Brands Track Day report :boring:

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Long boring post, if you don't have hours to spare, I enjoyed it.

Brands Hatch being relatively close means we got the pleasure of sleeping in our own beds and the pleasure of getting up in time to leave for 6am. Eventually got going at about ten past, but luckily traffic doesn't seem to bad, I'm grateful that the really nasty hold ups are going the other way on the M25.

Arrive at the circuit at about twenty to eight, I've had a sandwich on the way for breakfast, while Dusty has lightly dozed most of the way (not an option for the driver unfortunately). All of the garages seem to have some occupants, so we go for the old BCF favourite; the garage at the end, which seems to be fairly lightly populated. Thanks to it being a 'one day' trackday, I've packed quite sparsely, so unpacking doesn't take too long.

Not reading the blurb they'd sent through, I direct dusty to give me a pillion lift around to the shops area outside the track for signing on, to find it's actually in the main paddock area.

While dusty gets some breakfast I go to fiddle with my bike, I get a rather unsecured crash mushroom off, replace a fairing bolt that is missing and a few other little bits.

At the briefing we are told that the first session will be three sighting laps and nothing else - all following the instructor, no overtaking. Also warned that they don't want a lot of red flags, day is more enjoyable if it's safe, etc.


I've already got the tyre warmers on, but they don't seem much point for a 3 lap follow-the-leader session. I do still manage to worry myself a bit at the new Dingle Dell Corner - which initially seems very sharp. I was looking for a chicane with a Cadwell-esque jump, that had been promised in the circuit guide. Unfortunately it seems this was Dingle Dell Corner, which has now been 'reprofiled' for safety reasons. Oh well. Otherwise, we continue around the track at a pretty steady pace and come in with incident. The bike did seem to be a bit 'wobbly' in corners initially; especially left handers. I had splattered a bit of oil from chain on the tyre when lubing it, I had cleaned it off as best I could, but that seemed to explain it, as it seemed to get better the more it was ridden. Get back to our garage to find the crash mushroom on the other side is also hanging off - the chemical metal that was securing it hasn't held at all.

While I've ridden the indy track before, not having done the GP, I take it fairly easy in the first proper session. I find I'm often a gear or two above the one I should be in; not too bothered as it's giving me a better idea of what the corners are like and where they are.

I go out near the back for the second session as I had done for the first. I up the pace a bit, but not massively; still not getting lapped by that many people and got past a couple, so don't feel too bad about my relatively slow riding. I had been worried that I might initially be a bit slow in the 'advanced' group as I learnt the track, but I don't seem to be a massive hindrance to anyone. While companies always say how they'll change your group to suit, I've found that if you put it to the test, it's rarely that easy (and got black flagged in novice when they wouldn't change me up).

For the third session I end up a closer to the front of the group. I take a few people early on - more to do with my tyre warmers than good riding. Get taken on the inside at Druids by someone that practically has their elbow down on the second lap - obviously others aren't listening to their '3 laps warm up' rule as well! I'm starting to push it properly and the track's starting to 'click' a bit. I've previously been told that Brands Hatch GP is one of the best UK circuits, on par with or better than Cadwell. I'm definitely not feeling that, but seems nice enough. Going at speed the bridge after Surtees seems even more worrying ; the track actually dips at this point, but it has the effect of some roller coasters, making you duck down as a big bit of metal looms straight in front of you. I'm not the only rider I see ducking at this point: no bad thing though, as there's an extra 1mph or whatever to be gained from the better aerodynamics. At one point a new blue thou (I thought it was the r1 at the time, but it was a zx10; only really noticed the taillight and didn't think about the
exhausts) gets me on a straight. Of course, I've got to get him back for that . I think that I got him into Druids, then he maybe tried to show his nose going into Surtees, but while I wasn't on a defensive racing line, I was on a better line for the track and managed to keep better corner speed and get on the power earlier. I keep ahead of him on the straight and for the rest of the GP section of the circuit. That is until I see the red flags out. Look behind and he's not there. I wonder how far back he is. When a zx10 with a slight dink in the frame and some fairing damage gets dropped off in our garage, I realise he wasn't quite as close behind as I was expecting.

