Well, there I was having a couple of beers before Christmas when I spotted a trackday at Brands in

the MCN. At £55 for the day, it seemed too good to miss and I booked it up that same night. It

seemed like a good idea at the time, but the date of the trackday was January 19th. When 2008 eventually

arrived, I began to wonder about the wisdom of my ways as it was a bit nippy to say the least in

early January (perhaps I’d had three beers!).

I’d been on a trackday at Brands last year and was looking forward to the event; just hoping that the

weather would be OK on the day. January 19th was forecast to be fine, if not exactly tropical.

I set off from home at 6.30 on the GSXR 750 for registration at Brands at 7.30. The day eventually

dawned dry and bright so things were looking up. For trackdays you ride straight in through the main

gate, past the back of the grandstands, through the tunnel under Paddock Hill bend and into the pit

garages. It’s awesome to think of the famous names that have ridden through that tunnel, all of them

able to do very much faster lap times than I was likely to manage!

The day was set up for three groups; novice, intermediate and advanced. Call me chicken if you like,

but mine aren’t that big and I opted for the novice group.

Registration consists of signing on and presenting your license. You’re fitted out with a locking identification

wrist strap which is tastefully done in your group colour. After registration you have to attend a

safety briefing, where they explain the meaning of the various flags and the marshal positions. If you

don’t obey any of the warning flags then you’re likely to be thrown out. You can then have a white wrist

strap to show that you have attended the briefing. If you don’t attend the briefing, you can’t ride.

You need to have an ACU approved helmet, motorcycle boots and gloves, and either one piece or two

piece zip together leathers. There is usually a noise limit for trackdays, so next it’s up to the end of

the pits to have it checked. You get a sticker for the bike this time.

They recommend that you don’t use the bike manufacturer’s tyre pressure settings. For the road, Suzuki

recommend 36psi for the front and 42psi for the rear on the BT014’s. On the track, the instructors

reckon on 30psi front and back; it helps to get more heat into the tyres.

The instructors give you some guidance as to how to ride on the track. Most important are your mirrors.

Either fold them in or tape them up; you don’t ever use them on the track. You never look behind

you either. The reasoning for this is that if you see another rider coming up to take you on the right,

you naturally tend to move to the left. Straight into the path of another rider coming up on your left

hand side. Sounds very hairy and unnatural, but you do get used to it quite quickly. (Just have to remember

to revert back when you get on the road! ) You just look after yourself and it’s up to following

riders to avoid the bike in front. How trusting is that !

Between sessions they run a teach in and instruct you about things like body position on the bike, and

how you can develop more feel for what the bike is doing if you get your body position correct. They

use clutchless gearchanges going up through the box, with just a fast roll off of the throttle between

changes. Once you master this technique, you can get a very fast and smooth gearchange.

A show of hands went up when the instructors asked if anyone had been using the rear brake. Slap on

the wrist for those who had. On the track you are always braking heavily which puts all the weight on

the front and very little on the rear. Any slight pressure on the rear brake pedal is likely to lock the

rear and de-stabilise the bike.

They run a system where the novices go out for 20 minutes, then the intermediates and then the advanced.

You therefore get a twenty minute ride once an hour, which gives you six sessions in the day, if

you can manage that many.

The range of bikes is amazing. In the novice group there was a guy on a scooter; not a Burgman but a

bloody Vespa! (No, there aren’t any pictures of him overtaking me) In the advanced group there were

a couple of guys with £60,000 British Superbikes who were tyre testing. It’s great to watch because

you can go anywhere, even on the pit wall and watch them at the end of the straight doing about 140.

For your first session, each group follows the instructor round for three laps. These are sighting laps

and are used to see what line to take through corners and to get some heat into your tyres. Then it’s

back into the pit lane before being let out on your own. After that, it’s a twenty minute session every

hour.

It’s great to imagine that you are James Toseland winning back to back races at the WSB event in

August 2007. Dream on boy!

The photos show me easing it round Druids on a damp track, the bike in the pit garage and the rear

tyre after a couple of sessions. I had a great day out and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m going back later

this year to get rid of that last bit of chicken strip.

Ken Cullern