It had been weeks, months even, since I had last been out on the race bike which was at, of course, Cadwell Park. I had booked this trackday in advance with Focused Events, not a favourite company of mine but this day was an open pit lane day which meant more track time and less novices. The plan was to not only blow out the cob webs but I had also replaced my Ohlins rear shock with a White Power one and had spent a lot of time setting it up statically so now it was time to check it.

The trip up was very wet and I arrived at the circuit at 7.30am, before Alan and Adam who were also planning to be there. A garage was selected and I had almost unpacked everything I would need that day when Alan arrived just in time to unload the bike. After the usual signing in, boring talk and a trip to get the bike noise tested, we were ready to go.

The idea of an open pit lane is that you can go out when ever you want to and within reason, as long or as short as you wish. There was a lot of slower traffic out there and clear laps were hard to come by, but we managed to put in some good lengthy sessions (some up to half an hour).

After lunch the weather continued to be perfect and 4 more good length sessions were ridden. The rear shock seemed to be working perfectly and rear tyre wear had improved even though i had been using an old race tyre from Donnington.
We had a great and informative day, although it was very tiring - I felt like I had completed an endurance race! I was nowa lot more ready and confident about the up and coming races at first Snetterton and then back at Brands Hatch.

Two days before I had been lent an onboard video camera to test out and I managed to get a couple of sessions on video following Alan and Adam for a few laps. Thanks to Stan at Pilot Communications for the camera.


Download the videos:

first session

second session