Snetterton 25th April Trackday Report

[Bendy]

After some fairly last-minute towbar wiring (ta G ) and last minute VFR wheel changing, the trailer's dug out of mothballs and loaded up with Luke's new trackbike and trusty ol' Doris for the schlepp up to Snett.

Rain is promised but we get a dry (though cold) night in which to eat Chinese food and make another big burnt patch on the front lawn. Kip in the car and get woken at an unholy 6am by Korn and Luke having a loud discussion outside my window.

Clear skies

I'm extra nervous about this trackday cos it's the first time I've booked in Inters. The plan had been for Silverstone a few weeks ago to be a warm up, as I haven't really ridden much all winter and my last trackday was October. But rain stopped play at 'Stone and I didn't really leave there feeling warmed up at all. So, to be honest, I'm worried that I'm out of my depth and going to be a big yellow chicane.

Fortunately, this isn't the case. I'm down the slower end of the intermediate pace but that was always going to be the case. But throughout the day I get a few overtakes in and keep up with others who've overtaken me. There is hope for me yet.

Most fun moment of the day was a side by side drag race up Revett Straight with another CBR... we were about 2 foot apart and nailing it, nudging past each other each time one shifted until we both ran out of go and just looked at each other and shrugged (as much as you can shrug at about 140mph with your chin on the tank ).

Mark was also in inters but we tended to go out a few bikes apart and didn't really go for any fighting. I had him in my sights a couple of times, he claims the same. But being the slower end of the group, overtaking was made harder cos you'd see your 'target' and then some cocky fucker would come and zig zag through the space you were about to go in.

Wasn't too bad in the red flag stakes... quite a few people binning it but only a couple with serious damage and I don't think anyone hurt themselves much.

Got buzzed by a low flying Harrier on one lap. Ta Goose.

Much like the last time I was at Snett, after lunch was my banzai session where I took 3 seconds off what I'd been doing in the morning, and then I started to get really tired, despite having made an effort to eat and drink properly. I find Snett physically much harder work than any other circuit I've been to, it's the straights that do it - you're banging the throttle up to max then you have to sit up, get punched in the head by a 140mph wind, haul on the brakes and chuck the bike into a corner. Twice every lap. Repeat 10+ times every hour, add an impressive level of physical unfitness and you've got a recipe for being knackered by mid-afternoon.

I knocked it on the head and skipped the last session when the schoolboy errors started happening - not a good place to be tired and not concentrating properly.

So, conclusions...
- I'm happy that I didn't disgrace myself in Inters.
- My best today was 5 seconds a lap slower than my best at the pace day last year... a combination of rust and not having someone to chase? As G would say... "Go faster!"
- I need to try and get fitter.
- Braking. Other than getting passed on the straights by more powerful bikes, which you're never gonna avoid, it was at the four major braking points that folk were just creaming past me and slamming on the anchors way later than I was.

Good day, looking forward to Cadders.


Find my photies at https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=47719, I'm sure Korn'll be adding his later.

[Korn]

Arrived early this time and had plenty of time to chill out the night before with a BBQ and rather large bonfire, didn't sleep very well but stepped out of the van in the morning to a firey looking sunrise and clear skies, woo hoo!

We got Danny signed on despite the 33bhp licence 'issue' and got started, first session was good and my poor supercorsas finally got some action after sitting in a corner for the past 3 trackdays. Second session not so good with the front feeling very unsettled all the way through Riches. Session just before lunch I outbraked myself at The Esses and took a high speed detour through the runoff area.

Chilled out at lunch time in the sun which had picked a bit, the bike seemed to have recovered a bit as well through cooling down for two hours - session after lunch was very fun but afterwards the bike started feeling a little bit unsettled again. Next the gear lever decided to come loose and damaged its mechanism which required a bit of fixing up during which I managed to slice one of my knuckles off.

Back out with my finger gaffa taped up and I found somebody who was going at just the right pace and chased them for three laps to get my fastest time of the day. Should have sat out the last session as I was feeling like crap but gave it a go anyway, there were only 10 of us left in the fast group so had a lot of clear track to myself and almost 30 minutes of riding, figured out I probably should drop the gearing a little bit next time because I wasn't using that much of 6th.

