Brands TRACKDAY LOWDOWN - Feb 2001 (Running in the Brand New bikes)

 After a sleepless night through excitement thinking about the trackday ahead, we arrived at Brands at about 7:30am. It was very cold and the track was wet from all the rain the day before, but it wasn't raining at the time.  Andrew (Team Mires boss) turned up at 8:15 he opened up the back of the trailer to reveal the two spanking new R6s complete with Harris rearsets & race fairings <my willy got hard>. 

To get more running in time, Andrew had booked double sessions, so we were in both the beginner and intermediate classes.  The torturous running in lay ahead.  The first outing was only short and there was supposed to be no overtaking, and max 30MPH. In actuality the pace was about 50mph, so there was no problem keeping with the flow using the first 6k. 

 After all classes had been out for the first time there were no restrictions apart from no overtaking on the FIRST lap.  I expected people to clear off after the first lap, but funnily enough even keeping the R6s below 6000rpm not only were we keeping with the flow we were making the occasional overtake!

 The next few sessions went without hiccup and our bikes were being 'stepped up' by 1000 rpm on every outing as planned.  The track drying out all the time.  This actually worked quite well as we were allowing the bikes to rev harder and harder it was getting dryer and dryer.

All was well, then the inevitable happened!! … I come off, <contain your fits of laughter please> what was most annoying was that it was really stupid.  The chequered flag had gone out and I was costing round the track on my way back to the pits.  I had just ‘taken’ Andrew about a lap before the flag so I looked round to see how far behind he was.  I couldn't see him at first but after a bit he popped round the hairpin, when I looked ahead again, I was right Graham Hill bend, I only had one hand on the bars (as I had been looking back) and realised that I would not be able to lay it over and make the corner in time, so I kept the bike upright and decided to go straight on.  I was probably only doing 30 when I hit the grass and just tried to ride it out as I knew hitting the brakes or turning would mean end of game. It was very boggy and I managed to hold it until a series of small bumps, this upset the bike and the front went at about 10mph.  So I bit mud!!!!!!  It didn't hurt at all and I picked the virtually undamaged muddy bike up straight away.  It wouldn't restart straight away however.  The marshal ran over to check I was OK.  I was more embarrassed at my stupidity than I was hurt!!!!  Andrew had the best seat in the house and I should imagine p1ssed himself (well maybe not as he owns the bike!!!).   I was a bit concerned about the bike so when I got back to the pits I inspected the bike properly and apart from a slightly bend brake leaver and exhaust bracket and a lot of mud there was no damage.  So I allowed myself to laugh.

 After lunch, we dropped our novice session and swapped it for a place in the advanced.  By now we were riding the bikes much faster, changing at about 13000.  We had been holding our own all day, but had noticed things pick up a bit as the racing line dried.  We were zapping people even in the advanced class if we rode hard and could keep the pace riding at about 70-80%. 

 I was most of the way through my 3rd advanced session of the day and was napping a bit, then suddenly I got mugged by three race bikes; a ZX9R, GSXR750 and a SP1 all in one corner.  This woke me up a bit so I upped the pace again, and to be quite honest, they had got such a lead I couldn't keep up.  There was only one lap left and they made a good 50 extra yards on me in that time .... B******s ....

 On the next advanced session the same happened again, after about 10-15 mins I was napping again, over the course of a lap or two the same three as in the last session got past me one by one. I though 'I can't have this' and picked up the pace, I followed the last one (GSXR750) for about 4 laps just not getting enough run on him to overtake, there were a couple of places where there was room to take him by taking another line, (but as they were off the normal racing line were still wet).  I definitely thought I was faster as I had to back off a little not to run into him on some of the corners.  Meanwhile the other two inched away. All was going well chasing the GSXR and I though I found a whole in his defence at Graham Hill so I was planning my attack for the next lap. Suddenly whilst cranked over round Clearways the back just stepped out ...... then gripped again spitting me out of the seat at about er … a ton I suppose, my knee bashed into the fairing and my left arm flung off the bars. I thought 'oh dear this is it', but somehow I managed to stay on the buckarooing bike and regained enough control to lay it back over to make the rest of the corner with it still weaving (probably still doing ~70).  The guys who were following must have seen the whole thing, they gave me a wave to say 'well done m8' as they consequently passed.  Needless to say I had packed myself hence slowed down, the next right was at Paddock hill bend and even though I was back down to about 60% the rear started to snake around a bit.  And yet there was no problem on the left at Graham Hill. I was essentially doing 40 min sessions as advanced was straight after intermediate I realised that I may have cooked my tyres!!!!.   I decided to take it easy on the rights for a couple of laps.  After my heart rate had slowed to below 300bpm I started to pick up the pace slowly again and all seemed well with the tyres, but I never got back on full pace before the chequered flag came out. 

 The rest of the day went without any major incident with only normal friendly sliding/weaving.  By the end of the day the bikes were considered ‘run in’ (only 130 miles on the clock (ouch!!!!))  We dumped the oil and changed the filter on both bikes for next time.

 One word of advice never buy Harris bodywork, it is poo.  Both the seat-humps gave up purely under the riders weight (no comments please). In Harris defence the humps were supposed to be sold with a bracket, not that they told us until after the event!