To sum up the experience in brief - Epic. Best experience of my life. Addictive. 4 sessions for £45 is unbelievable value when you consider a full day with 6 sessions is more than double.
I was very nervous on the morning of the day, mainly about crashing and writing off my bike and/or hurting myself. I rode all the way there which is about 95 miles and almost 2 hours. With hindsight I think that was a mistake and wish I had a trailer. The ride back was uncomfortable as I was aching after being on the track.
Anyway I rode over there with my brother and arrived about 30 minutes before the briefing. To be honest the instructions when you get there are not very clear. I met up with Flatty and he pointed us in the direction of the briefing area where we had to sign some forms and get a wrist band to say we had signed. We took our bikes to the noise tester and all passed OK including Flatty's storm. We then had a very brief briefing which was basically to tell us which flag meant which thing. There was no real instruction with the lines to take or how to over take / not overtake etc. I was a little underwhelmed to be honest, but they pointed us in the direction of the tyre van that would lower our pressures and left us to our own devices.
After a short while there was a tannoy announcement to say the blue group to the waiting area. We hadn't even been told where the waiting area was, so my brother and I were a little late. The rest of the group had already gone out onto the track and done 1 lap. By the time we waited for a gap to get in, they were nearly done with the 3 sighting laps. They let us on and left us to it.
First time out I went pretty steady. I was getting overtaken by nearly everyone other than this one guy on a blade the same as mine. He pretty much stopped for every corner. I didn't really know if my tyres were warm or not, so I didn't push too hard. I was actually quite glad when I saw the chequered flag. Gave me a chance to come in and relax as I was shaking from the rush of it all.
As there were only 2 groups, the waiting time between sessions felt a little too quick. We only had 10 minutes to rest then we were called back to the starting area. Also it meant that there was a mixture of novice and inters in our group. Quite a few of them on dedicated track bikes that were flying round. Made it quite difficult to concentrate when there were people flying past all the time. So second time out, we started at the front. Flatty grabbed an instructor and went of at the back so that he could show him the racing lines. Ill let him comment on how he thought that went.
Second time out was much better. Was still quite difficult as we were getting overtaken quite a lot with starting at the front, but a few laps in we were on clear track and it was unbelievable. I have honestly never done anything close to that before. The track was perfectly smooth and felt much wider than it looked on the videos. It's like both lanes of a wideish B road or normal A road. The series of right handers, into a quick left, down the hill and sharp left at the bottom was insane. It was so much fun when I got it right, but the track was wide enough that I felt comfortable enough when I got the lines wrong.
Third time out my brother, Flatty and I started at the back. Probably the best session in the end for me, we didn't get overtaken until about 2 laps before the end as we got lapped, but we worked our way through the traffic. My brother got past a load that I got stuck behind so ended up a way out in front. I never caught him, but I really felt I pushed hard trying and it was insanely good. Watch for the turn in cone, turn, try to hit the apex cone and smoothly accelerate out of the corner. Epic. I found that my bike was a lot faster than I knew, and it was a lot faster than a lot of other bikes on the track which helped. I didn't have the confidence to overtake on the corners as I had seen a few people panic, brake and run wide. Didn't really fancy being side swiped. But if I left a little room behind someone and nailed a corner properly, I could come out the other side with a 20mph or so advantage, and out accelerate most of them so get past on the straights. I had a few of the faster ones take me on the corners or braking into corners, only to get left behind as we came out the other side onto the straight.
Last time out I stayed behind my brother most of the way to try and get a good video. We were both going much faster than we had been 1st time out, and both of us loving every minute of it. Anyway, this video below is the last couple of laps of the last session.
After the first session I lost that nervousness and that fear of crashing as it becomes clear that it's just like riding on the road. Ride within my limits and ill be fine, push it and try to keep up with people more experienced, ill probably come off. Exactly the same as on the road, if you push too hard, you will fail. I think it's all about a little bit of self discipline not to get carried away and to keep within your limits.
I will 110% do this again. Ill book into the novice group again, and this time ill pick a session with 3 groups so I get only novice riders in my group. I would expect from what I saw at Cadwell ill be able to keep up with the faster ones in that group after a couple of sessions, which will be good.
Flatty mentioned organising a Donnington Storm meet, get a few of us there and make a weekend of it. I hope he posts something up soon
Lap times - worked out from the videos were:
2nd Session (started at the front, hardly any traffic until the end)
Lap 1 (disregarding first 2 warming up tyres) - 02:19
Lap 2 - 02:15
Lap 3 - 02:12
Lap 4 - 02:12
Lap 5 - 02:23 (started to lap some really slow ones)
Lap 6 - 02:22
3rd Session (started at the back so had lots of traffic all laps)
Lap 1 - 02:15
Lap 2 - 02:14
Lap 3 - 02:11
Lap 4 - 02:14
Lap 5 - 02:08
4th Session (started at the back so had lots of traffic all laps)
Lap 1 - 02:17
Lap 2 - 02:13
Lap 3 - 02:10
Lap 4 - 02:08
[youtube][/youtube]
So what pressure did they end up putting in the tyres?
great write up mate . will do one at snetterton one day when i get my act together . the price where you were seems very good 
