8th April 2004 - Brands Hatch

After Baines Racing rebuilt my bike I decided I really ought to test it and try to get a bit more comfortable that I had been at Brands Hatch. A track day with Focused Events was just the thing, particularly as it is just down the road from me. As well as getting the bike sorted I had called in at Harris Performance to get a replacement gear linkage rod. I was hoping that I could lower the gear change pedal by fitting a longer linkage. The only problem was that I couldn't remember how long the old one was and had consigned it to the bin after bending it almost in two at Brands.

The weather was dry and I had nothing to do but fit the bodywork (again) after getting everything else back together. I had also acquired a belly pan for an SV650 rather than a TL1000 which should fit the bike a bit better. The Raptor 1000 item I had been using looked very strange as it was far too long and rather ungainly. Obviously this meant that I missed the first session but after a bit of swearing I got everything sorted and headed out on track. I was very tentative, particularly around Surtees, but managed to string together between six and eight laps before my knee forced me to stop for a rest. I figured that the more I rode the more my knee would gradually stretch and get used to the position. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time :-)

I wasn't bothered about lap times and focused on my body position whilst having fun chasing the bigger bikes around the track. Obviously as soon as we hit a straight bit the litre bikes would disappear but I was surprised by how easily I could stay with them in the corners. In fact I was lamenting my ability to get on the gas out of the corners but decided that would come when racing and that I should worry about my general confidence whilst having other bikes in close proximity. Track day riders can be a little unpredictable so I took things fairly gently and tried to pick up my old reference points without scaring myself too much. That didn't work as anything close to the sort of pace I had managed last year had me braking like a idiot and finding I was now going far too slowly for the corners!

My early afternoon I had only managed three sessions of half a dozen laps each but both my knee and my hand were aching enough to make me feel like I had been working hard. I decided that I had been trying too hard and attempted to revert to the old California SuperBike School drill of third gear and no brakes. Surprisingly this worked well, despite a few of the litre bikes giving me a scare by screaming by down the straight and braking hard before I'd even considered rolling off the throttle - And that was without me planning on braking hard. Nutters! I gradually got more confident and felt that my times improved. More importantly I wasn't sitting on a neutral throttle in places where I was nervous so that was a good improvement.

I called it a day with a session or two still left to go as I didn't want to push my luck. My leg was hurting a lot causing me to limp and my hand was very sore although the bruising was almost gone. A successful day in getting my head back in to riding. Cadwell was barely a week away and I'd have the practice day to get things sorted. Not keen on going back there after breaking my leg on my last visit but it would be good to get it out of the way. Roll on the next race!