Tech Day at Texas Motor Speedway

May 9, 2009

Word came through the BMW Sport Touring forum via Stephen that Brad Gillie was offering to host a tech day in a race car garage at Texas Motor Speedway.  How could we resist?

Brad’s full time gig is working at the speedway as an announcer during the races and does radio via Sirius XM.

About 20 bikes and riders showed up for the event, and a good number of the riders did some troubleshooting and preventive maintenance.​

I gave Elke a fresh batch of transmission and final drive oil.  I had to do that just to say she’s been serviced in the TMS garage.  What a deal.  Here’s an example of the value of participating in tech days – I removed my tranny drain plug and discovered that the crush washer was split.  I had a replacement, but it was 45 miles away in my own garage.  I put the word out to the crowd that I needed one, and Bob Buck pulled one out of his bike’s tool kit.  Thanks Bob!

There was plenty of help and knowledge being passed around between riders.

A driving school was in progress during the day, which gave some flavor to the venue.  I’ve been at the speedway before with over a hundred thousand other folks, and today was quite a change looking up from the center field into the empty seats.

Thanks Brad for pulling this tech day together!  I had a good time visiting and picking up some knowledge, and the setting in the middle of TMS was unique.

Photos    https://photos.app.goo.gl/y2i7gk76ptMuNXC48

Tracklog    https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/20090509–20090516