I did a trackday!

MementoMori · World Chat Champion Joined: 22 Aug 2004 Karma :

Yeah, I did my first ever trackday today at Manfeild. It's perfect having a race track on your doorstep.

The Long Version (scroll down for the short one):

So yeah, at around quarter to 10 I left for the track and saw Sally there and not long after I arrived Jon, Martin and Neil came in from the race group.

Had just about enough time to sort out my bike before the slow group came up. So, mirrors off, bits and bobs taped up and off to scrutineering which didn't pass first time round as my throttle sticks open due to an oversized grip. So Martin just shoved it as far away from the stop as possible and she was right as rain.

Not sure why I told you that bit tbh, not v exciting.

So yeah, me and Sally go out in the slow group and line up on the dummy grid waiting for the medium group to come in. There must have been about 25/30 bikes going out. When it was time to go, we stayed toward the back as I wanted to get a feel for the track before giving it too many beans. So off we tootle down the pit lane and then we hit the track! Hahaha, I'm finally on the track on my bike!

First impressions, they seriously need to resurface this track. It's bumpy as, and pretty rough. My tyres are nice and chewed up now, but at least it looks cool. So yeah, well the slow group's still pretty fast and being new and not knowing what to expect, it was a little off putting when guys under took me on tight bends and stuff but mainly, the problem was me worrying about the people behind me and not what I was doing.

I think we probably got around 7/8 laps in. All sessions were 20 minutes. At around the 5th lap on my first session, I felt a bit peckish and thought it'd be a good idea to look for a picnic spot coming out of the hairpin. "Oh I appear to be running wide. Oh look, the red and white strip is approaching. O hey grass." So I went for a pootle along the edge of the track kicking up a bit of dust, decided I wasn't too keen on having a picnic here and rejoined the track.

That was my only blunder for the day.

Having a Bridgestone Battlax on the front and a mixture of cell phones and car bumpers on the back, I wasn't happy pushing the bike or myself as the bike didn't feel firmly planted at all which was annoying because over the course of the day my confidence and knowledge of the track grew and grew and I managed to pass a fair few people.

There were 4 sessions and I went out in all. I would consider moving up to the medium group but that wasn't possible today because I only had a pair of Draggin Jeans for leg protection so had to stay in the slow.

The hairpin was so hard to negotiate. It's difficult to get a decent line through there because of the state of the track there. There's a mini pot hole forming right where you don't want it to be and looks like there have been many more previously that've been sealed over making the most crucial corner a bit of a hit and miss whether you make it past or not.

I wasn't sure how fast I was going because I was too busy concentrating to look at the speedo, but although the slow group was technically restricted to 140, no one was sticking to it and I probably hit around 200ks on the straights because that's where I was eating people up. The Viffer just has so much acceleration and I haven't even downgeared it yet. (Can someone lend me a C spanner?)

The brakes are a little bit spongy and I was braking extremely hard as not much confidence leaning it too far in through the corners with the tyres. Brakes did a good enough job but not excellent. Again it was just a case of choosing a braking point and hoping that you've scraped off enough speed to enter the bend. I think I just about slowed down enough each time.

Sally had a go in the medium group twice but in the second session she lowsided it due to hitting an uneven ridge coming round the inside of the sweeper. Bike's unrideable, no brakes now and took three people to carry the bits of plastic back to the stands, but she came away with just a sore thumb. Photographer got an awesome photo of her and the bike sliding off the track. Will post when I get a copy.

Wow, I've waffled on loads. Well my mum's camera is one of those film ones, so I won't be able to get the pictures for a while and the photographer's pictures will be up on his site toward the end of the week and then I have to order them so I don't have any pictures to add just yet which don't make this post very interesting, sorry about that.

Short version:

Awesome day! Got faster and faster, ate some people on the straights. They were crunchy but didn't taste like chicken. Need new tyres. And a race bike.

Ta. Thumbs Up