Cadwell weekend report

[Bendy]

Race Weekend Report

Myself and Luke arrive at BCF Racing's camp mid-afternoon Saturday having sampled the delights of bank holiday M1 traffic. It's an impressive set up, with a giant gazebo and Korn's yellow transit suitably logo-d up with some black gaffa tape.

I'm pleased to find that G hasn't binned 'my' bike yet... I'm a little protective of the paint scheme I spent the last week applying.

Babyyam brings us The Best Muffins Ever, we eat some BBQ and generally faff about (ie. I can't actually remember what we did on Saturday). I do a poor paintjob on another R6 mudguard as the nicely painted one doesn't fit and Mark sets about making some graphics for the bike out of blue fablon. I have a terrible night's sleep and get rudely awakened at 8am by my mobile phone on which I've forgotten to turn the 'time to get up for work' alarm off.

There are carb issues again after practice, and the boys manage to melt half the paint off the tank with some clumsy fuelling (yes I know I should have laquered it but there wasn't time!). I'll leave the race reporting to G, but he wasn't happy.

I watched a bit of racing on the Sunday - Cadwell's so long that you'll never see the whole track but you can choose your spot and see good bits. The forza extreme bikes over the mountain were pretty cool and watching the sidecars round the hairpin was quality, with huge clouds of tyre smoke and the passengers having to fling themselves over the back to get round the 90 degree bend.

Sunday night I've promised everyone that I'll go get fish and chips from Louth so me and Mark and Sarah head down in the Metro only to find that all three chippies are shut. Opt for the fried chicken option and eventually return with a huge box of food which is promptly descended upon and devoured. If you've ever seen vultures fighting over a carcass, fifteen or so BCFers round a box of greasy chicken is similar.

Opt for an early night as I'm pooped. Though it's hard to sleep when drunk people are using your car as a unicycle launch ramp.

Monday's weather is ominous, the race announcers trying to get everyone moving before 'the really bad weather hits'. I set about doing an oil change on the CBR while the sun's still out... get all the fairings off and pause to eat a bacon sandwich. Which, by the time I've finished it, Keith's been in and done the oil and filter.

Just as I've started putting the plastics back on, the heavens open. Big time. Starts off with huge rain and works its way up to serious lumps of hail. The gazebo does alright, though the roof vents see some interesting leakage. The race before G's is meant to be out and they get sent back to get their wets. Decision is made to swap G's wheels over as even if it passes there'll still be some fair amounts of surface water on track by the time the rookie 600s get out.

Given the number of people falling off the track, I reckon G does okay in this race but he's grumpy despite scoring a point. Finger trouble in the pits leading to head trouble on the track.

So for race four we make doubly sure everything on the bike is just so, and some attempts are made to motivate the unmotivateable. Korn resorts to writing 'FASTER!!!' on a piece of gaffa tape and sticking it on the tank.

Race four and G is sent out, on a bit of a mission to salvage the weekend. Me and Korn are watching from the top of the mountain and counting him up the places all the way to twelfth where it looks like he's gonna stay... last lap there's a black bike right up behind him as they disappear into the woodlands section... turns out he did get him thanks to a gearchange issue but 13th place is still 3 points. The gaffa tape must have worked then.

Charlotte missions into Louth for Chinese food while Mark helps me tweak the suspension on the CBR in readiness for the pace day. Now, the logical thing to do would be to have packed up as much of the racing kit as we could, to enable a faster getaway after the trackday tomorrow. But, instead the evening starts with Ste's attempt to bunny hop increasingly large piles of bike tyres on his mountain bike, proceeds to creating a 5 foot stack of tyres held together with tie down straps and rolling Luke down a hill inside it, and finishes with my Laguna being thrown sideways round a grassy field pulling various people sitting on a tyre towed behind.

Earlyish night in readiness for...



PACE Day Report

After three nights sleeping in the back of the Laguna, I'm not feeling exactly perky for the 7:30am briefing. I'm booked in Inters, mainly because when I booked there wasn't a novice group! Given that I wasn't very happy with my riding at Cadwell a couple of weeks previously I'm not feeling terribly confident. I go out at the back of the group and hope to work up a few places but even this plan goes to pot when the sighting laps are so spread out that we're still under yellows when the front of the group catch up under green... it's kinda hard to overtake the person just in front of you when the fast boys are doing you up the inside and outside.

Second session sees us gridded and surprise surprise, I'm at the back (although not last, which was something at least). So more of the same there, hanging on the back of the folks in front but not really getting any chances to pass thanks to the flood of faster riders who're up me arse.

The third session is timed in order to ascertain the groups and gridding for the afternoon, so I go out intending to try a bit harder. Which went well until the red flag comes out about 3/4 way round the only green flag lap. So based on that time, I find myself shoved down the slow end of novice for the afternoon - row D1 (7th row out of 10). I'm actually not too miffed about this, cos I figure it'll give me the chance to do some overtaking and mean an end to getting munched by a posse of faster riders.

Grab a lunch and decide to start afresh.

