I’ve just finished my last Thunderhill East days for 2022 on my mostly stock 2020 Daytona 765. I’ve made almost exactly a 5 second improvement in outright PB from 2021 and over 5 seconds on average faster laps. I’ve got plenty of other posts explaining what I’ve done to improve but just for fun, here’s the graphic representation from just GPS speed. Red represents 2022 and blue is 2021; again, these are outright best single laps and in my best in 2022 I had traffic from T6-T9.
Other than the aforementioned T6-T9, speed is up appreciably in most parts of the track. I’ve improved in throttle application and holding it open longer as well as condensing my braking and not over-slowing quite as much. At a quick glance, I see more pointy V shapes throughout as well (except in long radius turns, such as turn 2). I played with 4th and 3rd gear in turn 2 and while I like the feel of G4 better there and feel like I carry more roll speed through it, I lose in outright acceleration compared to G3. I don’t have a compelling feeling one way or the other unless I can pickup another 3 or 4 mph in the middle of it which will put the bike closer to the meat of the power band making 4th a more logical choice. I can start accelerating a bit earlier and harder with 4th gear too so I think I’m selling myself on it as I type this.
Just for fun, I pulled up my best 2018 and added it to the above graphic.
Blue = 2021
Black = 2018 (2013 Daytona 675R)
I checked my 2019 data and it was slower than 2018 (I had a low-side crash early 2019 which totally set me back, even though I was uninjured). 2020 showed a big jump from 2019 (2:11 PB).
I’m hoping to make more progress in 2023. Not sure how feasible another 5 second jump is but I’m cautiously optomistic.