well things are progressing nicely. Van is now on my drive, fully insured and ready to go. First test trackday is booked for this Wednesday at Cadwell. I'm looking forward to doing a 'Josh Brookes' over the mountain. I think not lol. Fingers crossed
Well, we got back from Cadwell last night - absolutely knackered!!...both of us Got there Tuesday evening about 7pm after stopping in Louth for some mega fish & Chips.......a small portion each @£2.10 per portion.......2 trays come out with the biggest 'small' portion I've ever seen!! so sat & eat them in true White van man stylee in the van Got to Cadwell & had to put the tent up in the rain - it had been dry all the way - Guess what...the soddin rain stopped as soon as the tent was up! We had a few beers & chatted to some of the other guys who were camping over - 2 of em proffesional skydivers!!!...they tried to talk us into having a go...errr.... I think not!
Got into the kip bags about half 11 - I'm still awake an hour later as somone had just arrived & decided to put their generator on...noisy buggers! Al however was snoring sweetly....
After a fitfull nights sleep (for me!) & having to get up for that soddin middle of the night wee (girls - you know what hassle that is!) the alarm went off at half 6 - Al had been up since half 5 - a little bit giddy I think
Al signed on & took the bike through the noise test & scrutineering - she passed it fine no probs The newly pruchased tyre warmers (which had only just arrived about an hour before we set off on Tuesday!!) were put on & hooked up to the generator
......side story of the generator.....bought off e-bay for £25 as it wasnt working.....went to collect it & the only thing wrong with it was the plug cap was missing...it also came with a full tank of petrol! so new plug cap & quick clean out of the carb & we had a fully functional 2 stroke generator for a bargain
There were 3 groups - Novice, Intermediate & Advanced. Al went into the Intermediate group as he's done track days before. So his group were 2nd out on track - each group having 20 min sessions. His first session was just to get used to the bike (aswell as finding his way around Cadwell! ) as it had been set up with a race setting on the gears - ie 1 up & the rest down as opposed to road setting - 1 down & the rest up. He came back knackered, (Some hope for the rest of the day then thinks I ) but buzzing at the same time - the bike handled beautifully & the tyres were nice & sticky
What he wasn't comfortable with was the section of circuit that comes up the mountain - don't think he likes the idea of flying!
The 2nd session was erm....interesting. 2nd lap in, coming up to the Gooseneck , just about to drop it into the corner & Al sees a wheel cutting under him on his left (on the apex of the corner!). We didn't realise Simoncelli was on a Cadwell track day! He feels a nudge & then a bump which sends him into the middle of the track, but manages to keep it all together & carry on - albeit with some runny brown adrenalin The session though was red flagged as there was gravel on the track at the Gooseneck & there was a bike lying in the middle of the circuit. We're not too sure if this was because of the guy trying to come under Al & coming off or if he brought someone else off !! Anyway the session was restarted & Al carried on. When he came back into the pits after his sesion though we found that the rear cowl had been cracked & there was loads of scrapes all down the left side of Al's bike, obviously where this other guy had hit him! We found out after that this guy had had to be taken to hospital - walking wounded.
The rest of the day went pretty smoothly although I think Al has realised that he needs a few more track days to get used to the bike & the nutters out there before he starts racing! One thing we're gonna do though is revert the bike to a road set up - gears wise as he said he spent too much time thinking about what gear he wanted & where the hell it was!!
So, next step is another track day at a circuit that he's done before so that he can just concentrate on the bike...oh & a new set of tyres as the one's that are on are ermm.......practically buggered! Unless we can find a left handed circuit to balance the wear on them
Oh.. - the van that we collected on Saturday ran really well - except that when it gets warm it dosn't particularly like going into 6th gear (or any other gear for that matter!!) & lots of warning lights kept coming on on the dash...however this will be another tale for another day
..Disclaimer - this is my take on the days events & Al will probably be along soon to correct any mistakes/cockups I've made
cheer jp i.ll do that asap :-) yeah day was good, thought i was off the track when i was hit from behind though. Count my blessings now. Bring on the next trackday. Either mallory or donington me thinks :-)
lol Bill, well he knows Mallory - done a few track days there before & the gearing has been put back to road set up as opposed to race set up so he wont have to fret about that now (& there's no mountain to freak him out )
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