So fourth session out and my plan is to try and catch the guys in front as much as to try and stay ahead of the guys behind me, notably Jay and Mark who are both on the 8th row. A - C go out behind one instructor then another instructor slots in for D & E. But cos the last guy on row C is going really slowly, we end up with a seriously huge gap between our pack and the one in front. So other than dispatching that slow guy that's fallen back, I've got no-one in front of me to pass, so spend the session working on catching up with the pack that are ahead. I'm eating into the gap lap by lap. Finally get up to the back of them around Chris Curve and just as I'm looking at the close gaggle of bikes and wondering how the hell I'm gonna get past them, the chequered flag comes out and it's time to get back in.

I think the time spent 'on my own' was good cos I've started to get into the groove a bit and stopped thinking about what I'm doing so much. Space is good sometimes. And I've now gained the magical 'FASTER!!!' gaffa tape that worked so well on the R6 the day before.

Can't remember if it was 4 or 5, but on one of the sighting laps I very nearly go straight into the back of an R? as the pack strangely slows right down to about 30mph on Park Straight... the dip/crest and absence of brake lights (plus me not paying enough attention!) meaning I didn't notice how much everyone had slowed down and suddenly realised I was gaining on the back of the bike in front a little quick. Braked like a bitch, realised I was still gonna hit him so let off, swerved round him and slammed on again, flying past about three bikes before dropping to 2nd and tucking back into my rightful place. Oops. When Mark recounts the tale from his vantage point behind me, G points out that I should be braking like that for every corner.

Fifth session and Green Ninja Guy had sneaked my space on the grid - having held us all up earlier in the day in Inters, me, Jay and Mark are all staring daggers at him as we're in the holding area and are collectively on a mission to 'ave 'im. Soon as the green flag's out, I have him and set off in pursuit of what's in front. Then Jay comes steaming past me around Charlies and proceeds to try and pass the VTR that I had my eye on up the straight, by taking the exact line I'd been planning. I did actually shout "get the fuck out of the way you yellow bastard!" as I was blocked by the Hornet on the straight. Jay's on a mission this lap though, and clears off into the distance, leaving me arguing with VTR boy who can't go round corners but has the grunt out of them and on the straight. I later spend about 2 laps about a foot off the back wheel of a black 'blade who I have a good fight with and finally get past.

Dusty points out that what I need to do is hang back more and take a run at people, rather than doing what I'm doing - sitting right up their arse and having to brake if they slow down without there being space to pass. Jay points out that I should stop trying to be nice to people and just stuff it up 'em. G tells me off for not going fast enough and not braking hard enough.

Session six. No more miss nice Bendy. I dunno what came over me, but I pulled a disappearing act and rode my socks off this session. I really, really had fun and made up a whole load of places - got VTR guy on the brakes, 'blade guy going up Coppice, a few others and then I spied Danny in the distance and knew that was the front of the 'C' pack. Got past him and about another six bikes before the chequered flag fell, had a front wheel slide going into the chicane *after* the flag (nuther oops) and came in to collapse on the ground. I don't think I've ever ridden my bike that hard in my whole life - it was ace.

Final session, and I apply myself for the first three laps or so, but am aware that I'm getting really tired. Coming out of the hairpin I slow down and have a look over my shoulder to see if it's clear to come into the pits, but there's 'blade boy again, having caught up after I passed him on the second lap. He blats past as I dither so I think 'fuck it' and follow him round looking for another fight... no joy though cos he goes off at the hairpin. A little duck-looking thing amuses me on the straight as it runs half way out, looks from side to side and legs it back from whence it came as it notices a few hundred lbs of yellow CBR bearing down on it at a fair lick. I cool down a bit, stick my arm up and come in, which turns out to only be one lap before the chequered flag so no great loss.

So, conclusions and observations...

- The suspension tweaks (just changing to the bog standard 'track recommended' settings) made a huge difference to the handling of my bike. There were a few times I fucked up a corner simply cos I expected it to run much wider than it did, leaving me on an unnaturally tight line. Very happy with that indeed.

- This pace day wasn't as good as the previous one I'd been on, purely cos they didn't move the grid around much. Based on the number of people I was passing, I'd have made my way up a fair few rows of novice, but since we didn't get re-gridded after session three, I was stuck having to get past the same people each session. I had great fun, but I did think the point of PACE was that you should find yourself with a slightly faster person to chase, and being chased by slightly slower folk. Instead, the slower people in front of me were having to put up with being passed by the faster pack behind them over and over again. I'll be interested to get the laptimes in a couple of days and see where I would have ended up if we'd been moved.

- I need to ride like I did in session six more often.

- The sound of fifty idling bikes all lined up closely together and strangely amplified by the surrounding trees is one of the finest noises on earth.


We spend ages packing up, various spacial issues and a Laguna that won't start cos the immobiliser's got its knickers in a twist over one door lock being open and manage to get out of the circuit by about 7pm... last as usual and traumatising the poor MSV bloke who wants to lock up. Largely uneventful trip home apart from one notable incident... slowing down to about 5mph and indicating right to turn across the road into a petrol station just outside of Lincoln some fucknuckle in a hatchback decided to overtake us at about 50mph. I've never been so glad that a petrol station was shut cos if I'd actually pulled out I'd quite possibly not be writing this now. Food for thought... the track might be a dangerous place but never underestimate the road.



Pictures to follow... been avoiding unpacking the car by writing this!

[Steve H]

Top Stuff Bendy
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Mellow Yellow
The BCF Top TEN - 2010, 2009, 2008, The Original.

