Any Track day tips.

[Binky]

Originally Posted by Rob969

been told by someone to take my number plate off or cover it with tape

Yeah. Means the marshalls spend less time clearing up shards of plastic all over the track if you come off.

Be wise to take your mirrors off to and tape up your headlights.

No matter what anybody says, if you feel the need to pull over to let the others catch up, just do so

[Binky]

Originally Posted by drag

No matter what anybody says, if you feel the need to pull over to let the others catch up, just do so

That reminds me actually. Probably bad advice, so feel free to ignore this one...

...But i was told that if i went into the gravel to keep the throttle on and keep going aiming for the exit of the gravel. Stops you from bedding down and sliding down to a gravelly death.

Obviously this won't work if you're aiming straight for a wall with little distance in between. Also if this happens, be careful when coming back onto the track so as not to bring lots of gravel and dirt onto the racing line.

One of the racers will be along shortly to confirm or deny this.

jasus dave why'd u end up in there??

..tis a lovely shot though!

Well i'll tell the story in picture shall i ...

This is a friend of our's driving Pj gallagher's old K7 750, with a lovely quick shifter just after i whooped his ass, and hammer it past him.




So on the next session words were had ( friendly banter ) and i took the front position followed closly by two other chaps and the same guy on said gsxr.



Comming down this hill



It was at this point when i realised i haddnt got in a quick smoke, and prob had time to pull over and grab a quick lucozade also...so i didnt take the right hand turn, thats off camber, and drifted on in to the gravel.

and then rejoined after a second or two.

Down the hill, wet knickers moment for sure

Originally Posted by noob-saibot

Down the hill, wet knickers moment for sure

Yea im a big enough man to admit, i bottled it on the run down to whats known as tartan 1.

If you do drift off, get her down to 2nd and just keep the throttle on, but dont try and fly over the gravel, just take it nice and easy, and work your self out of there.

And my no1 rule, Brake up right, and get off the brakes early, slow in fast out, if you want do like rossi, brake brake brake get the leg off the peg, hang it out there, get ure balanbce and them flick the bike in to the turn, keep the power on, keep it constant, wait untill you start to straighten up before you lash it back on again.

have a decent meal the night before, get some carbs in you.

dont worry too much about tyre pressures, wait till you get to the track and see how you go. i have done a couple and never bothered to change them...

take it slow and gradually build up cos hoghsiding in the 2nd session of the day aint fun! and on that note ignore first gear, just pretend its not there

finally - grin like an idiot and get more adrenalin inside you than you know what to do with!

enjoy dude!

[Red Herring]

Don't forget it makes a huge difference to the pressures if the tyres are hot or cold. About 32 front/30 rear hot equates to about 29/27 cold but I would suggest that is a tad low for a first timer as you're not going to work them as hard as a regular track rider (no offence but I figured you wouldn't be asking if you were on the pace) so start a couple of psi higher and maybe drop them as the day goes on.
As has been said spend the first couple of sessions working out where the track goes and build up your apex speed until you are happy with what's going on, then slowly improve your lap times by accelerating a bit harder and braking a bit firmer for the bends, but always make sure you take the same line and corner speed as before. Snetterton has a nice long straight which is great but it's all to easy to lose perception of speed at the end and go in a bit to hot, the only good thing is there is plenty of room to run on, provided you have the sense to recognize what is happening and pick the bike up, otherwise you will run wide and launch yourself across the apex of the following right hander. Watch the "chicane" at Russels as well, the left side of the back tyre doesn't do any work anywhere else and it's very easy to highside there as a result.
Above all else, as has been said, take it easy and have fun.

Like people have said the first 2 sessions all i plan on doing is going out and trying to learn the track and gain a bit more confidence on the 3rd session i've got an instructor coming out with me to give me pointers hopefully by then i'll be more comfotable with the track and be able to take on what he's saying more without worrying about where the track goes. its only a novice day so i'm sure there be a few others out there like me and probably a few with more power than sense as well