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A few of us were lucky enough to get invited to the annual Vincent
Owner's Club trackday, to make up the numbers so they can afford to
do it, and that year's gathering was at the end of July.
We decided to find somewhere to crash the night near the circuit,
so we could get an early start, without having to get up at 5am.
We agreed to meet at 7 in the morning to have breakfast and discuss
tactics.
Monday morning showed up all wet and windy (well, in Sussex anyway),
so we had a fairly subdued breakfast, and headed out for the circuit,
5 or 6 miles away. I was on the VFR400, and headed off to the circuit.
Will Harfield (of 9R Distribution) who
organised the whole thing, busied himself with the paperwork while
the riders drew straws to see who was going to go out first...
luckily I managed to have not signed the disclaimer at this point, so
I wasn't involved. The guys who went out in
the first session (5 bikes, 5 laps) and pronounced it "not too bad".
Ha, nothing to worry about then...
First Session
I went out with a few guys on VFR750s and a couple of older bikes...
according to my trick little cycle computer I averaged 65mph from
pull away to stopping and hit 95mph... not bad I thought, seeing as
this was only
my second track day, and the last one was at Goodwood 2 years before.
Nick got his calendar out and pronounced my laptime at about 2m 02s.
I tucked in behind the 2 VFRs as we set off, and when the white one
infront overtook the red one, I followed him through. The problem
came when I tried to overtake the white VFR... he kept cutting me
off, so I didn't get past him. The other guys later came up
with many suggestions for getting past ("
stuff it up the inside, he'll have to let you through
"), but they seemed a bit extreme to me, so I just settled in behind
him, and was content to keep showing him my front wheel. I did
manage to do an entire lap in 3rd gear though, which impressed me
with the little Honda's tractability after it's
tuning.
I had a few slides, which
opened my eyes (and bowels...), but nothing big time.
Second Session
In the second session I went out with a BMW, a 600 Monster, a
Fireblade and a CBR600 (I think, my memory's not what it used to
be...). As nobody else saw the green light go on, I got a really
good start :o). Unfortunately, one by one everybody else came past
me... it's a bit disconcerting when you're trying to get drive out
of the chicane down the front straight and a BMW comes past you with
the rider sitting bolt upright as if he's on his way down the
autobahn. The guy on the Monster came past me on the long double
apex right hander off the front straight... he later said he'd had to
try really hard to get past me, but I think he was just trying to
make me feel better. The computer said 70mph and a maximum of
105mph, and Nick's sundial said 1m 57s. By this time the fast boys
were running 1m 40s, or thereabouts.
Third Session
Only 4 bikes lined up for the third session... me, the red VFR from
the first session and his friend on another red VFR, who he was going
to show around the track, and a classic bike. It was getting warmer
by now, so I got off to a good start, and took the lead. It was a
fairly dull trip out, as I had nobody to race until I lapped the
older bike (sorry mate... I guess you only got 4 laps that time).
The little computer gave me 72mph and 110mph, Nick's hourglass gave
me 1m 54s.
At this point I scouted around in our mob, and agreed with Russ that
we'd aim to do the next session together... he rides a CBR600, so it
would give me a bit of work to keep up, and he was tired of being
lapped by the faster boys (I'd deliberately not gone out with
them).
Fourth Session
By now the sun was out and the track was hot and dry, so we were
hoping for some good times... there was the Monster, a Bros (yay!),
Russ on his CBR and a guy on a TZR250 with a Rotax 650 engine.
This time we ended up in a group of 3, led by the TZR... the Monster
and the Bros got a much better start than us, and we all did better
than Russ (those switches to stop you pulling away with the sidestand
down can be a pain, can't they? (o:). I was in the middle and Russ was
behind me. The computer gave me 75mph and 114mph, and the eggtimer
showed 1m 51s... the fast boys were doing 1m 33s by now, but I didn't
let that get to me.
I really enjoyed this session, so it just shows that you need to go
out with people about as fast as you are... it'd be nice to have to
try and keep up a bit more as well, but this was my fastest set of the
day.
Last session
Russ and I went out again, this time with the guy on the Monster
leading our little group... I'll be honest, I let him past because I
didn't want to slow him up, and then we kept him in sight.... ah well,
hindsight's a marvellous thing. The VFR didn't have the CBR's drive
out of the corners (well, it's not surprising... they've both been
worked on at Dynotech, the CBR's about 92bhp, the VFR's about 62...)
but I could claw back some of the lead on the way in... Russ really
doesn't like the left hander on the far side of the track, so I could
usually manage to get right back up to him there. The numbers were
slightly lower this time... 74mph, 114mph and 1m 52s.
Well, it was a marvellous day... hats off to Will Harfield, and the VOC
for letting us in.
I didn't touch anything down, I didn't get my knee down, but I did get
faster during the day... nobody fell off, and I don't think anybody
went away unhappy.
If you can get on the track, do it... you'll get a chance to see what you
and your bike can do, meet new people and so on. The track separates the
men from the mice, and I'm a cheese eater.
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