Sunday May 07, 2006
Trackday report - Brands Hatch Indy
Well Wednesday, the day before the trackday didn't start so well. I woke up feeling nauseous and dizzy and ended up spending the day at home off work feeling horribly unwell with a stomach bug  After sleeping pretty much all day, and not managing to eat anything, I crawled out of bed to help Greg load up to van, and we made our way to the Brands Thistle Hotel for the night, ready to be track side first thing. I was just praying I'd feel well enough to ride...
Thursday morning I managed to hold down some breakfast, but I still wasn't feeling too great, and very weak and feeble! Armed with lucozade and bottles of water we headed down to the track to get set up and meet up with everyone else. There was lots of us there this time - the first time in ages we've all been on track together: Loz, Nige, Conrad, Rob, Greg and I, and also Mav, Alex, Trix and Chris O'Donnell were all out for some fun. Even at 7.30 it was starting to get warm and the sun was shining - it was set to be a good day (even if I did feel rubbish!).
Out for the first session and I was feeling reasonably comfortable, my energy levels were very low though, and I was finding it particularly difficult hauling the bike about for the left-right of Surtees and McLaren. I kept getting my toes down everywhere too - which was just me not hanging off properly, I think just down to being being tired. I came back in after about 15 minutes, pretty exhausted already and absolutely boiling from the heat! I decided straight off that the thing that would need immediate work would be body position, or I'd end up on my arse. So next session out I did just that - kept the pace steady, but concentrated on hanging off, and without too many issues I got that sorted and was sailing round with only my knee on the deck.
So onto the next problem - my clutch was slipping It was only doing it in 3rd or 4th and at around about 12k revs, but very annoying when trying to out-drive the big bikes out of clearways! I could kind of ride around it by shifting up early, but it was really annoying. Not a lot I could do about it at the circuit though, that will be what I'll be up to this weekend... Also my brakes seem to be having problems - no matter how much I bleed them they just won't seem to firm up at the lever. Rob spotted a kink in one of the braided hoses which might be the culprit, but again nothing I could do at the track, I'd need to spend some time sorting those out before next weekends races.
Naturally I got overtaken by Loz and Nige, along with Rob and Conrad - my plan had I been feeling a little better would have been to tag on the back and try my hardest to keep up. The few times the opportunity arrived early enough in the session for me to have enough energy to try I kept getting mugged by other traffic, making it difficult to carve my way though to stick to the back of them. Still, I had great fun trying, and had some good laps as a result. With Greg timing me for one of the sessions before lunch I managed to knock another 0.5 seconds off my best ever lap time around Brands! I was pretty surprised to be honest, I didn't feel like I was pushing or riding particularly well - but I think that's a good thing in a way - it didn't feel like it took a lot of effort, so I'm positive if I'd been pushing harder I could have done better. In the race even more so - I'm looking to shave off at least another second in the races next weekend.
As for everyone else? Well Greg was out on his SP2 for the first time – almost literally, apart from his ride home from the shop where he bought it! It was a very steep learning curve for him – a completely different engine configuration from the Blade and totally different characteristics all round, much better brakes and suspension, and a totally different seating position. He did really well though – it's a beast of a bike, I would have been far too scared to go out and ride something like that! He even managed to get his knee down for the first time!! Nice one!!  He also had some good battles out on track with Trix who was out on her SV650 – think they both had fun trying to catch each other!
Loz and Nige were both flying as usual, and any attempts by me to tag on the back of either of them failed miserably  I did get to watch some amusing battles between them both and Rob a couple of times though...made me chuckle! Rob was having a brilliant day – after fettling the suspension during the Mallory meeting he was finding the bike really planted and stable, and he came in from each session feeling more and more confident. Top stuff, and bodes really well for next weekends racing too! Conrad as well looked to be going really well – well, at least the few times I saw him momentarily after passing me and the disappearing off into the distance
All in all I think every one of us had a good day, even despite a few niggles with health, bikes and laps. There were smiles and laughs all round, beautiful weather, and a big bunch of mates doing something we all love doing, topped off by a drink in the bar before setting off home. It doesn't get much better than that.
( May 07 2006, 11:42:42 AM GMT+00:00 )
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Posted by Robin Wilton on May 07, 2006 at 01:24 PM GMT+00:00 #