Set off at 6.45am , admiring the beautiful colours as the rising sun hit the frost that had formed overnight on cars parked in the street. Nose-end thermomater says about 5 degrees below . Cold is not the word.
Head off down the A50 towards M1, having decided to give the cross-country route a miss. The junction I need is closed due to roadworks ! butt !
Option 1 , follow de-tour to Donington ( not sure of road surface ) or
Option 2 , head North , and get to next junction for a swift about face
Option 2 it is
Sitting on the M1 at indicated 120 , it's brass monkey time , big style
Arrive at the A47 turn for Mallory , no visible signs of Gritters , a lovely bit of road remembered from The Gathering in summer , this time negotiated with caution
Hit the circuit at 8.00 am , looking for a few lads off another forum , somewhat dismayed to see very professional looking set-ups in the garages by the end of pitlane , all racebikes , tyrewarmers the full monty
Find the lads in the paddock area , and just about manage to lever myself off the 'Storm.
Intro's all round , and a welcome cup of tea ( ah a kettle !! result , nice one )
Get the good news in the breifing about " track day , not practise/ raceday " , flags etc and NO UNDERTAKING , and warm your tyres up etc etc etc
I'm in the Novice ( Nobbers )group , so straight out to pitlane , Jesus here we go , I'm still frozen , remember to breathe , warm up tyres etc etc
We're off , following 2 instructors , no overtaking , by the end of the first sighting lap they;re hal;f way round Gerrards ( big sweeping right hander ) this is no good , I'm not seeing the line ( I was about 6th away ) . Eventually they slow down to about 50
( really !! ) for a couple of lapsBuild the pace up steadily ( there's still evidence of Frost at Edwina's Chicane ) , nice and courteous to others , waiting till they're out of the corner before overtaking , when all of a sudden , a CBR600 sticks it up the inside as I was tipping into Gerrards !
Banzai , Tora Tora Tora , Red Mist & Game On son
10 minutes of absolute attack motorcycling , fantastic , but not got a chance of following the right lines , 4 abreast into the hairpin , and 2 around the Bus Stop ( horrible , couldn't get it right all day ) , hammering thru' the Devils Elbow for the short straight
One of the lads I'd met up with had a bit of a moment when he came up behind a slower rider who suddenly jammed the anchors on , so he grabbed a handful and his backend went all wobbly , looked weired , but all OK , I had a twitch from the front end at the hairpin
All too soon the flags out , end of session , so back to the paddock , park up and I'm screaming with adrenaline
Hear " who's is the FireStorm ? " , look round , it's an Instructor , obviously impressed with the bike , " can I have a word ? "
I'm thinking he wants to make me an offer , but NO! , apparantly 've been undertaking in corners , " Moi ?, some mistake , sureley ? "
Ah , it appears I've stuffed it up the inside of said instructor at Edwina's , so we go over the rules again , and I explained that I'd had it happen to me , and had assumed they were just saying it for effect.
Right , so we can go around the outside anywhere , up the inside at Gerrards so long as there's room , and it's not elbow to elbow
It makes sense , and he offers to show me the line in 2nd session , result
Next session, things are warming up nicely , the track starts to flow , and after following my new bestest freind for a bit I get waved by , so best not hang about eh?
3 laps later he wheelies past me coming out of a corner ( thus demonstrating my crap line ie leant over when I should be upright yabba yabba yabba blah blah )
One more before lunch , really getting into it , powering out of corners with the front end shimmying slightly , and taking loads on the brakes(, apart from the Buss stop ) , then off to find Petrol ( as the tracks pumps were frozen
)The Inters had a guy go down ( broken collar bone I think ), but all in all , not too many incidents
First session after lunch , and things were really hotting up with fantastic grip everywhere , ( had the front end chirrupping a fair bit ) and I felt a lot smoother than when 'd arrived
The next inters had a couple down , then a biggy at Gerrards ( a faller took 4 more down we heard later ) which meant there was a delay , the paddock area had thinned out after Lunch as people must have thought it was getting colder , whatever
We were called to pitlane ( I asked if it was the prizegiving ceremony
, lead balloon time ), to be told that things had been getting a bit " hot" in the Inters , with most incidents happening in the early laps ( not warming tyres , see )and both ambulances were at the local Infirmary , and as soon as they got back there were more waiting in the Medical Centre , so the organisers called it off , as they weren,t prepared to carry on without medical cover
Fair enough , and I think everyone had had enough really , as the temperature was dropping rapidly
So that was it ,farewell to the lads I'd parked up with , load up the panniers and trundle off , dreaming of next year
Top Day
