Brands Hatch Indy 28th March 2011 Focused Events

Booked my first day of the year where I did my last day of last year (that's getting to be a habit): Brands.

Bloody miles away, I may die before I get there, but thankfully at least one mate, Kev, is going to be there to provide support.

I'm booked in Advanced with Focused Events.

Bloody long way for you to come, i`ve done loads of brands days, but this year i`ll only do the gp circuit, have a great day mate.

I'd like to do the GP, but only if they half the feckin' price!

It is a bit of a trek, I'll give you that. Planning to stop in at Snetterton where a mate is racing on the Saturday and Sunday and my best mate from school now lives just south of Brands as well.

i would love to get into trackdays, i would just be scared of smashing up my bike

It's pretty safe actually, unless you suffer badly from uncontrollable red mist.

Admittedly after dropping it in April last year (too fast on cold tyres) and moving up to Advanced I have succumbed and bought a track bike. But in Novice and Inters you're really not pushing that hard.

You've got to try it. It's a huge buzz.

I could be interested into doing this as I want to get on the track on my new bike and Brands Indy was my first track day so sounds fitting.
Danidge - As for worrying about smashing up your bike on the track, I have a question - do you worry about smashing your bike on the road when riding fast in shit conditions?
If not then do a track day, go to Novice even if you are fast and don't try to go round as fast as possible, more importantly learn the circuit and the pace will pick up without you even realising it.

Give it a go danidge, fit some mushrooms and possibly a track fairing. Keep away from the dickheads and just enjoy riding on yer own. Set off after everybody else and you will have the track to yerself for a while?

Be good to see you there as well Morpheus.

Can't afford that price in March, but I am off that day so I might come up and take some piccies and video. Be nice to meet up. We can ride up together if ya want Paul?

yeah, i would go on one.. i think i would be ok hopefully the fbr track day will get sorted and we can all be there

Just ten days to go - I can't wait!

If anyone is popping up I'll be aiming for garage 14 if it's not already taken when I get there. I'll be riding my "new" track bike, this:

looks nice and tidy, hopefully you wont need those wets
aiming to get brands in this year.

meant to ask you tazfiend, what is the bluetooth thing that you fit to your phone that lets you pick up the race chrono thingy?
cheers

I'm hoping I won't need the wets too! They were on for the day I picked up the bike at Brands. I'd like to see the track in the dry this time.

RaceChrono is software that runs on the phone. You can just use the internal GPS, but it only samples its position once a second so it's not terribly accurate. I got a Qstarz 5Hz bluetooth GPS which makes it far more accurate (I think there are some 10Hz ones out there now).

Being a Monday I can't rent a van the day before and need to be at the circuit early for registration so just thinking about what to do about getting the bike there and back and whether to pay £115 for a day at the Indy Circuit.

Track bike, or could you ride to the track?

I'll check for availability when I get back from Donny this we

Off to a good start in the morning after a great night before with an old school mate. Nice gentle drive to the track and a steadily clearing morning.

I got there at 7am and was surprised to see Blue Rider and Bluekontakt had beaten me there but it was good to have help unloading and setting up. Good to find FE hadn't mucked around with my group selection either (as they had with BK2K4's).

The battery has had it, so bump starting was the order of the morning - lying outside all winter has obviously finished off its ability. Slightly knocking the kill switch (my excuse being I'm not used to having it on the left) didn't help while I was pushing it!

I haven't ridden since last October, and I've never ridden Tallulah in the dry (or Brands for that matter) but I was less nervous than ever before and looking forward to wringing her neck!

First session went fairly well. My target for the day was 57s so I was pleased to hit 58 on my first session in five months!

I was less pleased by the state of my tyre. Since I've been using warmers I've been trying setting hot pressures and I've been destroying tyres. I had been advised I was running them too high, and assumed I was getting hot tear, so I dropped to a suggested pressure this time. Not good. One session and it was utterly wrecked. Spoke to the tyre guy who said I'd been given cold pressures as hot! I pumped them up and the degradation stopped, the tyre even healed slightly over the day, but basically it was cooked.

However that didn't stop me getting a 56.2 in my second session. Was well chuffed with that!

Then I made my second mistake of the day - I listened to someone other than MCT about suspension (FE tyre man and FE day organiser). They suggested the rebound was too low and put it up by three clicks. Didn't feel horrendous but I was running wide on exit for most of the rest of the day. I put that down to exhaustion but the first thing Darren asked when I discussed it with him was whether I started running wide!

So I didn't improve after my second session. I did have an absolute ball though, Tallulah kicked my arse everywhere being far better a bike than I am a rider.

Was great to meet Mattb (poor man), and see Bubbidge, BK2K4 and BR again (these are all members of another forum I use). My school mate who hates motorsport even turned up.

Great pics from the FE photographer - shame they never clean their bloody lenses or cameras!











Think my weight may be an issue with the tyres... look at the tyre wall in this:

Fear not mate, that's what the tyres are ment to look like.

Great one, ive not brands yet, best get in gear, as your a days travel from that place.

What you can't see is the disastrous cold tearing that appeared after one session!

Yeah, eleven hours to drive home in "flat cap, fuel saving" mode. Bit of a trek, doubt I'll be back this year. Cadwell, Knockhill and Donington booked though.

great pictures and a big thumbs up for the trek home.
what tyres are you running?
i have just started using warmers too and experienced a tearing problem at snetterton last week. running racetecs which i am very impressed with grip wise

Tazfiend wrote:What you can't see is the disastrous cold tearing that appeared after one session!

Yeah, eleven hours to drive home in "flat cap, fuel saving" mode. Bit of a trek, doubt I'll be back this year. Cadwell, Knockhill and Donington booked though.

What dates for donnington and cadwell ?

goldie wrote:great pictures and a big thumbs up for the trek home.
what tyres are you running?
i have just started using warmers too and experienced a tearing problem at snetterton last week. running racetecs which i am very impressed with grip wise

I'm running Pirelli Supercorsas, SC1 front and SC2 rear if I remember correctly.

shadow wrote:What dates for donnington and cadwell ?

Doing Cadwell on May 23rd and Donington on August 25th. Advanced for both.