Saturday the 1st March was originally designed to be a test and first outing for the rebuilt race bike but as I had been nursing an injured back for the last 10 weeks, the bike was going to be the least of my concerns. Having spent the last couple of months to and from the chiropractors, I was not confident at all about being able to attend the day and even had the first meeting at Easter as questionable.

I had to be at the circuit by 8am that morning, so it was up at six, load the van and off. It was a cold morning but bright and sunny and I arrived almost exactly 8am, met up with Alan at the pit garage he had chosen (almost the furthest one away from the facilities!) and started to unload our bikes and kit. After registering and going through the same old focused events safety briefing, it was time to get my kit on and warm the race bike up ready for the compulsory noise testing. The maximum allowed is 105db; my full race system was only producing 96db which means I should be ok on quiet 98db days.

We had to do 3 sighting laps, no overtaking behind instructors, and then were brought in and down the pit lane before we were allowed out again – strange. The first session went well. The bike was performing perfectly and I felt fine, if not a little rusty. I did two more sessions in the morning, getting progressively faster and getting my times to last year’s race pace. I took the last session before lunch off as I was already starting to get tired which gave me a 2 hour break.
The first session after lunch was poor though, I think I had spent too long sitting out, getting cold and eating. All the people I had been getting held up by in the morning were now overtaking me and after a couple of slides from the back tyre I decided to come in.
Fortunately the next session was a lot better again and I had got over my post lunch blip! Alan packed up early as he was heading up to Cadwell that evening for another trackday in the morning, but I decided to do the last session even though the sun had gone down and the temperature had dropped. I managed 9 laps before I got to cold and felt the rear tyre moving around again because it was either getting too cold or was wearing out.

I was quite exhausted after the day and fortunately only had a short trip home. My back was aching but felt fine; it was just the rest of me that hurt!
All in all a very successful day for both the bike and I, and I feel we are ready for the first weekend at Donnington Park at Easter