[Richy]

Good stuff

Which company did you use? Ive been looking into 'no limits trackdays' cos my mates have been before and said that it was good.

I know the feeling with the newly painted bike. We had just finished filling and repainting all the fairing on my mates VFR from an off at Brands when he decided to do it again just to give us the practice at body work how nice of him
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Nothing spells bodge like wrincles in duct tape

[Bendy]

The trackday was with the European Superbike School, they're the only one that do the gridding system.

[Richy]

Thanks for the info
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Nothing spells bodge like wrincles in duct tape

[biggerjohn]

Nice right up bendy it just makes me even sadder that I couldn’t stay for the track day.

Glad to hear G pulled of the 13th place and after this I am sure it will only get better and the spectre of the off last time drop into distant memory.

[Shaun]

/me clears throat

Well, me and Mike left on friday aiming to be there by about 9/10... after faffing around packing, shopping we eventually left his at about 9 and arrived at Cadwell at just gone half twelve. I'd spoken to G on the way there so we knew where abouts we could find them, first thing to do, put up tents. Doing this in the dark with an 'eternity' torch which doesn't use batteries so you have to shake it to charge it every time it runs out was slightly annoying, even more so when I couldn't find any pegs so we had to use some screw drivers and spanners to 'peg' the tent down (turns out they were under my tent, Stew found them when we took it down on monday ).

Got up saturday morning quite early, just mingled a bit and wandered around trying to wake up. Once practise started I think we spent most of the day watching at Mansfield and wandering around the paddock. I made a big mistake in not wearing the cap I had bothered to bring and got really quite badly sun burnt on my face and hands.

Whilst moving my bike about it suddenly stalled and I quickly realised that the clutch cable had just snapped... FUCK. Lots of phoning around got me nowhere so I contacted a few BCF people and Keith got hold of a clutch cable that may have worked and a kind of kit you could make your own with but we couldn't find anyone with a solderless nipple for the cable and the woman at race office refused to ask for one over the tannoy, bitch, she asked for a clutch cable though but nobody came forward with one, I has asked around the paddock but nobody could find me one.

Woke up sunday morning and it felt like my whole face was cracking every time I moved, Maurice seemed to find this amusing but we later got to laugh at him when he made the same mistake and ended up being bright red after ignoring our warnings to cover up a bit. As seemed to be normal for me over this weekend I had got up early again, a quick look around and it seemed that no other BCF lot were about, decided to have a fag then maybe get some more sleep, then swaffs wandered over with a bacon bap which he had got from the cadwell canteen so I ran down to get one of them and gradually more people were waking up.

Viewed the racing from lots of different points this time and in G's second race he even waved at us as he went down the start/finish straight, although we told him off for that.

Lots more messing around in the evening which mostly involved push bikes and unicycles.

Monday morning and surprise surprise I was up early again, except this time I already knew where I could find a bacon sandwich, spent the day watching the racing and a bit more messing around, saw 3 crashes at the hairpin when the track was wet, although maybe we shouldn't have been cheering as the riders hit the ground.

More tom foolery in the evening which involved cars towing tyres around a field with people sitting on them but other than that was relatively quiet with people heading to bed early.

Woke up at half 6 on tuesday morning as I needed to ride into Louth to go and get some cash, Bendy had offered to loan me some money until dinner but I was up early and people were only just getting up so I headed out. got back with plenty of time to spare and got everything ready for the track day.

Fast and inters were called for their briefing when we realised that Mike was still asleep so much shaking and banging of his car was needed to get him up, he just about made it to briefing. Got called for novice briefing and it was the usual bollocks but a bit more flashy with a little video of a bike crashing and some general rules with a flag pop quiz. Filled in all my forms, signed on, got my number and grabbed myself a transponder and headed back to the BCF pit and taped stuff up, removed mirrors and cable tied the transponder to the forks.

Got out for the first session and it was horrible, everyone was bunched up and I couldn't move, I knew we were being timed so I wanted to get a decent lap in quite badly so I took a dive down the inside of a load of people at parks which give me a bit of room to get an ok lap in, got off the track and I still felt really bad about that session, worst time I'd ever had on track and it just felt too crowded. Waited for the grid positions to be put up and I was placed on A2, so 2nd row from the front, was really happy with that as it gave me a bit of room to move around.

Second and third session were a lot more enjoyable as it wasn't so crowded due to the gridding so I had room to do what I wanted and the people I came across were a lot easier to overtake, they gridded us again after the third session and I was placed on the front row of novice, I was happy witht his as I was one of the 5 quickest in novice but was a bit annoyed as I was probably a second or two off getting into inters.

Fourth and fifth session were really good fun but I was starting to get annoyed with people passing me on the straight then holding me up in the corners, seems I'm quicker on the VFR than I was on the GSXR so all is well.

The last 2 sessions the weekend had started to get to me and I was making stupid mistakes and nearly ran off the track at mansfield on the warm up lap because I was lacking concentration. The last session I was particuarly slow but overall the day was really good fun, just waiting for ESS to sort their web site out now so I can get my lap times.

[Dusty]

Due to bike purchasing necessities I missed most of the weekend including all of G's races, but after having gone to the Isle of White and buying a Cagiva W16 from mattd on saturday, riding to Essex on sunday then up to Lincolnshire on the monday I finally arrived at the track just in time to catch the evening car/tyre antics .

