I had the opportunity to take my bike there for a track day. Four 25 minute sessions. Can't wait 'till next year :) :)

The track is so big it dwarfs a bike (which is a good thing with street riders [OK... me...] >:-) but there are a couple of spots that I will remember for a while...

First is transition from downhill to uphill at the Raidillon/Eau Rouge turn. The straight looks short standing next to it but the gravity assist makes you enter the uphill transition a *lot* faster than you think. Then the bike pushes up as your body continues on its way down... Gulp... And by that time I chickened out and backed off the gas as I desperately wanted to keep it on the inside of the turn to avoid pointing straight across the track at the other side of the turn. Even with that, the following hill climb is still long enough to max out the motor by the top.

Rain started to come down in the Source turn near the end of the first session. This turned out to be not as bad as I dreaded because pedestrians were overtaking me anyway...

By the time I got out for the second session, the place was soaking wet. So I found the second most memorable spot: the Bruxelles loop at the top of the track. It keeps turning forever and... it goes downhill. So you follow your survival instinct at the approach and slow well down before entering the turn. And then the speed picks up unnoticed. And then the rear end starts heading for the next county. VERY noticable. So you drift out to catch it. But the track keeps turning right. And that slick painted line on the outside is coming *very* close... (if I didn't yet know what "pucker up" meant, now I do...) And finally the turn ends, but with the bike on the very wrong side of the track for the next turn. And did I figure this out by the second lap? Nooooo... (and not by the third or fourth either. I just couldn't get it in slow enough to keep the rear end in line.)

Luckily the rain stopped over lunch and the track started showing dry spots by the third session, so I could start building up speed without worrying about such details as keeping the threaded section of the tires on the pavement.

By the end of the afternoon, the sun had come out and the track got warm enough to be able to build some temperature in the tires. So this was obviously the most fun session of the day (drawback was that by that time I was aching all over...)

And the most memorable part: the never ending left sweepers from Stavelot to the chicane. Unreal. Shows how simple things can be the most fun: turn it wide open and go :) I backed off (just a bit :) here too because I still had to ride the bike home and a wipe-out at 120 mph wouldn't help much.

The only place I couln't quite figure out was the double lefthander past the Bruxelles loop on the way to Stavelot. Mostly because I kept entering the first turn a gear too (s)low so I ended up running out of rpms in the middle of the second turn.