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Since the snow killed plans for laps at HPR on Monday, they opened the track yesterday morning for use. The problem for me was that yesterday was Passover and Tai, Penn and I had a seder planned at our house.
Try this on... "Good morning honey, do mind setting up the house on your own today for our massive 33 person dinner event while I go to the race track?"
Anyhow, I have the best wife on the planet because this is exactly what happened. I threw a bike in the truck on Tuesday afternoon so I'd be ready first thing. After a couple of emergency repairs to the forums and website backend, I was on the road at 6:30a.
Anyhow; HPR is a beautiful accomplishment and we are very fortunate to once again have such a great race course so close to Denver. Pull up the track map here to take a lap with me: http://www.highplainsraceway.com/images/track-map-large3.gif.
Don't let this layout fool you. The deciding factor here is elevation, and there actually is plenty of it. There are plenty of surprises, from the super fast downhill right-left-right, to the heart stopping blind-rise right-left-right before the start/finish straight. This course is a real challenge and will take some time to master.
Here is a lap from my ride yesterday on a bright red Ducati Sport1000S streetbike:
Past the start finish line, I brake and shift down one gear for a late entry to turn 1 placing my exit to the left side of the track and set up for the right hand turn 2. Exiting the 180, I let the bike drift wide as I accelerate towards the high-speed straight. Rolling off slightly (because I'm scared) I aim the bike through the first part of turn 3, making one-out-of-two just like the uphill right handers at Pueblo. The trick is to drive as hard as possible through these to get a jump on the straight. I was entering the straight at about 95mph. The straight gets me through all the gears, shifting up into 6th at about 125mph as I look away from the speedo and pay attention to where I'm headed. Downshift two gears and tilt right late enough through 4 to set up for a one downshift downhill left hand turn 5. Come up one gear down the hill and brake hard with one downshift to set up the tricky turn 6. "Danny's Corner", no doubt named for the late great Danny Collins whom we lost way to early a couple of years ago. (Digression time...) Danny was a great competitor and ran a race car driving school here in Colorado. Danny actually certified me for SCCA racing a bunch of years ago in a ZX9R powered D-Sports racecar, which ironically netted me only one event, but also netted my one racecar first-place as well. Back to turn 6; down one gear and set up wide, wide, wide. Turn late, late, late for the decreasing radius turn and come out hard and on the gas up shifting twice to rock through turn 7 and get a good late-entry drive up the hill looking for the turn 8 brake markers to come into view on the right side. Once I pass #2, hit the brakes hard, down shift 2 times, pass #1 and turn in late to get to the inside of turn 8, I come out of 8 and hit the gas and the shifter beacuse it's one shift up follwed by another short shift up while tilting right and cresting the hill at 9A to thunder down through 9B while getting ready for a fast turn 10 right hander. There was a bit of dust on the track yesterday and turn 10 could not be taken at full pop but I can see this being a way fast turn. With the dusty track, I downshift once at 10 and pile through driving the bike out to the left of the track and set up for a classic line through the uphill turn 11. Turn 12 is a slight tilt to the left made tough to hold by the upshift out of 11 and the accelerating drive up the hill making for a heavy bike to transition from right to left. Once through 12, the acceleration is full on while watching the brake markers for the completely blind left hand turn into the downhill 13/14/15 "Corkscrew". Managing a downshift and late turn into 13 puts me in a far left exit and ready for a late, late entry into 14, which sets me up for a late 15 entry and hard on-the-gas drive onto the start/finish straight.

The coolest part of all this? We have HPR reserved for an exclusive Erico Motorsports track day on May 4th and will be hosting a Ricky Orlando riding school that day as well.
The day is filling up fast so if you are interested in checking out this fantastic race course, email lisak@ericomotorsports.com right away!