Was a bit nervous on the tuesday morning about the fact that I'd had to book into advanced, with very little track time under my belt in the last 1 1/2 years or so. After the first session I decided to see if I could move to inters before giving Korn the satisfaction of lapping me . ESS were ok about me moving but said I had to go out at the back of the group which was slightly frustrating, but at least I was over taking people rather than them getting me. Still wasn't feeling very confident, but managed to ge in a couple of fairly quick laps that placed me a few bikes from the front of the group for the afternoon sessions.

After dinner I felt much better and managed to get right to the front of the group in every session (this may have been due to some suspension tweaking or maybe just me getting back into the groove). I really enjoyed the rest of the day and had plenty of empty track to play on. Only one bike got past me in the last four sessions; an R1 on the straight. After passing me on the power the guy then looked back at me, realised I was sitting right up his arse, and tried to brake very late into the next corner. Unfortunately for him this didn't work and he locked the front and went down right in front of me , I swerved and managed to miss him but then nearly stacked my bike as I tried to get some speed off on the grass with the tire wall rapidly approaching - I must learn to use the rear brake sometime as the front really doesn't do much when you are running Super Corsas on grass.

By the end of the day I had got really into it, but then sadly it was time to go home. I was quite impressed with how the 'pace' day was run, especially with the way one group came off the track and the next went straight out, although I did think some of the odd flags ESS had available were a bit pointless.

All in all a great day and one of the biggest meetings of BCFers I've been to. to all involved.
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Gallery

[MarJay]

The weekend was

Race weekend:
On the saturday afternoon I had arrived to find that G was still having one or two bike issues. The fuelling problem that he had was showing itself again in high gear at high revs. He had borrowed a tuned set of carbs from Mark Hill (who is a front runner in the Bemsee supersport 600 series) and the problem was still there.

After much messing about with tents, air beds and mobile phones the evening drew on. We spent a lot of time preparing the bike for scrutineering and I made some nice freehand graphics out of blue fablon (which I was rather proud of) and by half past midnight we had retired to bed.

When I awoke sunday morning I got up to discover G and Bendy bustling over the bike and I found that it had passed scrutineering. G had been out for a practice but was unhappy again. He had the tank off and was poking at the carbs with various implements. I went over to see if I could help him and we poked at it some more.
He then dissappeared and returned with Mark Hill, the aforementioned racer. With a man of such expertise looking at the bike we were sure that he could find the trouble.

After much puzzled expressions and comments about which hoses to have clips on and which to take off, finally the knowledgeable Mr Hill gave G a bit of a slap on the wrist for not undoing the clamps on the airbox rubbers enough before putting the airbox on. He was certain that the airbox rubbers were deforming and not providing a good seal, however he was not sure if this was the cause of our carb woes.

I grabbed my camcorder and dragged Sarah over to the Mountain grandstand where we watched G's race. He put in a very respectable performance and I believe he came 15th. We had now seen that the bike could be reliable for race distance and so hopefully this would help G's confidence. He seemed happier at the prospect of riding the bike in the second race of the day.

We sat on the grandstand on the other side of the start finish straight to do some videoing and general cheering this time, and the race was red flagged.

We found out later that G had run out of fuel and was just in the process of pulling off of the circuit when the race was red flagged. Luckily this meant he did not get a DNF on his scorecard.

The afternoon and early evening was spent either in Louth scratching our heads about what food to buy and the lack of chippies, or waiting for the three of us who were scratching our heads about what food to buy.

After a long wait and buying the entire stock of fried chicken from 'USA Fried chicken' in Louth, we returned to ravenous 'freeloading' which wave had made the word of the weekend. We all had enough to eat and the rest of the evening we spent sitting in the Gazebo and Korn, Danny and Millsy watched TV.

TV! we were supposed to be slumming it!

and I thought we were being wimps by having an airbed!

Monday morning we awoke to grey skies. The bike did not need as much prep this morning and was ready for the race. Just before G's race the heavens opened. Sarah and I were over by the Gooseneck on open land when the deluge arrived. To say we got wet was an understatement! to top it off, we had to deal with hailstones and I had to deal with trying to talk my computer illiterate father through looking up the weather on metcheck.com.
For some reason he kept getting search results for www.metcheck.com instead of the site... we eventually got the report when my mother took the phone and used the BBC website.

As the supersport 600s ended, the weather had considerably improved and I was slightly worried about tyre choice for the rookie 600 race. I called Bendy and she confirmed that G was in the collecting area with wets on. I commented that the track was drying, at least near the gooseneck, and she confirmed that it was still pretty sodden elswhere.

G brought the bike in for another respectable 15th and didn't look too happy.

The tyres were changed for dry ones and Sarah and I went up to the hairpin to try and video the next race.

G started 15th on the grid and battled up to 13th. two championship points! all in all not a bad result!

The rest of Monday was spent eating chinese and preparing bikes for Tuesdays pace day action.

Trackday report:
On tuesday morning I awoke early and hopped in the shiney new showers that MSV had installed. I had a nice long shower and wandered towards the briefing. On the way I bumped into Bendy and we sat through one of the harsher briefings I have done at a track event, although it seemed as though it sank in for most people.

