Mallory Park Trackday Report

[Silver]

I've been looking to do a track this month and was originally looking at Snetterton this Sunday. Couldn't really be arsed with getting up at 4am or having the expense and hassle of a B&B the night before though. I looked at the other options and blagged a day off work (today).

Originally I was going to do Silverstone as I didn't want to travel too far. 100% Bikes had the day advertised at £109, but when I phoned up (yesterday) they wanted £150! ("It's gone up...") Bollocks to you then, that's one space you won't be filling. I'm sure £109 would have been more useful to them than £0... So, eventually I called up No Limits and booked my fall back track, Mallory Park.

I'd never actually done Mallory even though it's only 80 miles from me, and I'd heard how well liked the circuit was so I was looking forward to trying something new. Plus it has the fastest bend in the country (more on that shortly...).

Weather forecast was a bit mixed, with some light showers predicted. As it happened we got no rain at all (despite a few ominous looking clouds) and some strong sun. It was a good 23 degrees c, which is all you can ask for in this country!

Now, the track. Mallory Park; the track everyone loves...

...and I hate it

Okay, 'hate' might be overstating it. Let me explain:

Gerards; the fastest bend in the country? Maybe if you can keep both wheels from leaving the ground over the bumps and stop the bike sliding on the uneven and multi-linked surfaces! People were talking about doing 120mph round there, and I'm sure the BSB boys do, but I'll be buggered if I had the confidence to do it. In fairness to me, I saw precious few people decking it out round there and, to me, it became a long, dull corner (made worse by the fact that you're hanging off the bike so long it begins to hurt! )

Shaws Corner; AKA slowest, crapiest, most pointless corner ever. All the people that dislike the Melbourne Hairpin at Donington should be made to ride this. They'll never complain again.

Chicane (Bus Stop?); Very funny. Let me shake hands with the bloke who decided to put this there. And then punch him in the face. I can see it was added as an afterthought to stop people reaching Devil's Elbow going too fast, but it is ridiculous. I think it's called the Bus Stop because you can unload an entire bus full of people in the time it takes to get through it. And, to add insult to injury, the part of the apex (if you can call it that) you naturally want to hit has been resurfaced. By a blind, trainee pikey tarmacer. It's appaling; bumpy and uneven, just what you want when you're trying to throw the bike from one side to another on the front tyre. I ended up trying to cut inside that patch and then run the risk of whacking my leg on the elevated chevrons!

I am, quite frankly, amazed that BSB races here. I was at Silverstone to watch them the other week and you'd be hard pushed to believe it's part of the same championship. Statistically I don't know how dangerous the track is, but we had seven red flags today (including one bloke being taken to hospital)!

One last thing; the track photography service is crap too! The bloke taking the pictures was using a Nikon D70 (hardly professional...) and the pictures are very grainy and unfocused (see attached, which I've actually shrunk and tidied up!). Strange how they only show you the thumbnails before you buy... Jeanette was getting better pictures!

I now realise this has turned into more of a rant than a report... Apologies! Anyone else got any experience of Mallory? I would be genuinely interested in your opinions, because it is one track I will not be re-visiting!

[Davo]

[Silver]

[Korn]

Never really been excited by Mallory, haven't tried it yet to be fair but it's quite far down my wish list. How were the facilities?

Have you been to Snetterton before? It's not exactly very exciting or technical either, but it has its moments. I still don't get on with Riches because of the wacky surface but at least the runoff area is an entire cornfield!
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3516 Miles, 11 Countries

[cunni]

I personally quite like Mallory Park, due to the strange nature of it!

Gerrards is awesome at speed. I've never had a problem (or even noticed) the bumps there, but that might be down to having fully setup Ohlins front and rear and an Ohlins damper?! Managed to get my toe sliders dragging round there a few times, great corner, but it does absolutly hammer my leg muscles, so much so that i have to do a few sessions in the gym, squtting with the bar bells! The kink in the middle is funny, it throughs you from the tight line but sets you up excellently for a late apex towards the end of the kerbing and a great line onto the straight!

The exit from Gerrards is excellent, over a crest and slightly sharper in feel to the main corner. the next set of corners, Edwina's (the chicane) is quite striaght forward, slow down, tip in and flip it from left to right before getting on the power out of it. Great for puling wheelies without trying!

