So what was I doing getting up at 7.00am on a Thursday morning? Well I was off to Mallory Park race circuit for the MAG Sports track day. Dragging the ZX9R out of the garage and sinking coffee number two, I heard the dulcet tones of an approaching Ducati 900SS and a few moments later an indecently bright and chirpy Tim Bissell - argh! I hate early morning people!
A quick trip to the local hole-in-the-wall machine and a fill of petrol (my normal state of disorganisation coming though here) and off we head to Hinckley. We'd been told to arrive at 8.30 but actually made it at about ten to nine and weren't the last to arrive (seems like other folk have troubles getting out of bed too).
Riding backwards round the track from the circuit entrance at the hairpin and into the paddock we joined the rest of the happy throng milling round the circuit office.
A quick sign in, a brief scrutineering of the bike and we were set to go. For some reason when I'd been asked if I wanted to go in the 'slow' or 'fast' group, Tim had quickly chipped in 'fast group' so there I was with a red sticker on the fairing (the 'slow' ones were yellow!) and looking round at a gaggle of Fireblades and other racey looking tackle.
At 9.30 the two ambulances (gulp!) and the track marshals in position, we were waved out onto the track for the first session. Mallory is an interesting circuit, fairly short (which means you can learn it quickly) but with a good selection of corners (which provide a varied challenge).
The first corner after the main straight is Gerards and must be the
longest bend on any race circuit. You peel in and just keep going and
going and going; it feels like you've just done three laps of a large
roundabout. First time around I thought Ugh! but by the end of the day
I overcame the feeling that the bike just had to fall on its side after
being leant over for so long and grew to really like it.
Exiting Gerards (at just over the ton for the faster riders) a short straight leads into the hard right left combination of the esses and then some heavy braking over the bumpy approach to the hairpin; which produced quite a lot of unintentional rolling stoppies during the day. A few meters after the hairpin is a nasty little feature called the 'Bus Stop'. An 'orrible little chicane with a solid wall of red and white bales that will put the willies up anyone the first time they meet it.
We'd been warned to watch out for the 'Bus Stop' exit as this was a classic location for high-sides as people got on the power too hard. Even with this warning and people taking things fairly carefully, most of the powerful bikes were laying huge darkies with the relatively cold left hand side of their tyres.
From the Bus Stop you drop down to Devils Elbow getting on the gas and feeling the rear tyre squirm as you power back onto the main straight and into Gerards again - one lap done.
As I got a few more laps under my belt, confidence grew and I thought I
was going pretty fast..... until some of the MAG Sports racers came
past on the outside of Gerards doing at least twenty mph more than me.
Right! I thought, not having this; they're only on tiddley 250's and
set off in hot pursuit. The ZX9 is a powerful beast and on a straight
can demolish almost anything but come the corners and the tiddley 250's
(not to mention the racer types on board) just disappear into the
distance. Ho Hum.... back to baiting the Fireblades which should have
been better than the ZX9R but are similar enough in performance that the
rider can make all the difference.
All too soon the chequered flag came out and we all peeled back into the paddock. A quick squint at the shreds of rubber hanging off the tyres showed that we'd all been going quite hard and comparing the state of our 'hero-blobs' became a consuming interest. After what seemed like mere moments the 'slow' group came back in and we all filed out for another session.
I was surprised by the range of machines present, of course there were more Fireplaces than you could shake a stick at but there was also an interesting selection of other bikes ranging from an old 1100 Katana, through a very nice looking CB1100R, a GPz550, a ratty looking FJ1200, a couple of Ducati 900's (no 916's surprisingly) and a gorgeous Aprilia RS250 that turned out to be the fastest street bike round the circuit by a long chalk - just goes to show that power isn't everything.
The riders varied just as much as the bikes with a couple of racers sneakily riding road bikes just to fool us, a selection of 'normal' road riders from the calm-and-sedate to the fast-and-loose (screw loose some would say!) and a young lad accompanied by his dad getting some experience on a 125 that he couldn't ride on the road till his seventeenth birthday the next week (I hope he doesn't think he can ride it that hard on the road though!).
As previously mentioned, the Team MAG Sports racers were out in force. Roger Ford had brought along his KR1S and his 'new' RGV250. Ian Brookman and Paul Parker were on their TZR250's and Andy Arnold on his ZXR400 (without the fairing which was apparently spread all over the grass at Olivers Mount).
Lunchtime saw huge quantities of chips and things consumed in the very pleasant Paddock Cafe while Glyn Williams (riding in MAG Sports colours) amused us all with tales of unintentional out-braking manoeuvres caused by the (obligatory for his chosen racing class) standard Kawasaki GPz750 callipers and disks.
A few quid was spent on topping up the fuel (boy does this high speed track work drink the juice) and we were back out for the afternoon sessions.
By this time, people were moving around from 'slow' to 'fast' groups and any distinction between the groups was rapidly forgotten. The standard of 'track craft' was high and the slower riders made room for the faster ones without any need for do-or-die manoeuvres. Very civilised.
Things just got better and better as the afternoon progressed and we started to explore the outer limits of our machines performance without the threats of Volvo's, Radar guns or 'street furniture' spoiling things. Tyres started looking even more abused and hero blobs rapidly got ground off.
Between sessions, everyone wondered around chatting to the other riders, comparing bikes and sinking copious quantities of Coke while the blazing sun continued to inflict sunburn on exposed areas of pale British flesh unused to such glorious weather.
All too quickly the last session came around and I found myself riding behind Warren Pickles of MAG Sport on his ZXR750 (have you seen the colour of his leathers? uck!)
The power of the ZX9R contrasted with the superior handling of the ZXR750 to make a very equally matched pair and we both had fun hacking round the track in pretty close company. I managed to sneak past at the end of the back straight using my superior acceleration out of Gerards but Warren pulled most of it back on the esses and the hairpin as the lighter ZXR750 outbraked and out-turned the heavier ZX9R. I managed to stay in front (I didn't want to ride behind looking at 'those' leathers!) but only just!
The good news was that nobody fell off or got hurt (apart from some sunburn) and the Paramedics got paid for topping up their tans. We all had as much track time as one could reasonably want in one day (I managed nearly 200 miles on the track and burnt fifteen quids worth of fuel in the process).
We've all got seriously scuffed tyres and ground 'hero-blobs' to show off and hopefully learnt a thing or two about our bikes performance out at the limits - which, I guess, is the really useful aspect of track days - you can't ever go this hard on the road.... or if you do you should be locked up!
A stupendously good day out and huge amounts of Brownie points are due to Warren Pickles and the MAG Sports team for organising it. Count me in for the next one... even if it means getting out of bed at 6.00am!
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