For anyone that’s interested here’s my review
WARNING – its quite long so please feel free to skip to the pics at the bottom J
Ben
Arrived 7.45 – track drying, sky clear, quite cool
Sat in briefing gazing out of the window – bugger its p15sing down
SIGHTING SESSION – wet track
3 laps dawdling behind instructor to ‘learn the track’
WHY? You’re not gonna learn anything more than looking at a circuit map at this speed
FIRST SESSION – dry line in places
3 laps to get some heat into the tyres (010 rear, Diablo corsa front)
Lap 4 lose the front braking for Park
Luckily it was in a straight line
Had enough time to let off, then re-apply and as Park has a dry line I get round no problems
Initial impressions:
Who removed the 300, 200, 100 metre boards from Park? Its SOOO featureless its har to find a braking point
Where’s the telegraph pole gone from the fence outside charlies too?
New chicane not too bad (compared to Silverstone!)
Not impressed with the front tyre
Lap times: week and a half!! J
SECOND SESSION – dry line everywhere except Hall bends and hairpin
Where did they get the tarmac from for the track resurfacing? Pikeys are us?
Totally inconsistent, come barrelling round Chris on dry tarmac and just before you brake for gooseneck the track is wet!!
Sunrise after coppice is lovely –but right in your eyes
Dry looking track between hairpin and barn is in fact coated in algae and grippy as ice
Rear tyre spinning up in a few places –time to swap
Lap times: 1:54s
Fit old faithful ‘old as the hills’ Rennsports (salvaged from tyre fitters bin after getting a nail in rear at Silverstone last summer and done 2 days since then!)
31psi front, 30psi rear
THIRD SESSION – odd damp patches but mainly dry
First few laps feel horrible. Like “did I definitely tighten the rear wheel spindle?†horrible!!
Tyres warm up , get out of wet/damp track mentality and start chucking it on its ear properly
Much better.
Good dice with 2 R1’s and a ZX10 that I catch and eventually pass (see pic one)
Lap times: 1.51s
LUNCH
Chat to people about lines, especially into chicane. Very useful
Suggestion is to treat the right hander including approach as one long corner rather than steam up, brake tip in, flick left.
FOURTH SESSION – can’t believe its November
Go gently after lunch –for the first 1½ laps anyway. Then GSXR-1000 stuffs it up the inside going into the hairpin and the mist descends J
Lose out massively down the start/finish straight
Catch right up through Coppice
Pass him between charlies 1 and 2
Get blitzed down park straight
Catch up through Chris and on approach to gooseneck
Not confident out-braking into Mansfield L
Get held up til the mountain where I pass into hall bends
Repeat from the top
Lap times: 1:49s
FIFTH SESSION – getting cooler
Due to an earplug debacle I set off half a lap behind everyone else
Catch green ZX but struggle all session to make a pass stick
Pull up level exiting charlies and barn but then he gets the bike stood upright and just walks away
Notice video camera taped to his pillion peg so play up to camera (I can’t help it! J )
Back in the pits it turns out it is only a 636 not a ZX10. But he weighs about 8 stone wringing wet. Gobsmacked at how easily he pulled away –must lose weight
Lap times: 1.47s
FINAL SESSION
Trusting (daft more like) mate –cheers Geoff– urges me to have a go on his 916
Unable to resist but tell myself I’ll take it easy
-ish
Have a great session, passing more people easier than I have all day
Notice 2/3 way through session that I’m not even sweating
The bike just seems to change direction using telekinesis, flicks through the chicane really precisely without wallowing, has acres of ground clearance and seems to have more power too
Anyone wanna swap a 98 Firestorm??? J
CONCLUSION
New chicane hasn’t spoiled the circuit –phew!
I need to either develop a transmitter that causes 1000’s to misfire on the straights or get Mansfield sorted in my head.
But at the end of the day it’s a fun trackday, not racing and I’m not prepared to stuff someone on the brakes with an iffy move just to get ahead
Suspension needs renewing over the winter
Forks have lost a fair bit of damping since I’ve had then (2 years)
Shock is great on the road and on fast corners but when flicking left to right (and vice versa) it compresses too far and is consequently still rebounding as I’m trying to put the power on
Need to work on braking. I’m still in road mode and leaving myself a reasonable margin of error
And now some pics -click on pic for larger image
I'm referring to the last photo if you hadn't guessed 
Great pic