Brands GP trackday 8.6.06

[Motkram]

Done a trackday at Brands GP on the 8th of June, sorry this is a bit late but I have had a lot on my plate lately.


Left my house at about half 5 on the morning with my big bro, I we arrived in plenty of time; mostly because of the early start-you know what the M25 is like after 7!

After struggling a bit to work out exactly how we were supposed to get to the paddock (via the track) I went and signed in before the masses arrived.

Pulled my bike off the trailer, and promptly parked it in a garage with seemingly plenty of room. However some ponce had decided he had the right to reserve 1/2 a garage and made some sniffy comments to that effect. Me and my brother thought the guy was a total prick, and he was. Not friendly at all, fancied himself totally. I was going to stick my guns, but after the sighting laps I just parked it next door, and met a few really friendly guys. One middle aged sort of chap on an 04R1 with just about every trick piece of kit you can think of (marchesinis, ohlins front and rear, full system, rearsets etc etc) and a younger lad on a 748 duc.

I had plumped for the novice group, as it was my first time at Brands and only my 4th track day. I also don't feel any shame about having a number one sticker on my bike, unlike some of the hopeless people that were there.
Remember kids, you should base what group you choose not on how fast you think you are on the road, but on how fast you know you are on a particular track.

Anyway, the weather was fantastic, and it seemed to have quite an effect on peoples judgement, as nearly every session in the morning was cut short by red flags, more so in inters and advanced group.
It was starting to grate on me loosing 5 or 10 minutes every session, and it obviously grated on the organizers, as at lunch they called everybody into the pit lane for what could only be called a bollocking.
With the threat of immediate expulsion from the day hanging over, the first three sessions of the afternoon were incident free, and I started to find the lines. By the end of the day I was just about the quickest in the novice group; I’d happily book into inters the next time, and be confident I was not the slowest.

The in house photography was pretty good, I decided to buy my pictures because 1. there was 23 for £30 and 2. I’ve not got any snaps of me on my new bike yet.
On the subject of my new bike, I’ve been overall very impressed, it's difficult to make a comparison between it and my R1, as the Yam was totally stock and I have not ridden the GSXR on the road for any distance. All I will say is that it is fucking awesome, and spanks the stock Yam’s ass.

My first day with the GSXR was at Donington, again I went for Novice because it was a new track and a new bike. I’m not bragging( ) but I was a fucking God on that bike , and was Black flagged at the end of the 2nd session to be put into inters.

Brands Hatch GP is very technical, with only a couple of short straights, 9 major turns and more elevation changes you can shake a stick at. I initially hated it because thee was too much going on and too many tricky bits, but I was loving it by the end of the day and had most of the corners fairly sussed out.

Now I’ve never been bothered with knee down and all that shite, I’ve never even owned a pair of sliders! But looking at my pictures it is clear to me I need to start hanging my arse off a lot more, as the lean angles are pretty extreme (note crash bung inches from ground). Anyway here are a couple of snaps, and I have some onboard video I’ll try and upload.
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Part-time GSXR1000 pilot>Micron Serpert system+K&N, PC111, Sigma slipper clutch, Brembo m/c+Galfer discs, Gilles rearsets, Translogic Quickshifter.

GP125>GSF400>VFR400NC30>YZF600R>YZFR1(1998)+KLR250>YZFR1(2003)>CBR900RRY>YZFR1(2002)>GSXR1000K1+RGV250

[G]

Hanging off would definitely help, I actually find it quite scary to /not/ hang off on a cool down lap or similar if I'm still doing a decent pace.

What cc GSXR is that?
What company was the day with?

[Gazdaman]

Must be a gixxer thou, k4? and I think you'd really feel the benefit if you hung off.

Gaz

[G]

[cunni]

That last shot scares the hell out of me just because you are still on the seat. You'll go faster if you hang off! And you might actually catch a slide on your knee if it happens.
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TL1000R Parts For Sale!

[Motkram]

It's a K1 thou, and the day was with focused events.

I think my knee is pretty close to sliding without hanging off, which tells me I should be definatley be getting my weight lower.
I wouldn't mind doing a bit of club racing next year, probably with something smaller (cheaper) to run.

I can't sem to upload the video, it's wmv and under 10mb????

This picture is pretty cool, I've got the full size one as my current backgound (tart)
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Part-time GSXR1000 pilot>Micron Serpert system+K&N, PC111, Sigma slipper clutch, Brembo m/c+Galfer discs, Gilles rearsets, Translogic Quickshifter.

GP125>GSF400>VFR400NC30>YZF600R>YZFR1(1998)+KLR250>YZFR1(2003)>CBR900RRY>YZFR1(2002)>GSXR1000K1+RGV250

[G]

Ah, focused events.

Not known to massively care about quality of track time, providing you listen to all their sales blurb .

For club racing, I'm riding minitwins (SV650s) which is a bit cheaper on some things, but too keep half decent lap times I've still got to replace tyres pretty much every race.
(Though, it's been more like every other.)

If you're around at a trackday I'm at, feel free to give me a shout and nab a session on an SV.

If you find you are doing well in a group, it's usually best to ask to move up if you can. More of a challenge being a small fish in a big sea, an' that. You may find out you're not bad at all in the next group up as well!
Although fast group speeds can vary greatly, I'd be wanting to be keeping up with the lower end of an average fast group before paying out for club racing (unless you've got loads of money, of course ).