Being a bit nervous about my new bike, I didn't like the idea of the first and third sessions being timed, particularly as I am never vrey quick on the first session. Jay and Bendy and I pootled around the track and I felt I had a good session, overtaking Jay and Bendy. I would not say it was a particularly fast session though.

The second session we had been allocated our 'grid' positions for the morning and we were all on the back row. None of us were the slowest in the group however (that must have been reserved for Green Kawasaki ZX7R Trackbike boy who evidently thought he was fast).

This session was OK if a little slow and I felt as though my bike was doing OK and I was a little rusty. I was very glad that I had the TT600 and not the Daytona for this trackday. I felt as though it could flatter my riding rather than serve to intimidate me.

The third session I did not do so well, getting stuck behind a straight line warrior on a green ZX7R trackbike for half a lap before the session was red flagged. I hoped that our timings would not be based upon half a flying lap, but I guess that this remains to be seen.

After lunch the weather took a turn for the worse, and I was worried that being stuck at the back of novice group in the wet might not be so much fun. I was dissapointed that I was put near the back of novice, however I was even more disappointed that I would not get an opportunity to improve if the heavens opened. Luckily they did not and I put in an OK session. Again Jay and I got stuck behind green-trackbike-straightline-warrior-boy and at the entry to park I actually surprised myself when I shouted "Reel him in Jay, GWAN!" at the top of my voice in my helmet.

I overtook this mobile chicane and then frustratingly the chequered flag was unfurled. I wasn't extatic with that session, but I wasn't disappointed either.

The next session I went out, and I managed to overtake green trackbike boy, and then I overtook Jay. He stayed behind for half a lap until we reached the chicane where I accidentally hooked first gear and locked my rear tyre. Jay quite rightly took this as an opportunity to blast past, and I was not able to overtake him in this session. I did keep him in sight and found it fun watching him deal with the slower riders in front of us before I had to.

Second to last session was the fun one for me. I blasted round the track like a madman and everything felt like it was falling into place. Frustratingly again I got stuck behind a VFR800 V tec straightline warrior, and I managed to take him, a FZR600 and a GPZ600 by outbraking them all into park. It wasn't all that hard because they all slammed on halfway along park straight anyway! I actually shouted at him and the GPZ bloke because I had to brake in order to aviod hitting them. I found myself shouting "OH come ON! You can't brake /THAT/ early!!!"

I saw Jay and a few bikes ahead Bendy later on, but there was too much of a gap to close in the next few laps. I think I got a bit nearer, but the chequered flag came out just as I was about to get them back into my field of vision.

By this time in the day I was absolutely shattered and becoming more and more aware that I was riding a shiney new bike and had not had time to fit my R and G crash mushrooms. When the ESS guy came over to take my transponder and told me the last session was untimed, I resolved that I would take it easy in the last session.

We went out for the customary warm up lap and I was behind Jay going onto the circuit. I took it easy when the yellow flags were dropped by the marshals and let Jay gain an unassailable lead before doing a little bimbling around (still at a faster pace than all three of my morning sessions!)

Then after trying to get a bit airborne over the mountain, a white fairing nosed into my field of vision on the inside of the hairpin. For some reason I thought to myself "I'm not having that" and blasted away down the straight and did two blistering (for my pace) laps thinking this guy was behind me.

On the chequered flag he passed me and I realised it was one of the youngsters mentioned in the briefing. We were under no account to harass them! Still, he managed to keep up with a sports 600 on a 125GP bike and evidently was unable to pass until then. I don't know wether to be ashamed for me or proud for him!

I had a cracking time and I was very glad that I was not jinxed by my leaving my crash mushrooms at home!
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Nighteyes]

Well I think I have been converted to the way of the Caravan, it's warm & dry......rocks & sways a fair amount, but only when it's moving!

Martin, Ian & I set out Sunday night to arrive just before midnight.
The guy in the ticket office mustn't of seen Martin in the back since we only got charged for 2 tickets for the next days racing. I nearly did something silly & informed him there were in fact three of us but fortunately my brain engaged & I ate my hand in time!

Spent the day wandering around ( & losing my purse but thankfully some kind soul handed it in for me ).

It was really good to be able to watch G race at last , I even got to see a few crashes myself thanks to Hall bends.

Then after watching the activities of Luke being sent rolling down hills in the middle of some tyres & several people thrown around with the tyres tied to the back of a suffering & overfilled car (including G riding around on the roof), played some glow in the dark Frisbee & went to bed.

Thankfully it only attempted to rain the once on the Tuesday, which was lucky considering the downpour the racers had to suffer the day before.

I'm certainly looking forward to seeing the times put up that everyone got. Shaun did seem much more comfortable on the VFR, & when I did try to time him he pulled in 2:15 which considering he didn't have the power on the straights he used to with the GSXR I'd say it was a definite improvement from last time.

Ian's times should be interesting to see, especially in the last session where I saw him leading the fast group . Which wasn't bad considering he decided to try some off roading in the 2nd session & got brought back to paddock in a van .

All in all, it was a really good few days, getting so many of us all together.......Needs to be repeated at some point.
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My Precioussss!, My Bikes, The Lord & Master, Canis Lupus!
39. Something nice about the person who sent this to you? She's beautiful, funny, and has a huge heart.

