wolverine04uk
22-06-07, 09:48 AM
Hi, occasional poster here.
I went on Niall McKenzie's ride in to the Day of Champions yesterday, and thought I'd post on how it was.
Started off by riding down to the Vic pub in Coalville to meet up and register, the hairy bikers were there cooking up a load of bacon sarnies for everyone. Really nice couple of blokes they were, always willing to have a chat with anyone. Went inside the pub and there was a Q&A with Leon Haslam, Steve Plater, Aaron Zanotti and Niall McKenzie with the Hairy Bikers then up for a chat. After that everyone saddled up for the ride in, this was very cool. We reckon that there were roughly about 300 riders all told, the police held back a lot of the traffic for us. There wasn't any problems for almost everyone except a lady on a BMW who somehow managed to end up on the deck facing the wrong way. She was ok though, just stood by it looking fed up. So we get to Donington and had to queue up outside for about 15 mins while the sidecars did their thing.
Then the gates to the track opened up and we were allowed in, and this was the best part of the day for me, zipping around the track! It got a little hairy at times as there were so many on the track at the same time, but everyone was well enough behaved and there were no accidents. There was a safety car by the second time round, which caused a little bunching up, but it didn't matter too much. Nobody was going to get a lap record or anything, and no lines could be held round the track cos you had to try not to run into anyone next to you, but for me it was ace going round the track before the GP riders.
After two laps we pulled off to park up and wander round. With the ride in tickets you also get paddock and pit lane entrance. It was cool going behind the scenes and seeing the trucks, team workers, pits and stuff. However I've gotta say on the whole this was quite disappointing, as very few pits opened their doors. The garages did open their doors for a while and some pulled out the bikes and started them up which was ace, however the weren't many riders coming out to say hello. We waited outside the Yamaha garages for about 2 hours waiting for Rossi of course, but he didn't show. Full marks to Colin Edwards though, he's a really nice guy cos he came out and made sure everyone who wanted anything signed got it. Had a banter with the crowd aswell. Hope he does well on Sunday, made a fan of my wife anyway.
The pit lane closed at about 4pm with no sign of Vale, so we made our way back to the auctions, and this was really the point of the day, to raise money. As I'm skint I couldn't afford any of the stuff they were selling off, and there was some unbelievable stuff. The well publicised Suzuki weekend, including souveniers and a track day with tuition went for £3,800 which I think was a bit of a bargain. Ewan and Charley auctioned off two places to join them at the last leg of their African trip which went for £22k. Rossi came on stage and sold off a bunch of tat which went for big money, including the cap off his head which went for £500. There were loads of other things aswell from almost all the riders, Pedrosa was even smiling! So all in all it was a quality day, a good chance to see stuff you won't get anywhere near for the rest of the weekend. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.:thumleft:
I saw a couple of SV's aswell, anyone on here?
I went on Niall McKenzie's ride in to the Day of Champions yesterday, and thought I'd post on how it was.
Started off by riding down to the Vic pub in Coalville to meet up and register, the hairy bikers were there cooking up a load of bacon sarnies for everyone. Really nice couple of blokes they were, always willing to have a chat with anyone. Went inside the pub and there was a Q&A with Leon Haslam, Steve Plater, Aaron Zanotti and Niall McKenzie with the Hairy Bikers then up for a chat. After that everyone saddled up for the ride in, this was very cool. We reckon that there were roughly about 300 riders all told, the police held back a lot of the traffic for us. There wasn't any problems for almost everyone except a lady on a BMW who somehow managed to end up on the deck facing the wrong way. She was ok though, just stood by it looking fed up. So we get to Donington and had to queue up outside for about 15 mins while the sidecars did their thing.
Then the gates to the track opened up and we were allowed in, and this was the best part of the day for me, zipping around the track! It got a little hairy at times as there were so many on the track at the same time, but everyone was well enough behaved and there were no accidents. There was a safety car by the second time round, which caused a little bunching up, but it didn't matter too much. Nobody was going to get a lap record or anything, and no lines could be held round the track cos you had to try not to run into anyone next to you, but for me it was ace going round the track before the GP riders.
After two laps we pulled off to park up and wander round. With the ride in tickets you also get paddock and pit lane entrance. It was cool going behind the scenes and seeing the trucks, team workers, pits and stuff. However I've gotta say on the whole this was quite disappointing, as very few pits opened their doors. The garages did open their doors for a while and some pulled out the bikes and started them up which was ace, however the weren't many riders coming out to say hello. We waited outside the Yamaha garages for about 2 hours waiting for Rossi of course, but he didn't show. Full marks to Colin Edwards though, he's a really nice guy cos he came out and made sure everyone who wanted anything signed got it. Had a banter with the crowd aswell. Hope he does well on Sunday, made a fan of my wife anyway.
The pit lane closed at about 4pm with no sign of Vale, so we made our way back to the auctions, and this was really the point of the day, to raise money. As I'm skint I couldn't afford any of the stuff they were selling off, and there was some unbelievable stuff. The well publicised Suzuki weekend, including souveniers and a track day with tuition went for £3,800 which I think was a bit of a bargain. Ewan and Charley auctioned off two places to join them at the last leg of their African trip which went for £22k. Rossi came on stage and sold off a bunch of tat which went for big money, including the cap off his head which went for £500. There were loads of other things aswell from almost all the riders, Pedrosa was even smiling! So all in all it was a quality day, a good chance to see stuff you won't get anywhere near for the rest of the weekend. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.:thumleft:
I saw a couple of SV's aswell, anyone on here?