Track Day Report

0515hrs came around far too early yesterday morning, but sadly that was the time I had to get up as had to be at Castle Combe by 0800hrs.

I'd been woken several times during the night by the noise of the rain, and sure enough it was still raining when I got up.

By the time we got to the circuit it was not raining but still really wet. So whilst I went and signed on and had a riders briefing my pit crew had changed my wheels. Maybe I should've read Staffords comment the night before?

We started bike up and she seemed to run ok, apart from the tickover which I knew about. By the time I was ready to go the expansion bottle from the radiator had almost filled. Still we agreed best thing was to keep an eye on it. By the time I was qued up in the holding area, the water level had dropped and temperature was reading normal so off I went.

I kept her to below 10k revs and had Stuart counting how many laps I'd done. I'd been told by Bob Farnham that below 10k for 20 miles and she'll be run in.

It was great to be back on a track again and bike felt great. She sounded really sweet, according to those stood on the pit wall, apart from the time when I missed a gear and went slightly over the 10k limit. Typically I did this in front of the pit wall so everyone heard it, oh well.

Track days at Castle Combe are really enjoyable and well run. The circuit is quite bumpy in places, which is why the TT boys use it for testing, and as the track is nearly two miles long there is plenty of room for everyone just to do their thing.

I think I did about 5 sessions in the end and she ran great all day, with no obvious problems. By the end of the day I was taking her up to 12k as she had done the required 20 miles below 10.

We kept an eye on the water level and it didn't change all day so am guessing that it was an air lock which cleared itself.

I had a great day and would like to thank Stuart, John , Liz and Stafford 'oh my back' Evans for all their help.

Stuart took some cracking pictures and once he has selected the best ones will post them up.

I did feel really sorry for Stafford as I know he'd worked really hard to get his bike ready for yesterday, but whilst drilling a hole just before he was due to leave, he did his back in, so was reduced to sitting on the sidelines. Still it did give Liz a chance to go out and despite the fact she says she's slow she did beat me back to the paddock on a couple of occasions.

I've got a small list of jobs to be getting on with before Cookstown in two weeks, but fingers crossed nothing major.

Thanks once again to all those that helped.

Cheers
Stuart