[Bendy]

Comedy moment of the weekend:

The look on Jay's dad's face when he realised he'd just driven from Lincoln with the wrong set of spare keys, after Jay locked the keys to his MG in the boot.

[G]

Friday - Getting there
Friday saw the usual lack of preparation meaning we left at 3pm or so - a bad time to be travelling on the Friday before a bank holiday weekend!

Journey wasn't too bad in the end, apart from the A34 which was solid around every junction; probably due to my pet hate of people driving too close to each other.


Was far to late to watch Korn and Danny at Rockingham; lucky really because I thought they were at Donnington, and had a route planned based on that .

Got everything unpacked eventually, and our total of 12m x 3m of Gazebos set up.


Saturday - Practice

I had tested out some changes suggested to me by Mark Hill at Brands and they seemed to work on my road at home.

First practice and there's a worrying surging when the power's pulled on in later gears; no way I'm going to ride like this as it feels like it'll throw me off if I take any corner at serious speed.

I play a bit and have the same problems the next session.

I eventually give up trying to work out what it is (doesn't show up when riding slower on the access roads around the paddock) - so back to Mark Hill to ask his advice.

He offers to lend me a spare set of carbs.... which work!

So I get the last three sessions to get back into it.

Unfortunately I'm not improving that fast and end up with best laps in my last session of around 1:51 - 4 seconds slower than a track day here last year!

I have to return the carbs after the practice, as he wants to try this set out on his own bike. However he lends me the set he had been using that day without trouble.


Sunday - Race Day 1

Morning practice and I remind my self I need to push it a bit. Until I'm faced with the same problem as the previous morning, with surging power in higher gears.
I stay out for the practice session as I need to scrub the brand new tyres in before the first race if possible; however I'm going so slowly I actually get yellow flagged when the faster riders are coming .

I find Mark Hill after and mention the symptoms.

He can't think of anything specific, but hints that it could be poor installation (ahem).
He goes through taking everything off and putting everything on again.

I'm criticised for not unscrewing the airbox jubilee clips before removing the airbox - though previously I had unscrewed them before reinstalling the airbox.
However when I do put it back on he comments they aren't undone enough - as there seemed to be a problem with the fit, this is a possible problem.

Get everything back and it all seems to be as ok as before - a quick ride in the paddock shows no obvious problems, but it didn't before either.

First Race
I line up on the grid for the warm up lap a little worried, but it all seems to be ok.
Quite a few people in the couple of rows infront of me jump the start quite significantly, which puts me off and ends up in me almost stalling when the lights actually go out.
I stay back a little and try not to get too involved in the initial melee - still worrying about the bike a bit. Luckily really, as I see several crashes infront of me and have to ride around sliding bikes and riders.

The race is red flagged after two laps, we are told it will continue after a lunch break.

On the grid for the second time I note that several of the people that jump started are now longer in the grid - a bit too aggressive riding doesn't always pay off perhaps?

I again manage to get a not too great start as there's at least one more jump starter.
See some more crashes infront of me so try to avoid and too close racing; this leaves me behind the pack of riders I'd consider a similar speed, but ahead of another pack of riders a bit slower. After I realise I was pretty much cruising around; my brain had set limits based on the previous day's practice and I was pretty much sticking to them. Move up a bit too finish 17th, though this is probably more to do with all the people crashing than me actually riding well.

Second Race
More of the same, though less crashes this time. I see a bit of elbow-action off the start line as two riders try to share the same bit of track - which doesn't help my slight worry about binning the bike; unlike some of the riders here I really can't afford to crash for the sake of a couple more points.
Caleb (Yellow Triumph Daytona 600) comes past me and I try to keep up, but can't seem to - rather disappointing as this weekend is his first time at Cadwell I seem to remember.
Later I realise that it is the fact that I've somehow set the limits of my riding at a certain speed rather than the limits of the bike.

Promise myself I'll try harder the next day.


Monday - Race Day 2

Practice is brief, but I get a bit of confidence for the upcoming day.

First Race
The race is delayed a bit as they are sweeping some oil of the now wet track - some hail also livens things up a bit.

So on with the wets.
I get an ok start and am keeping up with the pack until a bike crashes infront of me - I have to straight line brake to avoid hitting the bike while the bike infront clips the downed rider as he goes for a detour across the grass.

Several bikes get past and I can't seem to keep the pace anymore. I also worry as in the warm up lap I realise we hadn't checked the tyre pressures of the wet tyres. Some quite serious judder under heavy/high speed braking worries me a bit as well.
Relatively to how I know I can ride, I do terribly, but manage to get 15th place - so that's one point, even if it's more from other people crashing than me actually earning it.


Second race
The track is mostly dry, so it's supercorsas back on, I pop down to watch the supersport 600 race leaving the collecting area to make sure their tyre choice agrees with mine.
I've realised I really need to start pushing the limits, rather than excepting those I've imposed on myself.

I get an ok start from my 15th position and make up a couple of places in the first lap. After that I stay fairly consistant. I get past a couple of people, but a couple of people also get past me, so my position stays about the same.
Manage to get into 12th place, look back at the hairpin on the last lap and see there's someone there biting at my heels.
I was going to take it fairly easy into Barn, but push it a bit instead. I don't know if it's just not enough or that the other bike is more powerful, but I find another bike coming next to me on the start finish straight. My bike won't clutch less change with a couple of attempts after the other bike passes, giving me no chance of getting the place back with the last bit of straight left.

