Bookings are at an all time high for 2008 with schools sold out for April and early May. There are some Level 1 spaces available on the 27th/28th May, although if you are looking for Level 2, 3 & 4, the earliest date possible is 10th June.
For all full schedule or to book click
here or call the office on
08700 671061
Fancy Easter In Spain?We have a few spaces left on our 24th/25th March, 2 Day training Camps at Almeria, Spain. With 2 days of intense and rewarding training from our expert CSS team, Video reviews, Off - track machinery, Classroom, 2 nights half board accommodation at the 4star Gran Hotel in Almeria, lunch and refreshments at the track each day.
We can transport your bike (from UK only) or you can hire a 2008 Yamaha R6 from us. For more details on how to do this please click
here.
CSS At Kyalami, South AfricaA new partner, a new track and full support from Yamaha South Africa! Whilst the first schools of the year in Dubai were cancelled due to rain it fell to South Africa to host the first true schools of 2008. Our new South African partners, Track Daze, not only secured an excellent deal with Yamaha to supply the coaches with R6s and R1s they also took us to a new track for the schools – Kyalami.
Both days of the schools had good weather and were completely full. With a good combination of new and old students getting to grips with levels 1 to 4. The track is excellent with a good combination of fast and slow turns, extreme elevation changes and chicanes. It is a very challenging but rewarding place to ride.
Track Daze have already announced the next set of dates for Nov and hire bikes are available. Just fly into Johannesburg and the track is only 30 minutes from the airport.
For further info click
here.
CSS Running For Sport ReliefOur very own School Director Andy Ibbott is running for Sport Relief on Sunday 16th March.
Ibbott says " I'm rising to the challenge to raise money for Sport Relief by running 6 miles on March 16th, Sport Relief Day. This is a tough challenge for me as I will attempt to do it in under 1 hour and, due to various motorcycle related, er, incidents, I have one leg that is over an inch (26mm) shorter than the other. I will try not to run around in a circle!"
Andy decided to get involved because Sport Relief is all about using everything that's good about sport to change lives for the better. All the money raised is spent by Comic Relief to help people living really tough lives at home in the UK and across the world's poorest countries.
He would really appreciate your support by sponsoring him to take part. If you'd like to make a secure online donation, you can use your credit card by clicking on the link
here.
To find out what a difference your sponsorship money can make, please visit
www.sportrelief.com.
Thank you for your generous support!
IRTA GP testing Qatar 2008The Qatar IRTA tests were the first very to be held at night, same as the GP will be this coming weekend. 15 million US dollars have been spent erecting the lighting and installing the generators to run the lights. The Gennys use 1,000 litres of diesel an hour to keep the lights running.
The result is a well lit track and one that most of the riders seem to like, a fact backed up by the fallen lap times from last year! The track does get cold in the night dropping from around 28 degrees as the sun sets to a ‘chilly’ 16 degrees two hours later and as low as 12 by midnight (the time of the MotoGP start on Sunday).
Thomas Luthi (12)The lights were causing a problem for Thomas on three of the turns at Qatar where the glare would ‘blind’ him for a second. A dark visor stopped this but then he could not see the detail he needed on the track (his reference points). In the end he got a tinted strip from a car accessory shop and used that to give him a two tone visor and it is working perfectly!
We worked the three fast right handers on the circuit the most as these have been a weak area in the past. Looking at his line in the first two he was trying to arc the corners together when in fact he needed to treat them as separate turns to get the best from the 250 Aprilia.
The other area for improvement was to stop using the back brake. As he has been moving his body weight forward over the bike for the turn entry he has been resting his foot on the rear brake. On some corners this was producing over 50 bar of pressure according to the data logger!
Once we brought it to his attention he suddenly found he could carry more entry speed.
Over the three days the suspension guys where working hard on a base set up for him and on the last day the ideal was found and Thomas did a 2:00.229 to put him third fastest and running a good race pace for the coming weekend.
Sandro Cortese (11)18 year old Sandro did not suffer with the lights in the same way Thomas had. He found that the lighting was ok, the only comment he made was that it was weird to be able to see the rest of the countryside in his wide view as he approached a turn.
Sandro suffered on the first day as he was testing a new front fork set up for Aprilia. Getting the right setting for the forks was proving hard to do and he was suffering from the bike not holding the line and running wide in almost ever turn.
By the second day the mechanics had found the right direction for the forks and he steadily improved. And was able to start to work on his riding as he was not distracted by the bike.
Again, line selection was needed and looking on some of the turns this went hand in hand with improving his throttle control.
Braking has been an issue with Sandro over the winter testing with him crashing several times by losing the front end while he has been on the brakes (trail braking).
To resolve this we have been working on good turn points and then, working back from there to good braking markers. This has helped him to set his speed more accurately for the corners.
Unfortunately on the third day his engine seized at the end of the start finish straight just as he was pitching the bike into turn one. He highsided and is a little bruised but, thankfully, nothing broken. Gadea was not so lucky and might not race at the weekend as he has a suspected broken collarbone.
Other school students
Lukas Pesek (52)
Czech rider Lukus Pesek has moved up from the 125 class and into the 250s. To help him with want is described as the hardest transition in GPs, Chief Riding Coach Johnny Haynes has been doing some private training with him over the winter. This has helped him to quickly change his lines and riding style from 125 to 250.
He is riding on the 2007 Aprilia for the season and is part of the team but with different sponsors from his home country.
Karel Abraham (17)Karel has made big improvements over the winter and is now a front runner of the non factory bikes. Over the 3 days he managed to put himself at the front of all the 2007 bikes. Paul Debnam (our deputy CRC) has worked with him over the pasted two years and he completed the schools at Almeria. Last December he went to the US to do another Level 4 as we had no schools and then attended a Suspension Education programme (as described in Andy’s Performance Riding Techniques book).