The Dunlop Esses are quite interesting, as I find I'm in third for the right hander and need fourth for the left, leaving me no time to hang off to the left after changing gears, so I muscle the bike over and stick my upper body out over the kerb, ass firmly on the seat. It works for me!

Braking zone for the Hairpin is weird, starting over a crest where tree routes have been surfaced over. (Read as a smooth bump, not a bunch of broken tarmac lumps!) The hairpin itself is heavily banked which makes it more of an accomplishment when you get your knee down there!

The exit from the hairpin and entry to the Bus Stop is quite harsh, as you have to exit tight to the wall and get hard on the brakes on the cold left side of the tyre, hanging off to the right ready for the switch over at the appex of the chicane! The exit is worrying, due to those large kerbs in front of you and the bumpy kerbs at the apex point, but they are easily avoided. Then give it some gas all the way through the Devils Elbow and blast the start straight. I love the hard, late, heavy braking into Gerrards from there as well!

Maybe it's a Marmite Track? You love it or hate it!

Personally, I love it! I'm now working on a sub minute lap there!
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TL1000R Parts For Sale!

[Silver]

[Korn]

[Kickstart]

[Silver]

[Kickstart]

Hi

Ouch. Lots of money and awful pics. Looks like the nearest bit to being in focus is the crash bung on the rear wheel spindle.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Silver]

[Kickstart]

Hi

Nicely framed and clear. Might be worth running with the shutter speed a bit slower rather than at 1/800. Try something around 1/400th at ISO200, which should still make panning fairly easy but will blur the disks and wheel spokes a fair bit more.

All the bst

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[jjonth]

MALLORY PARK NEEDS BLOWING UP!!

It sucks now they put all those chicanes in and it sucked before they put the chicanes in. Just look at it, theres 4 corners. Gerrards, Edwinas chicane, hairpin and bus stop chicane, whats the point in it even existing?? Lost count of how many people have died there this year, don't think BSB are there next year coz of safety reasons. Its those chicanes that make people think they can brake later than they actually can..... ooh he's taken half the grid out..... ooh 4 people are in an ambulance..... a text book day at Mallory then.

[TreeTops]

Quick hello (first post here...) and on with the post:

Ive just completed a couple of trackdays at Mallory over the past couple of weeks, including the same session on the 1st Sept with No Limits. From my experience:

Gerards - bumpy on the way in if you take the corner early, enter late and it's less bumpy. There are three lanes to the track here, exercise caution when crossing between the lanes as the surface isn't fantastic. Having said that, I don't have a problem with Gerards except bumps on the way in and the various lines that people take round the bend. Taking a wider line through the corner gives provides plenty of opportunities to pass slower riders sticking rigidly to a tight line.

Edwinas - hard braking on the way in can really expose the difference in confidence between riders and can lead to the faster riders almost running into the back of those less confident. I found this by far and away the most dangerous part of the circuit because of this. On the way out, too much gas too soon will see you low-siding or high-siding.

Esses - Good surface and a bit tighter than you expect. Coming out of Edwina's, you think you can pass slower riders on the right but the line brings them right back into the passing place. You need to exercise restraint and wait until they pull back over ready for the run up to Shaws.

Shaws - Slow, very slow. Not much more to be said. Probably most suitable to folks who have just completed their DAS since it resembles the "turn in the road" manoeuvre.

Bus-stop - Ridiculous curbs on the way in, appalling tarmac through the section, and pretty high rumble strips on the way out (if you take a tight line). Hit the rumble strip and you'll have the bike unsettled as you exit into Devils Elbow...

Devils Elbow - Negative camber, good road surface, minimal run off. Must spell disaster.


During the two trackdays the accidents seem to occur in the same place:

1. Gerards - entering too quickly / not enough confidence to get round (scene of two accidents on both days, including one serious accident)

2. Edwina's - exiting and jumping on the gas.


I quite like Mallory. It's so short that it is easy to learn, you get plenty of laps, and generally doesn't attract many numpties. Facilities are basic, the tarmac in places is on par with what you'd find on an A-road. Still, it's cheap (and 25 mins from where I live). For the folks on 400's, this must be a track to try.

[Silver]