Oulton Park trackday

Sagalout · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:28

Went along to this the other day. Part of Bike magazines 'reclaim our tracks' season.

Basically the premise is its for road bikes only, no trackbacks, vans, trailers or tyre warmers allowed. This was attractive to me as I thought if people needed to ride home they would take a bit more care.

The weather was awesome and it was a cracking day. I went in the novices group as it was my first time at Oulton, but really I'd have been happier in the inters. Its quite surprising how slowly some people corner, and I was tentative of overtaking as some of the lines being taken were a bit unpredictable, and I was 100 miles from home on a £9k bike I needed to ride home! That said, I had a huge amount of fun, and the GSXR1000 was simply awesome in that environment - it only had 750 miles on it, so just had its first service. Nice to get the tyres nicely ripped up on the shoulders

I was surprised how many crashes there were though. There were at least 5 in our group alone, one of which red flagged a session for the medical car. One of which was fully deserved by some retard on an RSV on his first ever trackday who insisted on stuffing it up the inside of everyone, forced a few into the gravel, got a warning for crap riding from the stewards, then binned it at Druids on the cool down lap! couldn't have happened to a nicer guy! Other than that idiot, every one was really friendly and had a good crack. I ended up in the same garage as the Bike journo, so had a good chat with him too.

A quick gopro video. Mr RSV nearly taking me off at about 7:20 - wide angle lense doesn't show how close it was, but we brushed leathers. He then nearly puts a 675 in the gravel at druids, and you can just about make him out at the same corner in the cool down lap at the end. We went past his garage later and saw him being consoled by his girlfriend lol.

Sagalout · 30 Sep 2011 at 10:42

Nah, just had to turn mirrors in. No taping up, and strictly no timing. I do have a lap timer on the bike, but never read the instructions on how to use it haha

Sagalout · 30 Sep 2011 at 15:08

He wasn't in the wrong group - he was a complete novice with no more talent than the ability to pull the twist grip back. His lines were poor and he was a danger to others, hence his warning from the marshalls, and finally crashing (and taking some poor bloke in an R1 off at the same time). It was his first ever time on track, riding with other novices all on road bikes of very mixed ability - there was even a guys on a GN250! He was also the only person that trailered his bike there, which was actually against the spirit of the day....maybe he anticipated crashing?!

I felt a bit frustrated at times with people wobbling round corners and pinning it on the straights - would have been happier in the intermediates - but on days like that its more important to ride smoothly and safely so you can get home unscathed!

I'd also say there were a few properly fast riders in our group who managed to negotiate traffic perfectly safely

Sagalout · 30 Sep 2011 at 23:00

Ah, small world

I was also in the pink group, as was the RSV. And yeah, it was the silver one in garage 3. He'd trailered the bike with his dad - not sure what he was riding - fireblade maybe. Did you not see him in the gravel on the cool down lap in session 6?

Brilliant day though - nice to use the GSXR for what it's designed for, but it was in readably hot. Slightly annoying that I had an instruction session which was red flagged halfway through when that bike crashed at Druids. Got through 4 bottles of water and felt my concentration waning a bit so skipped the last session as I had 100 miles to ride home.

What bike were you on? I was on a black gsxr1000 and in garage 15. There were a few very tasty bikes including that bayliss rep, and had to laugh at the guy on the BMW R1200RT with speakers blaring - didn't half ride the wheels off it though!