Oulton Park Trackday Report

[Silver]

Right, this trackday was without a doubt the biggest pain in the arse on to organise to date...

Yesterday (Friday) consisted of me worrying whether my leathers would be back in time. After my highside at Rockingham I'd sent them away to repaired and there was "a slim chance" they wouldn't be back in time. Luckily they were as I got a call at about 12pm to say they were ready. I'd already booked a half day holiday from work so I jumped in the car and charged down the M40, round the M25 and up the A1 to Stevenage. Grabbed the (impressively) repaired leathers and started back towards Oxford hoping to not hit Friday night traffic on the M25. The journey was a 170 mile round trip and took nearly four hours. At least I had my leathers back!

Next, I packed the car and we set off to the B&B near Oulton. Another 145 miles and we arrived at about 10:30pm.

It wasn't a shock to see rain when I looked out of the window at 6:30am this morning. The weather forecast for today started as sunny a week ago and got progressively worse. Got to the track, signed in, and met up with Korn and his mate. Then bumped into RealNinja and his missus (Ali? Sorry... shite with names! ) and Distortion (on the only CBR400 in the world that looks like it's had a harder life than Wave's! ).

So, it was going to be a wet day. I go off in hunt for the tyre van. I've got a set of wet tyres in the back of my car and I need someone to fit them. Guess what? "He's not here today". Brilliant! First track day I've needed one and the first time there hasn't been one. So I'm left with the unenviable task of riding the track with a brand new back tyre that was fitted on Thursday, in the rain.

The track was wet, but not too bad at this point. We had the first session which consisted of trying to work out where the hell the track goes; lots of blind bends, apexes and chicanes (very technical). Just going out for the second session when the heavens opened. Someone dropped the front of their bike on the second corner of the first lap! Anyway, grip was minimal, especially on the last corner where the track drops away as you're banked over. Recipe for disaster if you're not careful!

I stay out for the entire session purely out of belligerence, even though it was so wet that when someone chucked it up the inside of me on the first corner a bloody wave hit the side of my bike! Lots of bikes had peeled in early and on my way back in at the end of the session I found Korn refusing to go out because he'd get wet! Didn't mind sliding everywhere or crashed, just didn't want to get wet!

Anyway, the next session was quickly red flagged because the track was too dangerous. They called lunch early and then we stood around staring at the skies for the next couple of hours. The rain wasn't torrential, but it was relentless and never allowed the track a chance of drying. There were rivers running across it in several places so they weren't letting anyone out. So, that was it! It got to about 2:30-3pm and people started heading off. One of the people from the track came round and told us that even if the rain abaited it would take 45 minutes to clear enough of the water to make it safe. So with that in mind we packed up and headed home.

Most fun had during the day was watching some cars on a drifting/sliding track situated near the paddock. The weather was probably ideal for them, but even they had to take a break around lunch because the track was more like a lake.

Anyway, despite it being the worst value for money trackday in the world (think £169 entry, £55 B&B, £40 petrol and about 10 laps = £26.40 per soggy lap! ) I still had a reasonable day and was good to meet some more people from here Can't say the three hour drive was much fun though.

Here's a couple of pictures that Jeanette did manage to take! Unfortunately no-one got a picture of Distortion in his gimp suit...

[Gazdaman]

Looks like you made the best of a bad situation, and the crashed gixxer looks good!

Gaz

[distortion]

double post sorry

[distortion]

Yes it was a 'SOGGY' day !!!!

Enjoyed what fun there was, had alot of talking time !

I was waiting for somoene to take a picture of me in the gimp suit but no-one did !!!!

Funnly enough I stopped off in winsford for a wee, petrol, fags & money and got alot of funny looks from people as i strolled through Asda in the gimp suit

Nice to meet everyone and hopefully i will be doing a trackday myself next year !

JP

p.s. - spotted Korn's van on the M6 - traffic was heavy and was rolling at about 20mph. Couldnt help but filter through to him, wave at him then filter on leaving him behind (sorry Korn)

[Flip]

I wussed out. It was soooo wet.

Shame though I was looking forward to it.

Maybe next time.

I can't believe that JP's bike is on the road.

[Nighteyes]

Pfft.....Your all light weights, some of us stayed for the duration & so the riders were allowed out again for a further 3 sessions (2 groups due to reduced rider numbers ).

Oh.....And I managed to capture my first 'off' on camera commited by a friend!!

https://www.sparetyre.plus.com/bikes/movies/joncrash.mpg

Right click - save as!
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[Silver]

[Going2fast]

Good report there
must get myself on the track

Shows how sad i am, but nice boots korn
Looks like you all had fun anyways

Andy
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BikePics Profile ||| 96' RVF 400 ||| 01' CBR 600 F Sport ||| 2009 Yamaha YZF-R6 Delivered 23/06/09
/-\ndy

[queen of string]

glad you manged to get some more laps in, it wasnt looking good when I left .
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[distortion]

[RealNinja]

What can I say that hasn't already been covered? (Nice job, Sliver )

I have some video footage, shot by J.P, that gives a wonderfull idea of exactly how wet it was, will get it up on the board soon.

I have never ridden on a track so wet in my life, my gimp suit is really paying for itself this year!!

As Silver said, the weather was bloody horrible, and basically anybody running road tyres was always going to be at risk, especially on the last corner.

The first session was o.k(ish) and by the end of it a dry line had started to appear on some of the straights, but we weren't allowed to pass in novices for the first session which left me stranded behind three bikes that disliked the rain more than me!

Things started to look better for the second session, and while the clouds never cleared, the rain gave up for a bit and it was just spitting as we went out. However we were obviously being lulled into a false sense of security!

On the approach to the second corner, on lap three, a wall of water descended and soaked everyone and thing!

I valiently followed Silver for about another 2 laps (as you can see from his photos ) and then had a bit of a slow speed moment on the last corner, where they have cleverly decided to resuface a area of about 3 metres square on the apex of the corner!

Front end wobble + road tyres + wet track + dodgy surface = disaster in my book!

All in all a bit of a wash out of a day, but got to meet some new BCFer's, which is always good
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You will become my force of retribution. Where you tread, doom will follow. Go now and claim your destiny

[RealNinja]

double post
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You will become my force of retribution. Where you tread, doom will follow. Go now and claim your destiny

[RealNinja]

[Korn]

Oulton...

Nice track, shame about the weather. Definitely going to be on the list for a return visit for me, slightly further than Cadwell but easier journey thanks to all-motorways - and proper pit garages.
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3516 Miles, 11 Countries

[fastyan]

well have to say even though it tipped it down with rain i really enjoyed it...
it was my first time with wets and i loved em to bits....

you lot missed some good tracktime in teh afternoon as they went down to 2 groups and we had three really good sessions...