Best time was 1:22 so down 2 seconds from last month, some pictures up here: https://www.kornel.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=69

Still not a great fan of Snetterton, just can't get comfortable with it. Might try asking them to rip up the start/finish straight and stick in some tight twisty bits
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3516 Miles, 11 Countries

[Danny]

I was fairly sure that I wouldn’t be allowed on the track because I was told that Focused Events no longer allow people with restricted licenses on the track (they only told me in the confirmation e-mail a few days after I had booked ). But luckily my license wasn’t inspected properly and they let me on track.

I adjusted the suspension settings of the Thundercat for track use, but it took at least 2 sessions for me to get used to the new settings, it was worth it once I had got used to the new handling though.

The first 1-2 sessions I was very slow and was overtaken by everyone. I was getting rather annoyed at people overtaking me very inconsiderately i.e. cutting in front of me just before a corner, so I pulled in to get a yellow vest.
People were still overtaking like it was a race, but once I got a bit faster this was much less of a problem (expect for the twats on R1’s).

Throughout the day I was slowly getting faster, I was being a lot more cautious than on my last and first track day which ended suddenly in a crash.

Worst time : 2:05 – before lunch
Best time : 1:48 just after lunch

All in all it was a great day, now all I need to do is find the money for the next track day.

[Luke_Retrofly]

Hi
I wont bore you with pre-day details mentioned above and jump straight into it.

Well time to test my new NC30 track bike.
Fuck me is it small, and with my tight 1 piece leathers if felt as if my head was going to pop off. It was very obvious that this was a race bike (was raced last year in rookie 400's).
The pegs are high, the fronts low, light and quick to turn, compared to the bandit it was a GP bike , well maybe not.

First few sessions were fine, making sure i increased in pace slowly, was fettign faster and faster but I could still go faster.

Towards the end of mornign session i was actually braking hard enabling me to brake later \o/, but i could still have improved. Got 1:40 which was ok but my gears braking points, corner speed were still all over the place.

Lunch

Back onto track decide to brake later and harder, on about the 3rd lap decide to brake harder and later for the esses at the end of revvet straight (100+).
FUCK!, as soon as i broke the front end tucked under. "fuck ive binned it this is guuna hurt" went through my head as i stuck my foot out in what i thought was a vain effort to save it. Boing, the bike suddenly bounces back up and goes into a lock to lock slapper. "fuck im still gunna crash but its not gunna hurt as much" goes through my head. Then calm, wooo hoo i didnt crash. "how the fuck did i save that", dont know if it was the fact i was going so fast that the central fugal forces made the bike sit up or just luck but i didnt go down.

Sit on the bike on the run-off contemplating what could have been, and slink back off into the pits to have a think.

No idea what caused it i mean the tyers are good, the suspensions fine, i did grab the brake and i may have some how tunr the bars to do what i did, Korn tell me i did a 1:38 lap before, .

the last 2 session i took it very easy as i wasnt sure what caused the slide, still dont now .

All in all pleased with the day, a 1:38 lap would have put me 20th in rookie 400's, which im deffo pleased with as it was my 1st track day for 6 monts, only my 3 rd trackday ever (crashed in 1st one) and 1st time on this bike, and i feel i could have gone loads quicker.

Things that need improving
Where do i start.
Corner speed, was pretty shocking by past standards, i think the high pegs made it feel i was leaning more than i was, so MUST LEAN FURTHER!

Braking, can brake later by braking harder, thouse its gunna take alot more riding to get my confidance back up with the front end

Gears, must sort this out, hardly ever on the powerband comming out of corner, though this may be due to the fact i cant blip the throttle so cant go down too many gears, (was getting lots of chatter going into russles)

Learn to blip the throttle while braking

Get on power faster, im a pussy when it comes to putting the power on early, something i need to learn in trackdays to come.

Sorry about the long post, but if no one reads it i dont mind, its good to write stuff down lets you think about it more

https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Snetterton4/normal_P1010133.JPG

Luke
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Flounced - Long overdue
Fuck you bitch I'm in the top 10 list I can do the what the fuck I want!