I ended up with a best lap of 1:47 - about the same as my best lap on this bike a year ago, so I still didn't end the racing too happy, but at least knew that I was getting back into it as such.



Nice to meet those that I haven't met before and sorry I didn't have time to talk much to those that only stayed the day - was a tad busy, as you may have noticed .

Thanks to 'people' as usual, some of which due are...
Bendy, Ste, Keith, Charlotte, Korn, Swaffs and all those others that helped.

Lessons learnt (again):
I’ve got to make a big effort to get everything 100% ready next time, whatever it takes.
Also need to make some check lists up for stuff like changing wheels, so I don’t have think about it at the time .

If anyone is interested in being pit crew for the Brands GP round give me a shout (will consider all applicants, regardless of experience etc . )


Tuesday - Trackday
The trackday was quite enjoyable for me, despite that fact I wasn't riding; although it was a little rushed as I had borrowed Swaffs' camera to take pictures. I also nabbed Dusty's new bike (Cagiva W16) and rushed about, trying to change position between people doing laps. I did stay taking photos for a bit too long, as I was making a good effort at getting are large amount of stuff in the Gazebo organised.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Arrived at about 10:30 on Sunday, and spent most of the day taking pictures. And again on Monday (but getting wet). And again on Tuesday. Need to sort them out.

Rcing was close, with a wide spread of abilities being quite obvious. However, even those at the back of the rookie packs were noticably faster than they had been at the first round at Snetterton.

G seemed to have a good final race, and made up several positions on the last few laps. Unfortunatly lost one on the last 1/4 of a lap.

Track day time on the Tuesday was interesting. Jay seems to be recovering his confidence and was noticeably quicker on the bends that when I last saw him at Cadwell. Shaun seems to suit the VFR, and was far smoother going up the mountain and into the hairpin. Marjay definatly suits the TT600 and is far smoother on the bends than he was on the Daytona.

[Shaun]

We spoke to one of the kids after the first session, he'd been playing with stew a bit after he'd got past me on the brakes into mansfield I think, boys got skills.

[swaffs]

thought this would be better moved to here:


Results:
Saturday
Race 6 : Finiished 17 Best lap: 1:50.271 Average speed 70.844
Race 17 : Finished 16 Best lap: 1:50.823 Average speed 70.491

Sunday
Race 8(W): Finished 15 Best lap: 1:58.893 Average speed 65.706 1 point
Race 17 : Finished 13 Best lap: 1:47.663 Average speed 72.560 3 points
Total points so far = 10

Nice work G, bring on the next meeting.

Swaffs
_________________________________________________
Fastest lap in rookie 600 = John Angel: 1:40.145 Average speed 78.007
____________________
Swaffs Photography |
BCF vinyl stickers
"Look not back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around you in awareness."

[Kickstart]

[Dusty]

[Luke_Retrofly]

Hi
Well this week i 'r' been mostly doing:

Feezing my arse off in a tent
Watching bikes race/crash/brake/wheelie
Dodging piles of crap in a Gazeebo
Tieing/untieing tie downs
Sliding a fucked rear tyer
Laughing at wave
Saying everything with a high pitched "eeeeeeee" at the end, al la Geeeeeeee
Freeloading off other people
Wtching the weather
Getting wet
Baying for blood at the harpin and cheeing when sum1 bins it
Racing my nuts on a uni-cycle
Breathing in 2nd hand weed
Eating grass
Rolling down a hill a stack of tyers
Removing grass from every hole nook and crany from person
Eating food thats bad for you
Raising eyebrows at Racers who shouldnt be racing
Getting pissed off @ mike for overtaking me and overtaking him
Poking/changing tyers
Lauging in my helmet at stew dodging a tyer wall
Getting moved up to inter's next to R1's and Gixxxer thous
Getting knackerd riding round Cadwell

Best weeking/trackday so far, Thanks to everyone who was there having a laugh and helping out, thanks to stew mike and shaun for the fun on track and G for racing and gettign us all there.

Was great fun

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

[Kickstart]

[MarJay]

I'm quite proud of this:
____________________
British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Shaun]

So your suspensions quite bouncy then

[Dusty]

[Wave2k]

im doing a luke syle list for my report
although i dont think i have ever laughed so much in my life

Drinking beer
Learning to unicycle
drinking while on a unicycle
falling off the unicycle
being cold in my tent
laughing and maurice
jumping on shauns tent
racking my nuts many times
getting my kneedown on a pedal bike
luke flipping a stoppie on the start finish straight infront of loads of kids
me flippping a stoppie down a big hill infront of loads of watching SS600 riders
Freeloading
Laughing lots
Saying Geeeeeeeeeeee and luuuuuuuuuuuuuuke




____________________
Ducati 1299 Panigale
2009 Corvette C6 z51
RS125->CBR400->RXS100->GSXR750K2->Ducati749S->CBR600RR5->TL1000R->DRz400->RSVR1000->Honda VTR SP1->CBR400->GSXR1000K6->Honda H100->CBR600RR3->Ducati1299

[Korn]

