The joy of having a trackday less than 40 miles from home (allowing a thoroughly unusual post-dawn wake-up time), was reduced somewhat by being roused at 5am by heavy rain beating against our window. Still, at least we didn't have that awkward shall-we-or-shan't-we thing about taking the waterproofs. As it turned out, the rain had stopped by the time we got to the circuit. The weather meant loads of people turned up late, which caused an uncharacteristic delay in the KRC timetable.
Since this (Silverstone's 50th birthday) is AIUI the first time bikes have been to the track for years, we were in the unusual position where virtually no-one had been on the circuit before. Looking at the course diagram on the board before the briefing, I realised that the bloke standing next to me was Chris Walker, also trying to spot where the bends went. Roger Burnett's bench-race around the circuit drew on the knowledge of the only participant who'd been there before - BTCC driver Tim Harvey!
Silverstone has fantastic facilities. Although we didn't need either of the two heliports, it was good to have a café which served something approximating real food. Silverstone is thick with motorsport atmosphere too, with the F1 tyre skidmarks leading away from the pit garages - and the fact that the trackday HQ garage had a Red Bull logo and "J. Alesi" stencilled on the floor.
The event achieved quorum for an Ixion event, with the presence of Amanda & I, Kee Wei (on his brown Fireblade), Richard Bailey, Dave Green, Martin Bennett & Ian Burbridge.
I think all trackdays should start wet! Because you can't go so fast, you really focus on smoothness & lines, and then when it dries out you're in a much better state to add the speed. At Silverstone the road was drying out nicely by lunchtime, although the painted white lines of the F1 grid were still slippery as they extended back around Woodcote. This was, er, interesting because the rest of the track was dry and we touched the lines leaned over at more than 100mph ...
After watching F1 there, I worried that the circuit might be ultra-fast, ultra-wide and ultra-dull, but in fact in many respects it's the best track I've ridden. It's as wide as Donington and superbly surfaced, although as an airfield circuit it's very flat. The International circuit doesn't have much in the way of straight, but what it does have an abundance of long, smooth, medium-speed bends. It's fantastic, particularly for those who enjoy eroding parts of their own and their bike's exoskeleta. We took both bikes today, and the lardy ZXR demonstrated for the first time its lack of modern-class ground clearance.
Winding it up to maximum, he'd returned it to me saying "there - that's better". On the road I hadn't really noticed a difference, but on the track it really unsettled the front. I hadn't twigged at Cadwell, but when I reduced the rear damping in a morning session, the feel of the bike improved hugely and my confidence in it returned.
In those situations you have to be really careful to concentrate on what you're doing and not watch the crasher, or the famous "You Go Where You Look" principle takes effect!
By the end of the morning we had a vague feel for the way the track went, and with the drying conditions the lap times were tumbling (from the 2:00s to the 1:40s, with Amanda about 2:20, Kee Wei at 1:50, Richard & I around 1:45 and Dave Green at 1:40. Chris Walker was doing about 1:26! ... by the last, session Dave finally cracked 1:40 with a couple of 1:39.5s and Richard & I did 1:41/1:42s; Amanda got down to 2:13).
In the first session after lunch I sampled my first gravel trap, at Abbey. It was similar in consistency to the gravel of Redgate@Donington, but more loosely packed so instead of sinking to the axle I sank to the silencer.
I was braking for the corner and went down a little dip - on the far side of the dip the front wheel locked and I chose to go straight on. No 'arm done ... except where a pebble had been carried along the top run of the chain and punched out through the sprocket cover, Alien-style.
In the next fast session I spotted Richard picking his bike up from another gravel trap - apparently one of the works Suzuki British Superbike riders had clipped his bike during an overtake and had sent him off the track. Given Richard's excellent lines, it's seems negligent of a professional racer to hit him, and especially poor because they're guests at our trackday. Richard took his bike round to the Suzuki garage for them to de-gravel and sort out for his next session ... I must say I would've been a lot less understanding!
Amanda got followed around by another instructor who told her (as many have before!) that she was doing everything right and the only thing now was to do it all faster. Amanda was doing the hanging off thing around the long bends and is sure with another day there she'd've cracked the knee-down business.
I was getting really lost in the long, long turns - often finding myself wallowing around mid-track when I should've been clipping apexes. Dave & Richard's lines were embarrassing me, especially a couple of times when I overtook Richard and gave him a front-row seat of how poo I really am.
The afternoon sessions in the fast group had quite a few celebrity guests, with not only the Kawasaki & Suzuki BSB teams, but Dan Harris's R1 Powerbike and a couple of others. They passed with huge speed differences, but I always felt safe with them around. Roger Burnett was determined that they would only go out with the fast group, and the last middle group session was red-flagged because Jim Moodie had sneaked out with them ... Roger made an "Attention pits, attention paddock" announcement over the tannoy so no-one was in any doubt who the offender was.
In my last session I rode the ZX-6R. Finally with the 600's extra flickability, turnability and ground clearance I was able to do as Dave advised and "just chuck it in" to the orgasm-inducing left-handers of the Brooklands complex much better than with the ZXR. Soon enough I over-did it and found myself running out of road with altogether too much metal and plastic scraping. Hello another gravel trap! the aggregate at Brooklands seems to be of the igneous variety, like pummice (or Kellog's Bran Buds) ... a bit easier to pull the bike out of than the heavy stuff.
I'm getting good at gravel traps. I'd prefer if they were just concreted so I could abort a bend and just brake to a halt, but on balance they're a Good Thing™. There's definitely a bit or risk compensation kicking in for me there, now I know the gravel traps represent a safe bail-out!
I'd like to sort my ground-clearance problems though. I'm not hanging off as far as I possibly could, so perhaps that extra buttock would make the difference, although I'd probably just go faster. I don't think the line would help much, because the corners are so long that you're sure to hit full lean. Perhaps stiffening the springs, or increasing the compression damping would help ...
Anyway, I unreservedly recommend Silverstone for a trackday. It's gone straight to the top of my list of great tracks! The KRC charged virtually the same as they do for Donington (i.e., about £125) and it's a bargain. KRC plan two Silverstone days for '99, and I'm determined to do both of them.
(In the end I didn't do either of them, because in August I found an even better track :-)