With the aid of my bolts box we get a replacement footpeg made from an old carriage bolt, so that he can get the bike home.

We stop for lunch and they call a 'rebrief' as every session has been stopped for a red flag. One of the crashes was one of their instructors as well - Deb or 'Moose' who's with Feisty Racing. This highlights what I've been told about the Focused Events instructors; that they're there for the free trackday often, more than to teach. Most trackday companies don't pay their instructors; they do however provide 'expenses' to cover the cost of tyres, fuel etc, as instructors usually use their own bikes. As focused events don't, the instructors are effectively paying to show others around. I intended to get an instructor in the fifth session anyway; the fifth to give me time to get into it after lunch.

Lunch time and Alex is defeated by one of my sandwiches - he gets the smallest one and can still only eat half! I start to get the van packed up, so that there's not much to do when we are finished.

The fourth session sees me properly getting into it; I'm remember my braking points, slowly pushing them back, so taking the corners faster as well as getting on the power earlier.

The fifth session and I find out my instructor is Irish and a bit reluctant to go back out on track in the heat. It's also his first time on the circuit. We're doing the usually he leads, then follows me for a couple of laps then I follow him again. We start of at a moderate pace, after a couple of laps I'm not sure if he's wanting me to go past or just going slowly because he's not sure how fast I am. He does start to get quicker, occasionally checking to see that I'm behind. He gets past another rider while I have to wait a bit, getting past them going into the Druids Hairpin. He's coming up to Graeme Hill as I'm coming out of Druids, I see him look over his should to see if I'm there. I was getting on the gas quite hard anyway, but I may have got on it that bit harder to find my tyre was already on the limit of traction. It comes back into line fine though and I carry on. I notice that he's definitely got more go that me on the straights; think his GSXR is the 750 or 1000. Eventually he speeds up to the point that I can't keep up, but I've got a fairly decent pace going and find other people to chase. I'm also managing to get past a few people as well. Talk to him afterwards and one two main comments were 'Yea, you're quite fast' and 'I got faster in that session as well'. I looked down at my temp gauge near the end and it was reading 103 while thrashing it! When I stopped it jumped right up, and the coolant expansion bottle quickly filled up to piss out.

The final session was my most enjoyable. While I'm definitely not up to a decent race pace, dusty recorded me at a 1:47 lap, which should hopefully be 'acceptable' for rookie 600s. I've been keeping mental notes of the braking points and it's all starting to come together, so I manage to get past quite a lot of people. Another thousand (GSXR this time) from the same garage as me gets past me, which gives me the encouragement to push that extra bit and stay past him once I'd got infront. Had another rear wheel slide coming out of Druids, so nice to know I'm on the limit on one small part of the 2.6 mile course. A 250cc GP bikes also gets past me on the Start Finish straight; and I was doing around 140 at the time. While the GP bike is definitely making use of it's corner speed, it doesn't seem to quite have the acceleration of my 600. Also saw my instructor from the previous session, this time with out his instructors bib. Managed to get past and stay past him, but he was riding a ducati this time, so that doesn't mean much .


All in all, it was a great day. It did get quite hot in the afternoon, but was just about bearable if I drank a litre of water before going out on track. The track didn't quite have the spark I was hoping for, but definitely had a lot of good points. It is a very '3d' track with almost every corner going up or down and with plenty of camber. The positive camber in Stirlings let me catch up with plenty of people; to the point that I had to slow down because I wasn't expecting to catch up so quickly, so was still on the same line! The track day it's self did cost £220, was it worth it? I'd say so. I think Cadwell is probably the better track, but in a different way and I've done Cadwell a lot of times before. Would still like to try Oulton, but more money and time, etc. I just wish I could afford to do it a few more times to really get the hang of it, as I get the feeling it will be very rewarding when starting to get it perfected. Roll on the weekend, just hope the notes I took mean that it's still fresh in my mind when I'm racing it 'for real'!