Big fat diary type post warning!
------------------------------------------

Thursday:
After a long day at work I got home to start loading up supplies for the very extended weekend. Myself, Danny & Millsy got the two bikes and small mountain of kit stuffed in the van fairly quickly however a detour past Slough and some unplanned faffing around meant we didn’t arrive in Kettering until around midnight. With the Little Chef well and truly closed we grabbed a few munchies from the petrol station, sneaked the three of us into a two-person Travelodge room and watched TV until 2 in the morning... so much for getting an early night

Friday:
Woke up at 6am after a pleasant few hours sleep and made our escape from the Travelodge. A short trip up to Corby and having found Rockingham we made our way through a huge tunnel into the infield area where we nabbed a pit garage and set up shop. Jay arrived on the Hornet a short time later and by the time the open-air briefing started the weather had delivered with blazing sunshine and a refreshing breeze.

First session on track was my usual ragged affair, I had booked into inters on account of it being my first time at Rock but soon regretted this. After the 20 minutes was up I tried to see if I could move into the fast group but was told it was full so I would have to wait for somebody to drop out. Back in our pit garage Jay pointed out a dirty great set of cracks in my rear tyre, a bit worrying as I had checked them before leaving home and despite being rather mashed from past trackdays I thought they should last me around Rockingham.

The 100% bikes tyre van didn’t have any supercorsas in stock so I decided to take it easy and hope the tyres lasted until the end of the day, as I would then be able to buy some new rubber at the Bemsee race village before the Cadwell PACE day. After lunch I checked the tyres again and found the cracks had mostly melted back together, so felt a bit more confident they wouldn’t fly apart on me. Still in inters as nobody from fast had dropped out I decided to try and get a timed fast lap done, a 1:24 was managed when I had some space to myself although the rest of the time was pretty much all overtaking practice - not that this wasn't fun in itself, though I would have liked more space to work on my riding.

The weather stayed hot & sunny apart from one cloud which floated over and dumped a massive hailstorm on us, but thankfully the sun came straight back out and burned it off again leaving the wet weather gear firmly in the van. All in a fun day on a great circuit, it’s very flowing and very much about corner speed and getting your sequences right – gracelands especially is a fantastic corner! I watched the last novice session from the giant grandstand, which has a great view over the entire circuit and is big enough to give most football stadiums a run for their money

Having packed up again we said goodbye to Jay and trundled on up to Cadwell with the windows down enjoying the sunshine. A short stop near Horncastle to buy supplies later we arrived at the circuit and nabbed a swanky piece of paddock real estate to await the arrival of G and Ste. They turned up 20 minutes later and between us we had unpacked the vans and erected our camp before sunset.

Saturday / Sunday / Monday:
Had fun watching the practice day and race days, highlights range from rebuilding our entire camp after the gales on Saturday morning to racing round the track on push bikes Sunday evening - and of course the car-powered sidecar simulator on Monday night. You wouldn’t think spending 3 days of your life living in a field could be so much fun

Tuesday:
Woke up early for the ESS briefing, got signed on a collected a transponder before wandering off to umm and err at the track conditions. It had rained overnight and half the track was still damp, perfect weather for intermediate tyres but by this point I was so knackered that I couldn’t be arsed changing wheels and decided to stick with the supercorsas. Fast group first out and by the end of our session even the woodlands section is reasonably dry, we are re-gridded based on our laptimes and I end up on the 4th row.

Second and third sessions I’m starting to remember Cadwell from last summer although it’s a lot different doing it on the R6, I’m still taking coppice as if I was on a litre bike and being far too careful over the mountain. The PACE day is running smoothly and only one of our morning sessions is red flagged, an instructor highsiding his bike at chris curve. In the interests of saving some cash I’ve not replaced the knackered tyres so grip is an issue but I try to work on getting a good flow round the circuit instead, chasing the top few guys in fast who are going like the clappers.

After the third session we are re-gridded again and I move up to the third row, but in the next session I’m struggling to stay on the pace as the tyres are not giving grip. G offers to lend me the wheels he’s been using for the weekend’s racing but I decide to ride mine out to the end, hopefully learning to control them a bit and most importantly not crashing. Loads of mucking around at the mountain, trying to hold a good wheelie as well as jumping over it motocross stylie. It’s definitely the best bit of Cadwell – every track should have one

Had a lot of fun in the very last session trying to chase down the top four, but slowly start to get left behind especially on the very long chris curve where I just can’t seem to make the tyres stick. End the day reasonably happy at not having stacked it, back in the paddock G points out my new angular rear tyre, the round profile on the right hand side has been flattened by all the sliding around but as value for money goes I can’t really complain as they’ve lasted 5 track days including one on the tyre-shredding R1.

We eventually get packed and head home, with me and G racing the two vans all the way to Watford Gap service before eating a heart attack all day breakfast and saying goodbye. Get home at close to midnight, tip the contents of the van into the garage and see Danny off before taking Millsy home in the car and returning home to collapse.

Very nice little holiday
____________________
3516 Miles, 11 Countries

[M1ke]

The rs125 rider started in the grid behind me and I didn't see him all day so I guess he didnt get passed me I would have noticed a smelly 2 stroke for sure.

Towards the end of the last session I was passing people that were at the back of the inters group (ie passing a gsxr750 on the straight...)

To summarise my weekend .... Wicked