Brands Indy - 21st January - ?69

[swaffs]

Ok here we go, Brands Hatch Curse time.......

https://www.focusedevents.com/event_details.asp?eid=279

Brands Hatch Indy
21st January 2006

£69

I'm mainly there because my mate is testing for his Bemsee season, however also decided I need to get out there again, regain confidence after road accident end of last year.

And because it's great fun.
(as long as I stop beating myself up about being slow)
I'll be out in novices if anyone wants to come down.


Swaffs
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"Look not back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around you in awareness."

[Jay1000RR]

hi Swaffs mate, i would of loved to come down, but i am having a op on the Monday enjoy your day


Pinky
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[jay12329]

My plans have gone out the window as my chain decided it wanted to implode.
J

[Davo]

I may pop down for photos etc..

[swaffs]

[Silver]

Good luck. Get some picture up when you get back!

/starts getting the jitters and looks to book first trackday of the year.

[numark1]

Are we gonna do some BCF trackdays? I wanna pwn silver on my R4.

[Silver]

[numark1]

Trust me it won't be a dream.

I'll give you an advantage by letting my tyres down too.

[Silver]

Make sure you take the stabilisers off too!

[swaffs]

What a great day ! My fourth trackday, and deffo the best one

Got there about 7.30, and this time i travelled light, no seat units or paddock stands strapped to the bike! Just me and a few tools.
https://www.swaffs.co.uk/gallery/albums/BH210106/thumb_Brands210106032.jpg
My mate Mark and I got set up and briefed etc. It seems like the whole sticker on your bike thing is getting more and more involved, for insurance and anti sueing purposes.
I had a sticker to signify the day, then another to say I had been briefed and was to collect another after doing my 3 sightling laps not a problem but just a bit crazy.
https://www.swaffs.co.uk/gallery/albums/BH210106/thumb_Brands210106031.jpg

There was a lot of ACU guys there so the fast and inters groups were rammed with fast people, Mark, who will be racing this year could only go in inters. I suspected that this would mean for a faster novice group which I was looking forward to.

I was out first and had a great time, the track was a bit cold but the sun was out and I was having no issues with grip at all. I was overtaking plenty of people and came in absolutely buzzing. I did remind myself to calm down however, because it was still cold out there and I didn't want to be stacking it.

Several sessions later and I had asked an instructor to come out with me (which is free). he followed me for several laps and then took the lead pointing out apex's and what I later realise was turning in points.
https://www.swaffs.co.uk/gallery/albums/BH210106/thumb_Brands210106017.jpg
He explained that I was turning in way to late, but still taking the right rate of turn, so basically going further than I needed to. If I just turned a bit earlier I would clip the inside strips and physically travel less miles, hopefully inproving my times.
He also noted that I was hanging off fine on the left corners but need to try a bit more on the right, which I kind of felt but was not ideal on a right hand track (only 2 left bends)

G and another mate Chris turned up later, and G timed me on a few laps doing 1minute 05s, which is a huge improvement on my last year times of 1:12.
A piccie of my mate Chris going 'the long way round'
https://www.swaffs.co.uk/gallery/albums/BH210106/thumb_Brands210106066.jpg


I had started to fell the rear sliding whilst going round clearways and this was really disturbing me, and I was going slower and slower round that section.

An inspection of the tyre showed that it was getting a bit shredded!

https://www.swaffs.co.uk/gallery/albums/BH210106/thumb_Brands210106028.jpg

It was going to cost £35 for the in house suspension guy to take a look so myself and G had a 'tweak' using the settings from a CBR special Ride magazine from last year.

this seemed to resolve the problem, although it did take a while to get my confidence back around clearways.

Becce (wife) and the kids came down later, as did Wave and Fazed, and shortly afterwards I was called to race control .. What had I done now???????

It turns out that during the previous session, I had left my wallet in my jacket pocket and it had fell out at paddock hill bend!

A spectator had noticed and the marshalls had collected it and several plastic cards from the gravel trap !!!! Fortunately everything seemed present and correct. I didn't fancy searching the kitty litter in the dark after everyone had gone home!

After that incident everything else went great, the sun shon nicely and I had a great day.

Managed to get home safe and sound, knackered and kinda incident free!
Top day for £69

https://www.swaffs.co.uk/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/thumb_Swaffs-brands-210106-01.jpg https://www.swaffs.co.uk/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/thumb_Swaffs-brands-210106-02.jpg https://www.swaffs.co.uk/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/thumb_MarkG-brands-210106-03.jpg https://www.swaffs.co.uk/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/thumb_MarkG-brands-210106-04.jpg https://www.swaffs.co.uk/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/thumb_MarkG-brands-210106-05.jpg
Clicky all images for larger ones
thanks to 'G' and Focussed events for the piccies.
(It did hurt for me to pay for images!)
____________________
Swaffs Photography |
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"Look not back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around you in awareness."

[Jon]

Nice improvement on the laptimes there especially with the freezing track temperatures! What sort of laptimes was Mark doing then?

[G]

Just a note; I checked with a Marshall and was told that the 3rd group was ACU only, while the second group was fast + inters.