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Novice Track Day at Cadwell Park - By Tom McQuiggan
Blog Date - 08 March 2013
A guest blog today from Tom McQuiggan. Tom tells us the tale of his first track day. Many thanks for this Tom, over to you. (Ren - The Ed)
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Midweek evening, lay on the couch nodding off to the coma-inducing tones of the cast of Coronation Street, when the phone rings – it’s my mate Geoff Morris.
“Fancy doing a track-day”?
I’ve never been a fast rider and never will be – I have been likened many times to Roy Cropper. It’s not something that bothers me – I go at the pace I’m comfortable with and people can pass me or stay behind me – who really cares? To me, biking is about so much more than outright speed.
Despite my ineptitude at riding quickly, I have always fancied doing a track day, but have been put off by the idea of going with friends and showing myself up in front of everyone. Without motivation from others though, I’ve never actually got around to booking a track day, so maybe this was the time to stop being a pussy and just give it a go.
Geoff is a seasoned track-rider and has his own track bike. He travels all over the UK and even into Europe on track-day events, so compared to me he’s a seasoned vet! I knew that being an absolute top bloke, Geoff would encourage and support me all through the day (and probably not tell anyone if I fell off).
So after clearing it with my wife (we were supposed to be staying away that weekend) I thanked Geoff for the offer, asked where we were going and started to prepare for the event ahead. First thing you do, of course, is look up “Track Day Cadwell Park”. Big mistake! YouTube is full of videos that will send shivers down a weak spine like mine. Near misses, wobbles, crazy people and crashes! Eventually, I found a video which actually showed the circuit all the way around, so I tried to learn the layout from that. Wish I still had my Xbox!!
Next thing was to get my leathers, helmet and visor in tip-top condition. Luckily, I had purchased some new leathers 3 months earlier and my visor was virtually brand new too. I dug out a suitable rucksack and bundled in my video camera complete with 4 charged batteries, a still- camera, hoodie, gloves, necktube, butty box, water, rubber gloves and a small tool-roll.
After that, I was wondering what else I should do to prepare for the great day. Oh yes - sort out the bike! I went into the garage and there she stood, gleaming and beautiful – my beloved classic VFR750FV. I couldn’t even bear to think of her getting damaged, so I got my head down and removed the mirrors and number plate, disconnected the brake-light and taped up the headlights and indicators. As I was doing that, I recalled a story where Geoff had indicated into Druids on his first track day, lol.
The bike had recently been serviced and the oil and filter was only 2000 miles old so I reckoned I’d change it after the event, not before. The tyres were new (PR3), the chain was correctly tensioned and the brakes were tip-top. I looked all around the bike for bits which might fall off and determined that all was well, so I switched off the lights, patted her on the backside and locked the garage.
Saturday night brought little sleep – not just because of anxiety but because I’d been feeling rough for the last few days with a touch of man-flu. 04:15 Sunday morning arrived with a shrill tune from mobile but my heavy head had gone, so I was grateful for that. Moments later I received a text from Geoff to make sure I was up and about.
After writing my blood-type and last will & testament on my torso in indelible ink, I got dressed and pushed the bike from the garage ready for loading into Geoff’s trusty old Transit which had just reversed onto my drive. Up until this point, I’d not given the loading a single thought, but now I was filled with dread as I saw how Geoff’s CBR was strapped up! Needless to say, his bike was a track-tool and didn’t even have a seat! The bodywork was virtually held on with gaffer tape, so it didn’t need treating with kid gloves. Mine on the other hand was a mint, low mileage classic road bike with shiny bits.
I needn’t have worried, because Geoff took great care of her and before I knew it, my beautiful girl was tucked up all nice and bonny next to her scruffy new friend. It looked like two people sharing a bus seat – one from Downton Abbey and one from Harpurhey, lol.
The journey to Cadwell Park was long! 3 hours in a noisy van on the motorway was never going to be fun, but at least I was in good company. We chatted about allsorts of stuff and between the two of us, we had pretty much put the world to rights by the time we reached the circuit entrance - no more war, famine, drought or long-term doleys. Sorted!
