I’ve been looking to do a track this month and was originally looking at Snetterton this Sunday. Couldn’t really be arsed with getting up at 4am or having the expense and hassle of a B&B the night before though. I looked at the other options and blagged a day off work (today).
Originally I was going to do Silverstone as I didn’t want to travel too far. 100% Bikes had the day advertised at £109, but when I phoned up (yesterday) they wanted £150! (“It’s gone up…”) 
******** to you then, that’s one space you won’t be filling. I’m sure £109 would have been more useful to them than £0… So, eventually I called up No Limits and booked my fall back track, Mallory Park.
I’d never actually done Mallory even though it’s only 80 miles from me, and I’d heard how well liked the circuit was so I was looking forward to trying something new. Plus it has the fastest bend in the country (more on that shortly…).
Weather forecast was a bit mixed, with some light showers predicted. As it happened we got no rain at all (despite a few ominous looking clouds) and some strong sun. It was a good 23 degrees c, which is all you can ask for in this country!
Now, the track. Mallory Park; the track everyone loves…
…and I hate it 
Okay, ‘hate’ might be overstating it. Let me explain:
Gerards; the fastest bend in the country? Maybe if you can keep both wheels from leaving the ground over the bumps and stop the bike sliding on the uneven and multi-linked surfaces! People were talking about doing 120mph round there, and I’m sure the BSB boys do, but I’ll be buggered if I had the confidence to do it. In fairness to me, I saw precious few people decking it out round there and, to me, it became a long, dull corner (made worse by the fact that you’re hanging off the bike so long it begins to hurt! 
)
Shaws Corner; AKA slowest, crapiest, most pointless corner ever. All the people that dislike the Melbourne Hairpin at Donington should be made to ride this. They’ll never complain again.
Chicane (Bus Stop?); Very funny. Let me shake hands with the bloke who decided to put this there. And then punch him in the face. I can see it was added as an afterthought to stop people reaching Devil’s Elbow going too fast, but it is ridiculous. I think it’s called the Bus Stop because you can unload an entire bus full of people in the time it takes to get through it. And, to add insult to injury, the part of the apex (if you can call it that) you naturally want to hit has been resurfaced. By a blind, trainee pikey tarmacer. It’s appaling; bumpy and uneven, just what you want when you’re trying to throw the bike from one side to another on the front tyre. I ended up trying to cut inside that patch and then run the risk of whacking my leg on the elevated chevrons!
I am, quite frankly, amazed that BSB races here. I was at Silverstone to watch them the other week and you’d be hard pushed to believe it’s part of the same championship. Statistically I don’t know how dangerous the track is, but we had seven red flags today (including one bloke being taken to hospital)!
One last thing; the track photography service is crap too! The bloke taking the pictures was using a Nikon D70 (hardly professional…) and the pictures are very grainy and unfocused (see attached, which I’ve actually shrunk and tidied up!). Strange how they only show you the thumbnails before you buy… My girlfriend was getting better pictures!
I now realise this has turned into more of a rant than a report… 
Apologies! Anyone else got any experience of Mallory? I would be genuinely interested in your opinions, because it is one track I will not be re-visiting!
Attachments
The lower black stripe on the main fairing panel. Need to get the Suzuki sticker set.