Some thoughts:

I noticed that a lot of the time I had quite bad body position. Normally I would adjust my body position to something better when it started to become too painful (for instance taking the weight from braking on my arms rather than with my knees). I'm wondering if going to the gym (only sorted it out recently) has actually started to have the desired effect. However, it's still best to have good position for the bike handling, where possible anyway, so something I'll have to concentrate on.

Looking at pictures of me hanging off I have noticed that I tend to hang my lower body off, but leave my upper body above the bike. While, as Mark Hill mentioned to me "If it works for you, what's the problem", I would like to get into the habit of doing this properly - it should give marginally more ground clearance and possibly grip. To this end I have been hanging off in this fashion on the road, even on slow corners where I'm nowhere near to getting my knee down. Looking at various pictures of me from the day, I did seem to be doing it better a lot of the time. I've never had a problem with hanging off while riding on track. But others have mentioned they have. It seems that they are people that usually don't hang off on the road. I hang off on a lot of my road riding, even when I'm nowhere near knee down, so it's never felt alien to be doing the same on track. In a similar vein, I have often practiced stoppies and stopping very hard on the road, meaning that I'm happy to do the same thing on track (yes Bendy, this applies to you!)

[Barry_M2]

Will hopefully be taking my 250 on the Indy circuit in the next week or so, evening track 'day'!

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Have you ridden there before?

If not, I'd reccomend doing a whole day.

[Barry_M2]

Nope, I'm a track day virgin, and at my age thats just not on.

I brought the 250 just for track days really, but its nice to ride on the road again after so long.

I'd love to do the full GP circuit, but I'd want a big 4 really, the 2t wouldn't know what hit it along the straight as you enter the GP section!!!

If I sell my car soon, I'll probably look into getting the new ZX10.

Love the write ups by the way.

[G]

The 250 would be fine on the GP circuit.

There's going to be MZs racing there this weekend - about 25hp each.

It's not what you ride, but how, etc.

There was definitely a (road) aprilia 250 there yesterday.

Personally, I would say a 250 2 stroke is a much better trackday bike, even for Brands GP, than a ZX10.


As I said, if possible, I'd reccomend doing a full day; after half a day you're generally only just getting into it. It's only by the end of the day that everything starts to click and make sense.

[Barry_M2]

If I get the ZX10, the NSR250 will then be purely a track bike, with the ZX only going occasionally, I just dont fancy holding the throttle open for too long on a stroker, asking for trouble really!

I got the 250 just for its weight and 'chuckaboutability'. It handle's superb. They are made for corners.

[G]

Ah, an NSR has probably got a bit less power than the other 250s.

But I still stand by my statements - the fun's in the corners on track anyway.

You won't be at top speed for much longer on a smaller power bike - it's just it'll take you longer to your top speed, at the other end of the straight.
And stroker's are made to be revved - work best that way .

Definitely prefer to hold the throttle open on a small cc 2 stroke than on a 155hp - as the bloke chasing me found out .

[Barry_M2]

Actually, if anything it has more.

Im running an HRC ignition and wiring loom.

[Kickstart]

Hi

While it might not be a great idea to hold a 2 stroke flat out for ages I would not expect a few hundred yards of straight to cause any problems.

All the best

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

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[?M?gg????]

Great report G,

[Dusty]

I'll put some (slightly dodge) pictures up when I get round to it.

That sandwich didn't defeat me, I just backed off a bit to avoid taking too much ballast into the afternoon sessions.
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Gallery

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[lap_time]

Hiya G

When did you do this GP track day? Mark did one on 4th July - Were you there? He didn't do so well unfortunately (for 'didn't do so well' read 'crashed a friend's ducati'!)!
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One post Gordons - just here to sell.

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It was on the 12th. Wanted to do the 4th instead, but it was sold. out.

Didn't do amazingly well, but I was happy enough, especially considering previous experiences at Brands . Haven't got the practice day tomorrow as I couldn't afford both and wanted track time before the weekend so I could sort any problems with my bike (as well as have a chance to do Grayham Hill without being hit up the arse .)

And oops, Ducatis are expensive .