommended however, especially for a new set of rubber.  Once through our first sessions, subsequent sessions saw the tires up to temp within a single lap, making them ideal for track day applications.

 

Mark helped sort us out, setting the pressures to 32 psi (front) and 28 psi (rear).  Now that the tires were dialed in, I was eager for the next A group session.   It took a few laps to come to grips with the bike feeling a bit different (wow, there's GRIP!), but the pace started to ratchet up very quickly after that.  By late morning I was able to hang with most everybody in the A group, save for a handful of local racers on big bikes who were blisteringly fast.

The 636 proved the bike of choice to push our limits on... lap after lap, session after session, the tires and bike answered the bell with rock-solid stability and confidence (if it weren't for a few excursions onto the slick candy-striping in the esses, I didn't feel either end slip throughout the entire day).  Degsy and Denno echoed these sentiments across each tire type and bike application (we actually had a blast on the 900RR!) with none of us experiencing a single instance of the wheels getting out of line on day 2.

 

During lunch we had the opportunity to sit down with Javelin Broderick, a very impressive young gun racing WERA Expert on the west coast.  Javelin is 14 years old and currently running 1:55's at Buttonwillow, only a few seconds off the lap record at the track.  Making the switch from Dunlops to Continentals for 2010, he became a fan of the ContiRaceAttacks after shaving 2 seconds off his personal best lap times.  Aside from going quicker, he was also attracted to the contingency program which has payouts in more classes (actually every class) than any other brand.

Unfortuantely the audio quality from our video interview didn't come out as we'd hoped, but you can read the full transcript of our talk here.  We look forward to following Javelin on twitter throughout 2010 and wish him the best of luck!

 

 

Mid-afternoon we sat down to discuss our thoughts thus far... and yesterday's initial impressions were backed up by today's experience.  Offering incredible stability and confidence while trail-braking, the front feels very neutral and predictable, similar to a Pirelli.  The rear tire is where the real impression was made.  Providing a direct connection between throttle inputs and the rear tire, it hooked up on corner exit time after time; similar to a Dunlop rear (although it's been a while since we've ridden on them). I have never felt as comfortable on the gas driving out of a corner as I felt throughout this test. 

 

Derek had a chance to sample the tires at the end of their life when the 10 track-day-old set on the ZX-10 started to go off... and his found them to be very controllable while allowing him to ride with confidence even after grip started to fade.  He returned to the pits after his last session on the old tires, saying matter-of-factly, "yep, they're done." This some light on one of the biggest concerns we have about any set of rubber: how it communicates once optimum grip starts to fade. Similar sentiments have been echoed by other riders' we were able to talk to, all conveying how they appreciated the predictable nature of the tires.

 

The final few afternoon sessions were spent recording some on-board video (which will be up shortly) before it was time to pack up and start making our way back to the airport.  This test left us very impressed with Continental's ContiRaceAttack tires, both in DOT and Slick form (especially the soft compound!) 

We have a suspicion that the stiff carcass (particularly on the rear), ample edge-grip and front end stability will lend themselves very well to our home track - New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  Without over simplifying things, the RaceAttacks combine everything we loved about Pirelli tires (communication, outstanding grip) with much increased longevity... and we're betting the stiffer carcass will make life much, much easier with regards to setup... alleviating the need somewhat for optimum high and low speed damping settings...  providing more control exiting corners.... especially those with harsh transitions like Turn 10.

Regardless of how we feel, it always comes down to each individual rider to find that balance of comfort and performance when choosing a set of tires.  On April 22nd (Open Test for LRRS Licensed Riders) and April 27th (our first Track Day) we'll be providing the opportunity for anyone to come and put these tires through their paces in our own back yard... all you have to do is sign up for our demo day...Once you try them (and see the pricing...) chances are you won't look back.  

 

We'd like to thank (yet again) Mark Duncan from The Track Club and Superbike Tires.  Without his efforts far above and beyond our expectations, this never would have been made possible.  Thanks Mark, we look forward to staying in touch throughout the season!

Highlights from Day 1 - Conti Tire Test

We've been sharing our pics and thoughts on facebook and twitter, but here's a quick recap of the day's events.

 

Sun peeking through clouds as the morning promised to dry away the rain that hit the inland empire last night was a welcome sight as we made our way to Buttonwillow Raceway Park for a day of riding with TakeIt2TheTrack and finally getting to sample the new ContiRaceAttack tires we've been hearing so much about.

First up was helping Mark from Superbike Tires unload the bikes, after which we got our very first look at the Continentals.

 

 

The first thing that struck us was how solid they felt, the tires were noticeably stiffer and meatier than the Pirellis we're familiar with.  The carcass felt similar to a Dunlop tire in our hands, we'd soon find out the similarities didn't end there..

 

 

After unloading and setting up, we headed over to the riders' meeting.  This was not Mark's event (we'll be riding at his event tomorrow), and fortunately the guys from TakeIt2TheTrack were kind enough to extend their hospitality.  After the meeting we proceeded to registration where we found out... we'd be riding in the "A" group today.  New track, new bikes, new tires, advanced group?  No problem.

 

 

First session's up and the ZX-10 Mark arranged for us (his personal bike!) was sporting tires with 10 track days on them.  We were somewhat shocked, but figured this would be the perfect opportunity to sample the tires at the end of their life. Derek spent most of the day on the imposing '10 and eventually found their limit just after lunch as the tires finally dropped off.  Here's what they looked like to start the day.

 

 

After the first few sessions, a ZX6R (636) showed up sporting Ohlins cartridges in the forks and a stock rear shock, and we were informed this would be another option for us to try.  The bike featured the ContiRaceAttack Competition (DOT) tires with a few track days on them, but showed plenty of life left.  I hopped on this to get acquainted with the track.  The 636 would soon become the bike of choice for Denno and me as we instantly felt at home on the bike, the tires, and as the day wore on... the challenging Buttonwillow track.

Initial impressions discussed between Degsy and me proved we got the same feelings from very different bikes, running different type of tires, at different stages of wear.... the front tire has loads of grip and feels like a stiffer version of the Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa, whereas the rear tire (not lacking for grip either, but both biks were also fitted with "Endurance" compound tires, the hardest offering) felt quite similar to a Dunlop rear, stiff but with good grip and confidence inspiring feedback. 

We experienced absolutely zero squirm or pogoing from the back of either bike despite Buttonwillow's bumpy surface.

Session after session we spun laps... eventually a '98 CBR 900RR was fitted with fresh slicks and Dennis gave it a spin.. and fell in love with it's wheelie happy nature. 

Buttonwillow Day 1 from Boston Moto on Vimeo.

We took turns on the used slicks, semi-used DOT's, and fresh slicks getting more comfortable with each lap.  Reflecting on the day mid-afternoon, Denno couldn't recall a single instance where the tires gave the slightest wiggle.  

That's about where we left off, leaving the track after a day of riding many bikes, and sampling both DOT and Slick offerings... the only "negative" we've been able to find arose when the ZX-10 and 900RR were each fitted with fresh tires... these tires absolutely need to be "scuffed" in with care.  Preferably with the aid of tire warmers, it was a good 4 laps before we felt fully confident on the new rubber... not surprising given the tremendous wear properties we bore witness to.  

We're knackered but quite satisfied with the first day of the test.  Much, much more to come.  Click here for Day 2!