Videos, photos and ramblings on my Trackday at Croft

Well, I awoke early to a clear sunny morning in full high contrast, had my brekkie sat in the sun, attached the bullet cam then headed off the 15 or so miles to Croft. First mistake of the day was missing the turn off into the circuit as the sign was a little hidden by a hedge, not an auspicious start! But I was soon there signing on, and quickly met by my Dad in his camper van with numerous supplies of tea coffee, bacon and biscuits.

The intermediate group was soon called for noise testing and assembly so I jumped on my trusty steed and thumbed the starter button, only to be greeted by a Ddzzzt and the ignition lights going out. A few more thumbs and turning on and off of the ignition left me no further. So I jumped off the bike, hauled out the tools, removed the seat and fairing and checked all the fuses and the battery terminals for tightness. A turn of the key revealed ignition lights so I remounted fuse tray, seat and infill panels and jumped aboard again, thumbing the starter. Again nothing, so it all had to come off again, by this stage I was sopping with sweat and I could hear the intermediates out on track. Off with both battery terminals and some scraping, this time I tested the engine before remounting the seat

I decided to head to the pit lane to get noise tested and managed to blag my way onto the novice group, I was pretty boiling by then. After two very slow sighting laps with no need for brakes I was off, my riding ugly and ragged, each novice like a red rag to a bull for me. The session ended and in I came for a 15 min break before heading out in the intermediate group, whilst lining up in the pit lane one of the organisers came over and mentioned that they had a sweepstake on when I was going to fall off before lunch . So I took their advice and calmed it down, my riding was smoother, safer, I was having more fun and was going quicker. The rest of the day went brilliantly well.

Some pics:

Entering Clervaux



Sshhmmooth leather knee schliders:



Concentrating







And a few videos, unfortunately I had AV jack problems so only got one traffic free session, and a bit of vibration but not too bad:

"SV vs ZX7R" (tongue in cheek )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgPNCQVNFec

A couple of quick laps (for me)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwPTknA_3tI

End of the session, reeling in some stragglers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Vf7kBg598

Thanks to PunyExpress for popping by with an article on Zandvoort, some interesting scooter stories and an amusing caricature on his return from a quick visit to Hartside. Also great to see Robchester out enjoying bikes in the sun, I'm looking forward to your pics Rob. Also tell your mate Steve that his comment - "Are you looking for sponsorship?" - made me feel a million dollars!

A great day on a great track with some great company. Just need some more power for the straights now.

Cool, I have never been to Croft myself, so it is a little hard for me to relate

Good to see you weren't letting that ZX7 away

As for the other clips, there doesn't seem to be too many people about, but the ones that are you fly past ... you need to get out of the inters dude

Looks good Tim! It's hard when a more powerful bike keeps on the racing line, and uses his power on the straights, you have to either out brake him like Blue seems to do mostly, or as you did, take a different line out of the bend and get the power on earlier. Good vid setups though, I didn't notice any bad vibrations particularly.

Tim I have some pics, but theyre not as good as the pros! Managed to catch you kneedown into Clervaux though, I think they must be shooting on pedestals as they seem to get a more elevated shot than I could. Will post a few up in a bit..

[punyXpress]

Great to meet you, Tim.
The last video doesn't quite do justice to your tyres. Chicken strips well barbecued!
Respect!

Wow- great videos and pics. Makes me very keen to do a trackday!

Originally Posted by Warthog

Looks good Tim! It's hard when a more powerful bike keeps on the racing line, and uses his power on the straights, you have to either out brake him like Blue seems to do mostly, or as you did, take a different line out of the bend and get the power on earlier. Good vid setups though, I didn't notice any bad vibrations particularly.

Yeah I'm always a little hesitant to jam it up the inside, although did a few better overtakes in my last two sessions, pity the camera wasn't working, bet they all say that

As others have said in other trackday posts moving up a group as soon as possible is a good idea, I found the other riders less erratic in inters, and had more time to concentrate on my line. The fact it was a quiet day with only 25 in a group on the 2.1 mile track also meant there was plenty of space. Had a look at my lap times on the camera and they were approx 14 secs slower than the minitwin racers, so there's fair room for improvement yet

Trying to work out whether rearsets are worth it for my remaining track days this year before I say farwell to the SV.

Originally Posted by robchester

Tim I have some pics, but theyre not as good as the pros! Managed to catch you kneedown into Clervaux though, I think they must be shooting on pedestals as they seem to get a more elevated shot than I could. Will post a few up in a bit..

Looking forward to them. Thanks for bringing your camera down and making the effort.

Have you managed to fix/mod your ride height adjuster ?

How fast are you going through the quick corners before sunny in/sunny out?

Originally Posted by sinbad

How fast are you going through the quick corners before sunny in/sunny out?

Not sure, but was one of the areas I made ground on some of the bigger bikes, trying to hook the right gear before focusing forcing it through the Jim Clark Esses then heading for the tarmac repair at Barcroft, no time to look at the speedo at that point!

I'm a bit slow at Hairpin, Hawthorn and entering the complex I think (or braking tooo early a lot of the time).