[Hoops]

Yesterday was truly epic in many respects. I went up on Thursday evening and stayed with some very good friends of mine in Lincoln. I awoke at 6am to heavy snow!! I could not believe my eyes and seriously debated not bothering to trek to Cadwell at all. But i got myself together, cleared the snow off the van, re-tightened the straps on the bike and headed off. Got to Cadwell around 7.15am and there were already some of the hardcore nutters camping in tents on the grass!! As well as a general bike track day it was also an ACU test day with data-logging so i knew these guys were the same nut jobs freezing their wotsits off in the tents. I parked the van up very close to the sound testing area, released all the tie down straps on the bike and then headed off to see what was what. Luckily it wasnt snowing at Cadwell but the wind was Siberian and it was SO cold even my RAB coat was giving me no reprieve. I signed on and as soon as i gave my name the lady told me that as i was in the Race Academy i would have breakfast paid for, my own one-to-one instructor for the whole day and our own heated portacabin - nice! I was then told i could bring my van and bike right down to the pit exit where the instructors park and set up there. So i went back to the van and totally forgot i had untied all the straps on the bike!! Luckily i was driving slowly but i suddenly heard this loud creak and the van lurched to one side, when i parked up and opened the back doors the bike was leaning right over to one side but luckily the front tyre was still wedged in the chock!! Not a great start! Anyway, got out on track for the first time and immediately bike felt heavy and cumbersome and i knew the tyres were not helping - i knew it would be too cold to use slicks so a friend of mine who uses his bike to commute on lent me some K3's but the rear tyre had been flattened in the middle and i knew it would make turning in difficult and it did!!! I rode pretty shite in the first session out with all the club racers in the fast group and a few of them were sitting me up into the hairpin. So i did the next session in the inters and started getting into my rhythm - the bloody rear tyre was still giving me grief so i decided to put the bike into "slick" mode and started spinning the rear up coming out of Barn onto the start/finish straight - it worked to a certain extent but then i noticed it was tipping in better on one side than the other and realised i was creating a peak on one side of the tyre more than the other - so i just gave up and got on with what i had at hand. It was so bloody cold that you could only manage around 3 laps before you lost feeling in your hands and fingers and i was so bad at some points that i wasnt even bothering to brake because i could hardly move my frozen fingers!! Thats when i knew it was time to pit and defrost the body in the cozy portacabin!!
My instructor was a fantastic chap called Ian and i have to say he was a star all day - he even helped me unload and load the bike/van up and gave me some great advice and pointers. It was then time for the written exam which i passed with 100% (not that it was in the least bit challenging provided you had paid attention to the video they played beforehand) - and then it was time for the on track assessment - which again i passed with flying colours. So i can now go racing - god help us!!!
Have to say the whole set up and professionalism of MSV Track Days is far and above the best ive ever experienced amongst all the track day providers - with No Limits a close second in terms of friendliness. What i noticed about the instructors at MSVT was that it was obvious they were there solely for you and not for themselves to get track time on their bikes. Admittedly, by mid afternoon, Ian and i were having a lot of fun on track and playing around and pushing it a bit too much at times - but we still did it with respect for the other riders on track and Ian was constantly giving me feedback. So i will definitely be doing as many of the UK track days this year through MSVT as i can and i have to hand it to Mr Palmer for what hes done with all his tracks - although i still think Cadwell desperately needs proper pits and garages and i fear that BSB may well eventually tire of going there if they dont sort this out soon.
As for the Beemer it was truly epic and genuinely looked after me on at least 2 occasions - once going around Coppice into Charlies and once going around Chris's Curve - on both occasions i gave it a little too much throttle on cold tyres and the back end completely went from under me - but both times it went very gradually and before i could even think about shutting off the traction control kicked in and sat me straight up - scared the living daylights out of me all the same but definitely could have been big incidents on lesser machines. I now cant wait to get some proper rubber fitted back on the bike and get back out on track. Ive already booked to do Jerez, Almeria and Arragon later in the year but need to see the weather warming up before i jump back onto a UK circuit in a hurry!!