I now have a track day under my belt and am pleased to report that I loved it!
As I Live in West Sussex, I decided I'd rather head off the night before and stay in a B&B than endure leaving home at 03:30, to make the signing on time of 0730
. I stayed in a lovely place called 'At Last', which is a good sized family house/B&B about 3-4 miles from the circuit, in a small and remote village. They were very bike friendly and the excellent en-suite room even had some classic bike magazines on the bedside table. The room refreshments were good too, with fresh milk in a flask (instead of the usual little UHT cartons), nice choccy biccies and even some fresh fruit. The full english breakfast was perfectly cooked using good local produce and I felt they had the right attitude. Bags of secure parking on their huge drive meant that I slept sound in the knowledge my bike and gear was perfectly safe. At £30 per person for a twin room, it was an absolute bargain.Anyway, this is supposed to be about the track day so I'd best crack on!
The morning didn't start too well as it goes - I took a bit long over my lovely breakfast and turned up late for signing on
. Then my license was deemed invalid as I hadn't updated it since its expiry in 2010! A quick phone check with the DVLA sorted that one out at the cost of a £5 donation to the helicopter fund (I viewed this as a possible investment for later in the day). Briefing was next and I stood out like a sore thumb in jeans and a t-shirt, while better prepared riders were already in their leathers. Then it was a frantic rush to unload the bike from the van and get my gear on. By the time I was ready, it was time to get to the assembly area for a late noise test and the first run out.....We followed an instructor for three laps to get the feel of the place which was useful as the track was cold and wet
. The pace was leisurely but quite soon, we were back in the compound for a quick pep talk, before they let us loose on our own.The first lap was fine for a while - actually, quite a short while.
Hall bends and the Hairpin were fine and taken quite gingerly, as everything was still stone cold and wet. Then it was the short squirt to the right-hander at 'Barn' and that's where everything went a bit belly up
. I wasn't going quickly at all and certainly wasn't leaning much. However, the combination of a cold and wet off-camber corner and even colder tyres had me locking the rear just by engine braking alone! The rear stepped out and started to go but a quick clutch job brought it back. "Okay" I thought - try that again. So, feed the clutch out slooooowwwly and just try to get round the corner. Nope, same again - an instant lock up and wild rear slide with absolutely no grip. By this time it was a bit of a lost cause and I was now running out of tarmac, so I just sat her upright and prepared for a bit of grass-tracking. As it had been absolutely hammering down through the night and the week leading up to the day, you can probably guess how succesful that plan was. Yep, as soon as I hit the grass my trusty TRX disappeared from under me like we'd ran across an ice rink. We both ended up in a heap about 20 feet from the rather surprised looking marshal. A quick reach for the kill-switch shut off the engine and I got up totally unhurt. We got the bike up and pushed it to the barrier, where a quick inspection proved that the only thing which suffered any damage was my pride. Oh, and we were now both quite muddy 
. The marshal in question told me that although he didn't want me to crash, he was happy when I went down as I was just about to bury myself in the tyre wall 
. It's funny but even right up to the end, I still reckoned I could save it. Optimistic in the extreme.Clearly, that was the end of my very short first session but I was astonished at how easily I locked it up. Even allowing for the conditions and the camber, it still seemed far from fair. Anyhow, the recovery truck followed the last rider and the medical team gave me a quick check over. All was well but I had to sign on again, showing my slip from the Doc. Shortly afterwards, I had a quick chat with one of the instructors and apart from the obvious 'big twin engine braking with cold tyres and wet track' explanation, he couldn't really offer anything as a cause.
As I was somewhat disturbed by what had just happened, I thought it might be a good idea to get the tyres looked at by the tyre bloke in the paddock. After all, it just seemed so wildly out of character and they'd always been fine on the roads. He gave them a look over and then gave me quite a surprise.......!
The front (a Dunlop D208) was apparently manufactured in 2002 and the rear (a D207GP), in 2004
. These were already fitted when I bought the bike in either '08 or '09, but I assumed they were quite new at the time, since they were hardly worn. By last week of course, they were on their last legs. I had thought about replacing them before going to the track but they looked like they had one good blast left in them. The tyre chap duly offered me a pair of Metzeler Racetecs for £300 fitted (which I declined) and it seemed that was all that could be done. Then one last brainwave hit me - during all the rush earlier, I had completely forgotten to check my tyre pressures. The tyre chap obliged and nearly fell over when he saw the gauge. Despite the tyres being totally cold, the front was at 38psi and the rear, an outrageous 40psi 
. With a shake of the head, he set the front to 28psi and the rear to 25psi.The more I think about it, the more I feel I've dodged a bloody great big bullet. I must have had contact patches the size of 50p pieces with those pressures and should I have ever managed to warm them up, heaven knows what the pressures would have been. As the whole track was either wet or drying with damp patches, I could have ended up having a rather nasty high-speed off and as this was Cadwell, possibly in a place with limited run-off.
The next session came round soon enough and by now, the shaded parts of the track were developing a dry(ish) line while the open sections were getting quite good. I made steady progress and tried to learn where the track went. By the end of the session, I was putting the earlier spill behind me and gaining confidence in the grip levels I now had. On my return to the paddock, I felt the tyres to see how they were getting on but they still only felt lukewarm.
By the final session of the morning, the track had dried almost completely and the sun was shining brightly. Still not 100% confident with the tyres, I took 2 or 3 laps to gradually increase the pace before I started to push. By now, I was also pretty happy with where the track went and I started to follow some of the quicker lads and work harder on my lines. All went superbly and aside from a couple of slight twitches from the rear as I powered through the corners, grip seemed to be excellent. Once finished, I got straight off to check temps and they felt a lot warmer. Both front and rear were now showing some very satisfying bobbles right across the treads with a lovely blue tinge towards the edges
.Sadly, that was my last time on track because just after the lunch break, it absolutely bucketed down
. As I'd already had an 'off' and susequently had a hard time warming the tyres in the damp, I opted to sit it out in the hope of a dry track to come. I wasn't alone as after much coaxing from the tannoy, only four bikes went out to brave the conditions from a group of about 30. Many simply packed up and went home! I hung around until the end of the day but the weather didn't improve much and I didn't want to just tiptoe around and get soaked, prior to a four hour drive in an old Transit van.I've learned a few valuable lessons through all this and the main one is preparation. Another one is that you shouldn't trust digital tyre pressure gauges from Halfords - despite it being one of their more expensive offerings. Even allowing for road pressures it must be reading over 10% too low.
My view on the TRX is that it is a very fine, stable handler in standard form and I look forward to making real improvements in the future. Much more modern sports machinery was easily caught in the twisty bits without too much effort but of course, they were off again on the straights. Very satisfying though!
My view on the track is that it is a proper riders' circuit. It flows beautifully and the undulations keep it very interesting (and challenging). The Mountain is a blast and when you get it right, very exhilarating indeed. I think however, my favourite bit is the run in to Coppice and through to Charlie's. Once you've realised how fast you can get through there, it feels really special. I'm less convinced about the section between Park and Mansfield but then I didn't really get the chance to work them out properly.
Would I do it all again? Abso-bloody-lutely!!!
Cheers,
Andy.....
