B
Badger
Guest
This i was looking forward to, three days in the Spanish sunshine razzing a bike round a track, good food, a good mate and good craic, some beer but not overdozed due to not wanting to be suffering on track the next day.
Anyway, of to Prestwick airport at 4am for my flight, into Malaga at 12 noon to step of the plane into 23 degrees of lovely sunshine :smileyhyper:
Waited on my mate big John to arrive from Belfast at about 1pm, hooked up with him, found the hire car company and got on the road to Aguadulce where we were staying in this pretty lush 4 star hotel for the next four nights.
It was a bit of a drive, we popped into the circuit on the way past and it looked like a bike race meeting had just finished, the track looked bloody exciting, jumped back in the car and headed to the hotel.
First things first, a cool beer at the bar, a few of the lads were there who were attending, couple of beers and off to get showered and some food, a nice Pizza and a few more beers and off to bed at a sensible hour ready for the next morning.
Big john's phone alarm was set for 6am, but the feckin thing kept going off every hour from 4 am, not good getting woken every hour, seemingly the model of phone has an issue with this.
Up to the track to unload the bikes and grab out spot in a garage, boy are these garages superb, every garage had two lovely clean toilets with showers and a wee guy came round twice a day to clean them, luxury, and boy were they used, about 7 litres of water a day makes you piss a bit.
Briefing over we got the bikes fueled and ready to go, there is three groups at these events, Racer, Advanced and Inters, we were in the Advanced group and were second out.
The racer group are out and then us, off we go rushing with adrenalin, jeez, where the feck has the track gone, blind crests a plenty, you feel like you are all over the bloody track to start until you get some kind of idea where you are going, session over i decide to ask Eugene Laverty if he minded showing me the way round at a pace that i could live with.
So next session off we go, me still wandering all over the place and Eugene behind me, probably thinking what have i let myself in for, we do a lap with me in front and then he comes past and i follow him for about a lap until we get onto the kilometre long straight and a bike comes past me, it is Gino Rea and he pulls up alongside Eugene and they look at each other, next thing they are gone, where the feck did they go!!
So i wobble my way round for the rest of the session getting to know which way to go a bit better each lap.
We are mid morning by now and it is getting warm, as in 29 degrees, far to hot in leathers to be doing this, well for a blue skinned Jock and Paddy it is.
Both big John and i can manage about 6 to 8 laps before we start to lose concentration and when this happens we pull in as we were making mistakes, the heat was telling on us, me in particular, i had a blinding headache for two days due to the heat.
We worked away at out times and both improved a lot over the first sessions, John posting better times than me, the Aprilia was topping out about two thirds the way along the straight, hitting a max of 152 mph and i just sat at that speed for what seemed like ages before braking for the tight right at the end, John's tuned R1 was still accelerating before he braked, i reckon i was losing about two to three seconds maybe on the inline fours and some very expensive Ducatis that were there, i reckon the three Dukes parked beside us would have cost over £30, 000 easily, in fact the owner of one paid £25k before he started putting expensive goodies on it, these things blew the Aprilia into oblivion on the straight.
Day one over and sweated loads, so a shower was top of the list, no, wait a minute, a beer was top of the list, so a couple in the bar and then showered and off we go for a bit of food, back to the hotel bar and a couple more then bed.
Following day was nearly as hot, we had a qualifying session in the morning to qualify for the endurance and sprint races that were to follow.
We got out with Jezza for a few laps of well needed guidance in the morning sessions, he told big John his riding position was all wrong, John worked on this and it helped i am sure.
We realised pretty soon on the first day that there were some fast and some very fast people there, i would class myself as a competent fast/advanced group rider when doing trackdays in the UK, but these guys were in a different league apart from the inters group.
I spoke to a fair few lads and it seemed a lot are racers or have raced in the past, but what i would say is that i never really had any silly incidents of people cutting you up or doing daft passes etc like you get in the UK track days, everybody treated each other with respect, which was nice.
