Well, I got up at 4:45am yesterday 
, got sorted and made the two hour drive to Brands with the bike in tow. It was wet when I arrived and met up with some friends, but the sun was already out and the track was drying. The PACE Day format means that everyone has a timing transponder fitted to their bike and people are moved between groups based upon their actual ability rather where they “want” to be (ever seen fast riders massaging their egos by lapping everyone in the Novice group, whilst scaring them witless?). Within the groups, you’re also placed on rows of four with other riders of the nearest speed. The row in front is slightly faster, the row behind slightly slower. My aim for the day? A laptime below 1 minute. It was my second visit here, and last time (which was also a PACE Day) I managed 1m 02s, so I was looking for an improvement.
Anyway, I was booked into Inters, attached the transponder and did the first session… which was frustrating at best! Anyone whose done Brands Indy will know it’s fairly small and, since I’m not an aggressive overtaker, passing places are limited. I did the first session being held up all over the place and worried that my ability to stick a half decent laptime in was going to see my relegated to Novice! 
I needn’t have worried, I was placed on row C1, exactly halfway down the Inters group. I’d had a couple of rear end slides in Session 1, so got my tyre looked at (Official Verdict: Screwed!). So, I got the tyre bloke to fit a new Rennsport and took it steady in the second session. It was funny to see it completely scrubbed in when I came back in though. It behaved impeccably for the rest of the day, so I’m impressed - it’s very sticky!
Then came the carnage. I have never been on a trackday where there have been so many red flags… FOURTEEN before lunch. We had three in one session, which (by the time you’ve warmed the tyres) destroys your chance of putting in a decent time. By the end of the day, from the six sessions I did (sat the last one out) there had been ten red flags. They weren’t all crashes though, and someone has summised that they didn’t have enough marshalls to properly cope with running yellow flags (which, looking back makes sense).
In Session 4, to make matters worse, someone dropped oil all the way from Surtees, through McClaren, round Clearways, and back into the pits. On the racing line! 
This meant a huge line of dust was laid and I gave up on getting a quicker lap. I, like most people, ended up taking a wide line all the way round it and avoiding it completely. Anyway, on seeing the times published today I actually did my fastest lap on the last lap of the last session… a 59.440s lap! 
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