WVAMC
Skills Day at Thruxton.
It
is not very often that you get an opportunity to go around the
Thruxton Race circuit. The only people that get to do it on
motorcycles are the guys and girls from British Superbikes and the
Institute of Advanced Motoring. Two days were organised this year and
I happen to get onto the first day. I was hoping to do it on the
Buell but the starter motor drive failed on me and was not able to
get it fixed in time so I had to take the Kawasaki ER6F instead.
Staying in a B&B over night close to the circuit, I was not the
only biker staying there, but two guys who were instructors. A full
English to start the day for me and a full tank of fuel for the
Kawasaki set us up for the day.
The
day starts with a safety briefing that covers all the required
knowledge of what flags mean, what the cones mean and what to do when
the flags are displayed. Reminding us not to run over any marshals.
You have all the space on the track and even then people manage to
knock over the cones! After the briefing we went into groups of four
or five with our instructor for the day. Today I was in the pink
team! Not my best colour but shortly afterwards we went through a
series of braking and manoeuvring exercises to get the mind focussed.
Each session with the instructor on the track was previewed with a
briefing about what we were going to do and what we should achieve
from each exercise. First time out it was at a steady pace looking to
learn the turn in, apex and exit points. I soon discovered that knee
down was an attitude that was easy to do when cornering for a long
time but not needed at the speeds were were doing. The plan was to
have six sessions on the track each one learning and practicing a new
technique.
Confidence and ability grew to a point where, at Campbell
corner, I felt the bike go too light for comfort and decided that was
as far a lean I would be doing today. Everywhere else the bike felt
planted. I did have a moment heading for the exit of Goodwood where
the side of the track was coming up too fast and I had to put on a
bit more lean than I was comfortable with. How do these guys in BSB
do it? Admittedly they don’t have chicanes of cones to negotiate at
the fastest points on the track. They put those in to keep the speed
down otherwise the circuit would be too fast for us mortals even so
we had been given a speed limit of ninety miles an hour. How fast was
I going, No real idea as I was too busy looking where I was going.
Concentration and accuracy was paramount. I survived, but we did have
a colleague who overcooked it and brought our day to a conclusion
prematurely. I have no details of his injuries but he was taken to
hospital in one of the ambulances based at the circuit and further
use of the track was halted by race control.
Short video of the guys in action just before the end of the day.
I
learned allot that day. On my trip home of some seventy miles I felt
much more relaxed on the bike using a slightly different riding
position. Only a subtle difference but it has made me more alert and
able to manoeuvre the bike more easily. It is all to do with elbow
position, more bend in the elbow pulls you down slightly and you can
relax the grip on the handlebars making the whole position less
tense. Keeping the head up looking to where you want to go so you
have more time to plan the ride and avoid hazards. Although I have
been riding since 1967 on our roads there is always something to
learn and understand. It is not all about speed.
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