The event was organised by “No Limits” who according to Geoff were the best of the bunch. Everything seemed very slick (no pun intended) and well organised. The guys were extremely friendly and helpful right from the get go.
We found a parking spot and set up our very own little pit area. Bikes were quickly unloaded and taken to the Scrutineer’s Area for sound-tests on the exhausts. Luckily, I had remembered to put my baffle back in the StainTune exhaust or that would have been the end of my day. We then headed off on foot to the registration office – which turned out to be the circuit’s café. I had already filled in my paperwork using an online-form the previous day, so all I needed to do was show my licence (both parts) and I was free to grab a coffee.
By 8:30 it was time for the briefing and it was at this stage that I declared to all and sundry that I was a track virgin and a pretty frigid one at that. I was the only person there with a hi-vis vest on and it drew a couple of sneers but that doesn’t bother me. The whole idea of wearing the vest as far as I was concerned was to let everyone else know to stay the hell away from me or I would very likely cause them significant damage! As much as I didn’t want to chuck my lovely VFR down the track, I was actually more concerned about spoiling other people’s track day. So it was for their good!
After the novice briefing, Geoff very kindly grabbed one of the No-Limits instructors and asked if he would show me the ropes. The guy agreed and said he’d find me when the time was right. For now though, it was time to spectate, because the “Fast” group were out first, followed by the “Intermediates”, so we had 40 minutes to go before my trousers started to fill.
Immediately outside the Café was a great spectator platform and it made me quite nervous to watch the fast boys come flying over the Mountain toward us and then flick through Hall Bends. Twenty minutes later, the Intermediates were doing the same thing and it seemed to me that they were all going at the same speed as the fast group!
Before the Inters finished, we headed back to the “pits” and prepared to go out. I warmed the engine as I nervously fastened my leathers and put on my gloves and helmet. Fortunately I forgot to attach the video camera for the first session, so my little “off” at Chris-Curve didn’t get recorded :-)
When the call for the Novice Group came over the tannoy, I followed Geoff to the Holding Area (marked with a H on the map above). We were pretty much at the back of the queue which suited me down to the ground, but the instructor spotted me and dragged me right to the front immediately behind him! Damn!! Now everyone would be focused on the dimwit in front with the bloody bright yellow vest on!
The instructor told everyone that we would do one sighting lap and no one was allowed to overtake. On the second lap, he would wave everyone past us and I had to stay behind the instructor. On the third lap he said that he’d wave me past and he would follow me and critique my performance (which I interpreted to mean “I’ll be telling you to take up knitting instead”).
So, engines started, gate opens, and off we go! I was proper bricking it! To my surprise though, it was all very leisurely and calm. The instructor was basically giving us time to warm the tyres and show us the “lines” to take. How lovely it all was.
On the second lap, he shook an extended leg and everyone overtook us and disappeared into the distance. He patted the tailpiece of his bike to tell me to follow him (or he could have meant “Don’t hit this part”). He accelerated away and I did my best to keep up with him through the bends. I started to snigger at the fact that yes, I could keep up! Just as I thought I was managing to stay the pace with this guy into a tight, fast bend, he looked around at me with one hand on his bars whilst skilfully negotiating the bend as I wobbled like weeble! Smart Alec!
When we got around Park bend, he shook his leg to indicate that I should overtake him so I gunned past him as fast as I could go and WOW!!!!!!! I was going way too fast into Chris Curve – and off the track!!
Luckily I had slammed on the brakes sufficiently enough to lose most of the speed which meant that I could safely turn on the grass and get back to the track without any harm done. After the instructor stopped laughing, he waved me on and pointed to the exit lane where I crawled back to our little pits, feeling all dejected :-(
Moments later, the instructor came running over and was very apologetic about the whole thing. He told me that he’d got cramp in his foot and was not shaking it to indicate I should pass at that particular place – it was clearly the wrong place to ask a novice to accelerate past into a tricky bend J He also told me that I needed to move my ass around on the bike and not ride the bike like a copper. And I should keep the balls of my feet on the pegs at all times. Other than that, have a nice day!
