Donnington Track Day

Well, as a few will know I did my first track day yesterday at the Ron Haslam Race School at Donnington. It was a spur of the moment thing (thanks SlySi) which saw me jump on the bike up to Nottingham straight after a hard day at work on Tuesday. Eventually getting there after suffering severe cold, rain and loads and loads of thick thick fog!! Went to bed shivering!No worries I thought - tomorrow will be better. Woke up at 8am the next day to the sound of thunder and sleeting rain! Damn!!! hope it clears by midday. By this time the shivers had turned into a full blown cold. So anyway, got to Donnington dry enough and no sooner had I handed the photographer me money it started to chuck it down once again - great i thought - pictures are going to be crap and my knee will be nowhere near the floor, it’ll just be me and my bin liner of a wetsuit!

1st session went great - 2nd session even better - by the 3rd I thought i was the dogs. I couldnt believe how much grip I had in the wet - i was even more astounded when the race bike had the same tyres on as my road bike!!! I realised then that my lack of confidence in cornering with my road bike was due to wrong suspension set-up and nothing else.

When the day finished we had a de-brief and I dont mind telling you…I got given a glowing report - which was better than most! 80% overall with no obvious faults or improvements needed - instructor said i was confident, smooth and consistent!!! Now all I need is B to sort out the suspension and i’m flying!!!

I’ll post the pics up on here as soon as i receive them - well…depending on what they’re like!:PPS - Managed to walk away with a souvenir as the school sold me a Frank Thomas wetsuit for my ride home for £35…well…it was 2nd hand.

:slight_smile:

I could have done without the rain to be honest - it wont be my last track day but I dont think i would have liked to pay full price for it.

You taking the pi$$…Surprised your boss hadn’t arranged the day himself :wink:

Good write up…Glad you had a good one mate.

Rossi would be proud :smiley:

thats a result mate. found donny in the wet fairly scary in terms of grip (and i liked riding in the rain at brands).

best get saving tho buddy, once you pop…:wink: