This was a fantastic trip! Lots of on track highlights and plenty off track as well - Superdan’s dance ambush of the steak restaurant we ate in on a couple of the nights had to be seen to be believed, although tragically Fuel’s phone didn’t record it, so we will have to wait until his Latin passions are once more aroused .
I started off in Novice which I was fine with, it was probably about right for Day 1 as I went about learning the track. We all had Crafar’s advice from his Almeria guide ringing in our ears (“Gas it! Pin it! Nail it!” became a bit of a catchphrase in the SD garage) and I got caught out trying to follow it into one of the long right-handers and ended up ploughing into the gravel at 70mph+. Fortunately, the bike stayed upright and I stopped just before the tyre wall – lesson learned, don’t push too hard there!
Day 1 afternoon got rained off, so the fun started again on Day 2. I was using RaceChrono and a QStarz GPS to log laptimes. As has been said before, the phone-type laptimers aren’t as accurate as proper kit, but if you’re just looking for something to help you analyse your own performance and work out how you could go faster, they’re invaluable. I got both knees down for the first time on Day 2 and also started grinding footpegs so progress was being made.
Day 3 brought the start of some problems. My rear D211 had gone off quite alot, despite being the endurance compound variant. There were two visibly concave bands either side of the crown of the tyre where the power was going down. Cerec and Woody opined that the tyre was done, but as a committed Scrooge, I soldiered on . Lots of fun battling with Fuel and Cerec. I had a slight edge in the infield section of the track, they were faster in the corner on to the main straight and again in the braking zone on to the pit straight, so we swapped places frequently. Unfortunately, by this time BLB’s bike had blown up, but he was out again on a Kwak 636 and enjoying revving the shit out of it!
By this time, I was running out of ideas on how to get faster, but Jody and Ducati Pete kindly agreed to act as data mules and let me steal some secrets. Jody was on another 636 by this point, his SD having been ruled out early on, Pete was on his 05/06 SD. Looking at their data showed both of them were slightly faster in the 3 infield sectors, gapping my best times by about a second, but then they both made 4 or 5 seconds on the outfield sectors which included the two straights. The conclusion: get on the gas earlier and come off the straight faster.
Day 4, and my goal was to get down to a 2:00 laptime or below. FE obviously weren’t paying much attention to the Chrono times which would have showed them that me, Cerec, Fuel and Dave were all lapping the rest of the Novice group every session by then. We solved the issue by making sure we lined up first at the start of each session which would give us 3 or 4 clear laps before the traffic appeared. I had some issues with an intermittent oil pressure warning which cut a few sessions short, and in the end I didn’t quite make it, ending up with a best lap of 2:01.9. One for next year maybe.
One good thing about going out in Novice was that it gave us all a chance to experience what it must be like to be Stalker, giggling to yourself as you stick it on its ear and ride around the outside of 3 or 4 bikes in one corner. Particularly satisfying targets in our group included an S1000RR, a Panigale and an immaculate Speed Triple all of which were humbled multiple times per session – a video may be in the works
In closing, thanks to everyone for making it such an awesome trip off track as well as on. It was a brilliant way to end the season, can’t wait to get started again next year!
