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22nd April 2003 - Brands Hatch
After some of the problems with ground clearance at Oulton Park
I decide I needed to work on my body position for right hand corners.
I've always had a problem but as my injury list grows (they are
all down my right hand side) I felt some reminders were in order.
The day started badly when we were told that we couldn't go out
whenever we wanted. Normally level 4 students can practice in all
sessions as long as they don't cause problems for anyone else. At
least the sun was out and the track dry.
I spent most of the day working on the things I knew I needed to
concentrate on. I didn't really see much of my instructor which
was a bit disappointing but the discipline of riding using one gear
and not touching the brakes was good and I found I got things flowing
quite well. My previous visits to Brands with the CSS resulted in
a comfortable pace of 1:01s laps and I was soon doing this again.
They have changed the format of day to gradually allow more gears
and then light braking. I feel this is a bad move as the larger
bikes end up going full blast down the straights and standing on
the brakes in the corners so little bikes like mine get held up
as we are supposed to give them lots of room in the corners, i.e.
not do the sort of speeds and exercises I really need to do!
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Ready for your close up?
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Are they supposed to go over this far?
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My counter steering has always been poor and I did work on this.
The problem with racing is that it is very easy to fall back in
to the old routines when it gets busy and I really need to get my
counter steering going as naturally as possible. Needless to say
that it started okay but degenerated once the bigger bikes decided
that braking hard in to the corners was a good idea as I usually
ended up taking avoiding action or having to brake at inopportune
moments.
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Druids. Again!
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And another one...
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It was good practice and I was fairly comfortable lapping quicker
than I did when I last raced here yet still having lots in reserve
on the brakes and, in several cases, where I felt I could still
improve my corner speed. I enjoyed most of the day but don't think
I really got as much out of it as I have done in the past. I suppose
it was a combination of the instructor I had and also not sticking
to the one gear and no brakes drill throughout the day.
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