After the first couple of sessions out of the way, we had our qualifying session for the endurance race which we finished up about 12th out of about 15 that started.
I was a bit reluctant to do this due to suffering with the heat, we decided just do treat it like track sessions anyway so we got some track time.
Big John did the Le Mans type sprint to his bike whilst i held it for him, we got away about second last i think, after a few laps John outbraked himself at the end of the straight and run into the really deep gravel and had to get help to push the bike out, so he came in and we had a blether and some water and a bit of banter and i then jumped on the bike to go out, i put in quite a lot of laps and felt not to bad re the heat thing, John thought i was never coming back in, anyway in i come and again we fanny about before he heads out, this goes on till it ends two hours later.
We got our track time in and had some fun, so all was good.
In the bar that night Jezza told us we were up to 7th and wondered what happened to us, why we were not out consistently, we told him we had decided to just treat it as track time, just goes to show we should have taken it more serious as we finished 10th in the end and that was us missing a lot of time on track, oh well, always next year eh!!
The following day we had an 8 lap sprint race with a race start, i qualified about fourth from the back and John a couple of places in front of me, lights change and away we go, me into the first corner behind John, sat behind him till the straight and that was the last i saw of him, the R1 leaving me in it's wake, John finished a good 10th and me a good last (which was only two or three places behind) after staying in front of a couple of lads all the way till the second last lap till i missed a gear and they both nipped past which i never recovered from.
Now these results don't seem very creditable, but the vast majority of these guys were fast or just mind blowingly fast, so we were happy and finished in one piece.
We got packed up and loaded the bikes for their trip back to blighty, back to the hotel for some reminiscing and some beer and a steak.
I loved it, the circuit is pretty difficult to get to grips with but is a blinding track with great facilities, the people that run the event are superb and very well organised, it is not an event for riders with little experience i would say, but it was the safest event i have been to.
We were in awe of some of the riders there at the difference in speed, some of the riders were names like Jeremy McWilliams, Eugene Laverty, Gine Rea, Bradley Smith, Graham Gowland, Kevin Coughlan, Simon Crafar (though not riding as he is recovering from breaking his back, thoroughly nice bloke too), the German superbike champion, Josh Elliot from Ireland (take note of that name as you will hear more about this lad, he only 15 and racing in the German championships under the watchful eye of Jezza)Neeves from MCN, Steve and Sarah Jordan, i am sure i have forgotten some, but you can see what i mean about it being fast.
There was soooooo much going on at this event we were never stuck for something to watch or look at, we had the Moto 2 bikes testing, MV had their new 2010 F4 there testing plus the
new triple they are rumoured to be building, twas a great event and one i hope to be back to in the not to distant future.
Below are a great selection of pics from the event......................
See this young lad, Josh Elliot from Northern Ireland, keep yer eye open for him, very impressive, he was doing 1.41's round there on a 600 ...............check him out here
Jossi Elliot
Josh with his new helmet sponsor
enough of Josh, here is Jezza and Simon Crafar doing their Superbike Academy talks and guidance, and boy are these guys in depth and conscientious about their job, they talk about moving an inch or two on the track and analyse every action, very interesting and in depth stuff, thoroughly enjoyed their sessions
Bradley Smith i believe
another 125cc lad and these boys are fast i tell you..
Jezza and Josh discussing the Moto 2 bike in the foreground
Jezza testing the Moto 2 bike, these things are LOUD!!
Fast people,Eugene Laverty, flag marshall, Josh Elliot and Gino Rea
Gino Rea
Myself and big John trying to get some tips from Josh on going that fast
Josh on the Moto 2 bike
Michael Neeves from MCN on the Moto 2 bike
The start of my sprint race
Josh on top of the podium, you won't see the last of that i am sure, the guy on the left has never raced before and is bloody fast, mind you he has got probably 40k's worth of Ducati in below him, the guy on the right is Steve Jordan
the start of the two hour endurance race, big John is the giant in black towards the rear of the filed
Moto 2 bike being put through it's paces
and another Moto 2 bike
Anyway, of to Prestwick airport at 4am for my flight, into Malaga at 12 noon to step of the plane into 23 degrees of lovely sunshine :smileyhyper:
Waited on my mate big John to arrive from Belfast at about 1pm, hooked up with him, found the hire car company and got on the road to Aguadulce where we were staying in this pretty lush 4 star hotel for the next four nights.