So, that was it – I was free to wreak havoc on the track. I installed my video-camera and got ready for the next session. Pretty soon I was feeling more comfortable with my knowledge of the circuit layout but the long sweeping bend at Charlies never seemed as smooth or sweeping as it looks on the map. I also had trouble with Chris Curve – probably because of the earlier experience.
Coppice on the other hand seemed pretty simple to me, but everyone else broke really early for it and almost every time I came to it, I was forced to slow down due to traffic in front. It puzzled me – but then maybe they could see danger where a novice couldn’t.
One of the fun areas was the Park Straight and the Park right-hander. The first time I approached it, I got a bit squirmy, but as the laps rolled by, I gained more trust in my front brake and got better control of it, allowing me to go in fairly hot (for me) and comfortably out through the bend. From there, it was around Chris Curve which I didn’t like at all, through Gooseneck and down the steep part to Mansfield.
For some very strange reason, I couldn’t get the approach to the Mountain quite right. In fact, throughout, I felt that the gearing on my bike was all wrong – and clunky! I had a couple of false neutrals too which really annoyed me, because it usually happened where there were loads of spectators :-(
On a few occasions, I got the front wheel into the air on the Mountain but nothing like Geoff – he got pretty good at it. Again, I was very conscious of keeping the bike in one piece and not wrecking it for the sake of a bit of bravado. I need a track bike! :-)
Hall Bends and the Hairpin were not as scary as I thought they’d be, but I was not pushing anyway. I wasn’t trying to get my tow-down, let alone my knee-down! The Barn was pretty good, in that it was fun to know you could open it up onto that straight and go fast into Coppice (if no one was there to spoil it).
Throughout the day there were around a dozen crashes, but the Ambulance was only needed for two of them (that I saw). One of the bikes was a beautiful BMW S1000RR road bike which must have cost around £15k. Hope he hadn’t ridden to the track!
Having seen the damaged bikes and dismayed faces, I was glad to have kept my cool and not succumbed to the thoughts that I am Valentino Rossi. I was happy to be called Roy Cropper on that day and be able to go home with my bike in one piece with my shopping basket still strapped to the front :-)
So all in all, I had a great day out! Sure, I was very slow and rubbish at it, but I wasn’t the slowest – I picked off a few other riders who’d done it all before, so that pleased me know end. I sniggered as I imagined their reaction to the rookie with the yellow-vest whizzing past them J. I even overtook Geoff (once).
Unfortunately, my video-camera (Drift HD Pro) had been playing up without me even knowing. When I got home, I noticed that it had repeatedly just stopped recording for no apparent reason! Gutted!!! I’ve tried duplicating the problem without success. Ah well, at least I got some of the day on film and if you’re interested, you can see it on YouTube by clicking on the link below…
(Or by watching it here...Ren - The Ed)
Would I recommend the Track Day Experience to anyone? Wholeheartedly!!! Even if you are a slow-poke like me, it can be a whole lot of fun and can (if nothing else) show you the limits of yourself and your bike (especially the brakes, which is always a good thing).
Be aware though – be very aware – you will ache like you’ve done ten rounds with Mike Tyson the day after! Boy, my shoulders were absolutely killing me! I was obviously much tenser than I realised. Then again, it is much more physical than road riding.
Tom McQuiggan.
Reader's Comments
Ren - The Ed said :-
Many thanks Tom. I've oft considered a track day but just like yourself I reckon I'd be a moving chicane rather than the dashing hero I'd like to think I am.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Just thinking...the red bike, upside down heading towards destruction. He's got crash bungs. I can't imagine they helped all that much really.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Sharon said :-
Enjoyed your write up Tom. I think you did fantastic for yout first ever track day outing. Most impressed. Great pics and video too.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
David said :-
I used to own that bike. Glad to see she's still looking good.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Steve said :-
Nice article.I would love to do a track day, but definitely on a bike I didn't mind taking home in a skip. What got me here though, was the picture of your bike. I'm tarting up a VFR750 (love them!) and I'm thinking of respray. Is that the original Honda red?
04/04/2019 22:58:03 UTC
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