As I complained I don't post enough, I thought I'd give you a little write up
Had a belting track day Donington with a few mates yesterday
. I stayed local to the track so that I could get some garage space nice and early when the track opened at 7am.
I’ve been to Donington quite about a dozen times now and decided it was time to man the f*ck up and get into the fast group. I was there last month in the inters and struggled getting through the traffic which was frustrating. Shouldn’t have that problem in the fast group
The weather was spot on, but there was a strong breeze blowing through the garages which was stopping the tyre warmers getting the rims warm. It was supposed to be a quiet day (98 decibels ride by noise level) but my track bike is pretty quiet even with an open can, no baffle. But I bunged the standard exhaust in the van, just in case.
We were sharing the garage (12A, there isn’t a 13
) with a guy on an ex 125cc race bike. I don’t know if you’ve seen how small these things are but he took it to the track in the back of his Mondeo estate.
First session out, first proper lap (after the three sighting laps) a guy on a RSVR went arse over tit on the exit of McLeans. Session red flagged. He was in the garage next to us, he was okay and his fairings were full of gravel but I think he managed to get back out in the afternoon.
I think the fast group yesterday was a bit of a strange one. There were a handful of proper quick guys out there as you would imagine, but even I was doing a lot of overtaking. I can only assume they had bumped up some from inters due to overbooking
Only the second outing for my track bike and I’m starting to get more comfortable with it. It’s bloody difficult trying get familiar with a bike without the facility to ride it on the road. During the second session, after around 4 laps I managed to to catch up to a guy on an R6 and I couldn’t get passed him so I ended up following him for a few laps when he got black flagged. I assumed it was for a dodgy overtake I saw him make on someone
I got back to the pits after the session to find a marshal waiting for me with a walkie-talkie. It appears that the R6 was black flagged for noise, but because I was following him they couldn’t differentiate which of us triggered the meter so they made us both sort our exhausts out
. Pissed me off a bit because my bike is pretty quiet as I said. Even my mates commented that they were surprised how quiet is was. Oh well, out with the spanners and put the standard can on.
The third session got red flagged right towards the end and I pulled back into the garage rather than line up to go back out. They would have been lucky to do one more lap anyway. But the reason for the red flag was for a bollocking
. They made everyone turn their engines off then over the PA they gave us a right talking to. Apparently our group had triggered the noise meter 32 times in that one session and they had to stop the session and try to sort it out with the council. I think they were making some of it up as they were running about ten minutes late, so what better way to make it up than make the fast group forfeit one of their morning sessions
.
First session back out after lunch was awesome. They gave us no notice to line up to get back out onto track, so as soon as you got to the end of the pit lane you were let straight out. Brilliant, loads of empty track space with no traffic
. It was interesting watching and trying to stick to the back of some of the quick lads. Nial Mackenzie was there instructing on a BMW S1000RR road bike. It’s really eye opening when you think you are doing really well and riding as fast as you can, then watching him and one of the other guys coming past you in a braking zone like they haven’t even touched their brakes. Not just a different league, different sport
.
Even that guy on the 125 race bike was bloody quick to. You might out drag him on the straights but the speed that those things go into and around the corners defies the laws of physics. He came past me going down Craner Curves with the most lean angle I think I’ve ever seen. Smelt fantastic too.
So another great track day under the belt and I certainly learnt a lot, most specifically how late and hard you can brake and some different lines though the more difficult corners. Came home in one piece which is always a bonus. One of the lads who was with us managed to have a pretty big crash on his first ever track day
. His Gilles rear sets had dug in and managed to flip the bike and cause damage to both sides, but mainly superficial like the plastics and tank thankfully. He’s okay (ish) but needs an operation to have a plate put into his wrist
. It’s probably put him off doing more track days which is a shame as he was doing really well.
Roll on Snetterton at the end of June. Hoping to go back to Donington in early August if anyone fancies it.
McLeans
Goddards
Melbourne with a little black 125 bearing down on me