It was a bit of a drive, we popped into the circuit on the way past and it looked like a bike race meeting had just finished, the track looked bloody exciting, jumped back in the car and headed to the hotel.
First things first, a cool beer at the bar, a few of the lads were there who were attending, couple of beers and off to get showered and some food, a nice Pizza and a few more beers and off to bed at a sensible hour ready for the next morning.
Big john's phone alarm was set for 6am, but the feckin thing kept going off every hour from 4 am, not good getting woken every hour, seemingly the model of phone has an issue with this.
Up to the track to unload the bikes and grab out spot in a garage, boy are these garages superb, every garage had two lovely clean toilets with showers and a wee guy came round twice a day to clean them, luxury, and boy were they used, about 7 litres of water a day makes you piss a bit.
Briefing over we got the bikes fueled and ready to go, there is three groups at these events, Racer, Advanced and Inters, we were in the Advanced group and were second out.
The racer group are out and then us, off we go rushing with adrenalin, jeez, where the feck has the track gone, blind crests a plenty, you feel like you are all over the bloody track to start until you get some kind of idea where you are going, session over i decide to ask Eugene Laverty if he minded showing me the way round at a pace that i could live with.
So next session off we go, me still wandering all over the place and Eugene behind me, probably thinking what have i let myself in for, we do a lap with me in front and then he comes past and i follow him for about a lap until we get onto the kilometre long straight and a bike comes past me, it is Gino Rea and he pulls up alongside Eugene and they look at each other, next thing they are gone, where the feck did they go!!
So i wobble my way round for the rest of the session getting to know which way to go a bit better each lap.
We are mid morning by now and it is getting warm, as in 29 degrees, far to hot in leathers to be doing this, well for a blue skinned Jock and Paddy it is.
Both big John and i can manage about 6 to 8 laps before we start to lose concentration and when this happens we pull in as we were making mistakes, the heat was telling on us, me in particular, i had a blinding headache for two days due to the heat.
We worked away at out times and both improved a lot over the first sessions, John posting better times than me, the Aprilia was topping out about two thirds the way along the straight, hitting a max of 152 mph and i just sat at that speed for what seemed like ages before braking for the tight right at the end, John's tuned R1 was still accelerating before he braked, i reckon i was losing about two to three seconds maybe on the inline fours and some very expensive Ducatis that were there, i reckon the three Dukes parked beside us would have cost over £30, 000 easily, in fact the owner of one paid £25k before he started putting expensive goodies on it, these things blew the Aprilia into oblivion on the straight.
Day one over and sweated loads, so a shower was top of the list, no, wait a minute, a beer was top of the list, so a couple in the bar and then showered and off we go for a bit of food, back to the hotel bar and a couple more then bed.
Following day was nearly as hot, we had a qualifying session in the morning to qualify for the endurance and sprint races that were to follow.
We got out with Jezza for a few laps of well needed guidance in the morning sessions, he told big John his riding position was all wrong, John worked on this and it helped i am sure.
We realised pretty soon on the first day that there were some fast and some very fast people there, i would class myself as a competent fast/advanced group rider when doing trackdays in the UK, but these guys were in a different league apart from the inters group.
I spoke to a fair few lads and it seemed a lot are racers or have raced in the past, but what i would say is that i never really had any silly incidents of people cutting you up or doing daft passes etc like you get in the UK track days, everybody treated each other with respect, which was nice.
After the first couple of sessions out of the way, we had our qualifying session for the endurance race which we finished up about 12th out of about 15 that started.
I was a bit reluctant to do this due to suffering with the heat, we decided just do treat it like track sessions anyway so we got some track time.
Big John did the Le Mans type sprint to his bike whilst i held it for him, we got away about second last i think, after a few laps John outbraked himself at the end of the straight and run into the really deep gravel and had to get help to push the bike out, so he came in and we had a blether and some water and a bit of banter and i then jumped on the bike to go out, i put in quite a lot of laps and felt not to bad re the heat thing, John thought i was never coming back in, anyway in i come and again we fanny about before he heads out, this goes on till it ends two hours later.
We got our track time in and had some fun, so all was good.
In the bar that night Jezza told us we were up to 7th and wondered what happened to us, why we were not out consistently, we told him we had decided to just treat it as track time, just goes to show we should have taken it more serious as we finished 10th in the end and that was us missing a lot of time on track, oh well, always next year eh!!
The following day we had an 8 lap sprint race with a race start, i qualified about fourth from the back and John a couple of places in front of me, lights change and away we go, me into the first corner behind John, sat behind him till the straight and that was the last i saw of him, the R1 leaving me in it's wake, John finished a good 10th and me a good last (which was only two or three places behind) after staying in front of a couple of lads all the way till the second last lap till i missed a gear and they both nipped past which i never recovered from.
Now these results don't seem very creditable, but the vast majority of these guys were fast or just mind blowingly fast, so we were happy and finished in one piece.
We got packed up and loaded the bikes for their trip back to blighty, back to the hotel for some reminiscing and some beer and a steak.
I loved it, the circuit is pretty difficult to get to grips with but is a blinding track with great facilities, the people that run the event are superb and very well organised, it is not an event for riders with little experience i would say, but it was the safest event i have been to.
We were in awe of some of the riders there at the difference in speed, some of the riders were names like Jeremy McWilliams, Eugene Laverty, Gine Rea, Bradley Smith, Graham Gowland, Kevin Coughlan, Simon Crafar (though not riding as he is recovering from breaking his back, thoroughly nice bloke too), the German superbike champion, Josh Elliot from Ireland (take note of that name as you will hear more about this lad, he only 15 and racing in the German championships under the watchful eye of Jezza)Neeves from MCN, Steve and Sarah Jordan, i am sure i have forgotten some, but you can see what i mean about it being fast.
There was soooooo much going on at this event we were never stuck for something to watch or look at, we had the Moto 2 bikes testing, MV had their new 2010 F4 there testing plus the
new triple they are rumoured to be building, twas a great event and one i hope to be back to in the not to distant future.
Below are a great selection of pics from the event......................
See this young lad, Josh Elliot from Northern Ireland, keep yer eye open for him, very impressive, he was doing 1.41's round there on a 600 ...............check him out here
Jossi Elliot
Josh with his new helmet sponsor
enough of Josh, here is Jezza and Simon Crafar doing their Superbike Academy talks and guidance, and boy are these guys in depth and conscientious about their job, they talk about moving an inch or two on the track and analyse every action, very interesting and in depth stuff, thoroughly enjoyed their sessions
Bradley Smith i believe
another 125cc lad and these boys are fast i tell you..
Jezza and Josh discussing the Moto 2 bike in the foreground
Jezza testing the Moto 2 bike, these things are LOUD!!
Fast people,Eugene Laverty, flag marshall, Josh Elliot and Gino Rea
Gino Rea
Myself and big John trying to get some tips from Josh on going that fast
Josh on the Moto 2 bike
Michael Neeves from MCN on the Moto 2 bike
The start of my sprint race
Josh on top of the podium, you won't see the last of that i am sure, the guy on the left has never raced before and is bloody fast, mind you he has got probably 40k's worth of Ducati in below him, the guy on the right is Steve Jordan
the start of the two hour endurance race, big John is the giant in black towards the rear of the filed
Moto 2 bike being put through it's paces
and another Moto 2 bike
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