Review - Ron Haslam's Race School

Admins forgive if this in the wrong section!

Just thought i'd bash out a briefish review of the Ron's school to benefit anyone thinking about going. I never really found any reviews before i went and so hopefully this may help any prospective visitors.

Premier Course - the only one ive done!

Format

3 x 15 minute track sessions spread across about half a day from 0900 to 1200. (they also run an afternoon slot but i dont know the times)

What actually happens?

Arrive, sign on, go to the kit room, hand in your stuff, get handed leathers go to the briefing room.

Leathers - personally i chose to use their leathers...not exactly being of joe average shape the leathers didnt really fit well and caused a bit of discomfort on the bike. I'm sure if i'd asked they'd have changed them. But stiff upper lip and all that.

Next a short 15 ish minute briefing on safety mainly. They talk you through the day and tell you all about the cone system on the track (red = brake, yellow = turn in and green = apex). Naturally the first two cones are relative to how comfortable you are...

Into the minibus down to the pitlane on the inside of Stowe. Get paired up with other rider and meet your instructor and get given a bike number. Small talk ensues as you wait for the bikes/go ahead to mount up. All the expected questions asked...what do you ride? trackdays done? confident? #

When they say its ok, saunter out to the bike youve been allocated or rush over to the bloke with the clipboard if youve forgotten the number already (fail) and mount up.

From there it's just track time followed by about 15 minutes of chatting with the instructor followed by more track time. They have static bikes that can be used between sessions to sort out body positioning and boards showing the track to help with discussion/instruction.

Between the 2nd and 3rd sessions you get an 'advanced briefing'. To be honest no-one had any specific questions and we were all pretty shocked at the whole experience to ask anything. He just went through the track corner by corner on what we should be thinking about.

After the final session you jump back on the minibus and give all the kit straight back. Get handed with your old clobber and head into the briefing room for a final chat and handing out of certificates, assessment forms (of your riding filled in by the instructor you were with) as well as a goodie bag filled with mainly adverts.

Finally you pick up the photos you may or may not have paid for at the start of the day and bugger off home. (when i was there the photographer seemed to be in a really bad position as the photos were all of everyone going in a straight line bolt upright? he might rotate positions or change places but it would have been a bummer to pay the £20 and get me bolt upright - in retrospect id ask the full lowdown before i paid the money for the photos)

The bikes!

CBR600rrs. Having only ridden an SV getting on the CBR was like chalk and cheese. The CBR excelled in just about every area. The brakes blew me away the most! followed by the top end rush and the composure in the corners. Utterly fantastic bikes. Less than 0 engine braking compared to the SV which was strange at first.

Also found that the thing had to be buzzing to get any sort of shift on. This lead me to be being either too high in the box or too low but over time and getting used to it it came together in the 2nd and 3rd sessions.

Kept on trying to look in the nonexistant mirrors and over my shoulder before turning in for the first few corners but got used to just worrying about whats infront over time.

The track!

Hangar Straight - Stowe - Club? - Old Pit Straight - Ireland and farm? - Chapel - Hangar Straight?....Thats from memory and is probably wrong. Basically you get the whole of the Stowe end of the track...where the track narrows at chapel theres a connecting bit of track between the two sweepers and chapel that is used to make the loop - hopefully that made sense.

Best corner - Club section onto the old pit straight. Best feeling ever...drop it into the chicane on the left side....pick it up and dump it on the right open the throttle a little steal the short shift and wind on the throttle onto the old pit straight. Its hard not to giggle and think youre casey stoner through that section. The best bit of the whole day was going through there feeling like you were the complete dogs...

The overall experience & recommendation!

Fantastic. Am waiting for the weather to clear before booking another. I was lucky with the weather and got a great day (2 weeks ago?). I can imagine in the wet it would be frustrating as hell.

Go with a mate? or get paired (semi) randomly? - I went on my own and was very lucky to get paired with someone about the same speed i was. Not blowing myself here...we were the quickest pair on track and only got passed by the 1000's on the hangar straight. I can imagine if you were unlucky to get badly paired it *could* ruin the day. There is opportunity to change pairs at the end of the first session but even then its a lottery.

Id say go with someone you know, who is either faster or the same speed as you. Otherwise frustration may set in as you look to want to drag this person round. My mates are all slow old men so i gambled and won! Luckily!

The half day, in my opinion, is perfect for a first outing on track. I was left completely knackered when i got home and slept for about 16 hours. Fantastic day and waiting for the weather to have another go.

If anyone bothered to read half of it, bravo.

read all great review very honest just what i need to make a decision,
My dads thinking of goin with me.
We always ride together so could be great as my dad will calm me down and stop me going like a nutter.

[johnnyrod]

What sort of things did they teach you?

sounds great day , how much was it ? , wish they had something like that up here in scotland , glad you enjoyed it ,

[pookie]

I think it may be this one http://www.haslamraceschool.com/premier.php at £289

I've done this too and loved every minute of it. I did it back in 2010 and didn't even have my license then. Went with my brother in law (who owns a 600rr) and we were paired up and fairly well matched.
I know what you mean about that top end rush - it's addictive isn't it? The instructor taught us mostly about body positioning starting with our feet on the pegs. We were so engrained in commuting that our feet were flat on the pegs and it was amazing to see the difference just by moving the peg to the ball of the feet.
If you're thinking about doing a track day at any point in the future I'd definitely recommend doing something like this before you do

oh yea absolutely brill - £289 for 45 mins of track time !

course tyou get even less if you crash at melbourne loop on your 2nd session - 1 st lap !
Then its " are you Ok? " , yea , thats it for today , got far to go ? oh no, only 3 hrs down the M1 to London...

oh well ....

altho - i do love the Haslam family - all of them are some of the best in the race business ....unlike those prima donnas who run BSB....

I read it all and thankyou very much for writing it...

I'm thinking about doing this August 14th (available last time I looked)... but don't know if I can afford to do it. What sort of level were you at before you went to the school and how much did you learn? Do you feel like you'd be ready for any track day now?

Cheers for posting this dude, I've heard mixed reviews on this tbh. Does seem a lot of cash for 3x15 mins of track time.

I've been considering California superbike school for the last 18 months, slightly more money but a full day of tuition.

Sorry about turning up late with replies! You can tell i'm cool. 11pm on a Saturday!

Originally Posted by johnnyrod

What sort of things did they teach you?

Personally it were 2 things that i realistically had time to work on during the half day.

First was getting my head down in the bends (the instructor said i was leaning off end getting my knee down in all the right places but didnt have my head low enough to the inside of the bend - it was off to the inside but higher than should be)

Second was confidence in the slow corners. For some reason i was 100% more confident in the fast stuff than i was in the slower corners. Like the last corner onto the hangar straight my partner and the instructor would get like 15m on me just because i ddint have the confidence to slam the bike straight onto its side and wind on the throttle quickly. The instructor combatted this by making me ride close behind him as he drove really deep into a few corners round the circuit...thus forcing me to break harder and dump the bike over. Worked really well and sounds more scarey than it was!

*edit* 3 things! - running wide - partly due to the 1st issue. I was finding that as i was getting on the throttle coming out of a bend i was focusing on the outside of the bend...ended up on the green stuff coming onto the old pit straight. Instructor told me to literally point my head and eyes onto the inside white line (hard to describe..) which worked really well and pulled me round a lot sharper. So for instance the right hander onto the old pit straight i ended up looking into the pits on the right hand side to pull the bike round and stop me floating out and staring at the green stuff.

Originally Posted by pete m

oh yea absolutely brill - £289 for 45 mins of track time !

Get what you're saying totally. It went quickly and you have no time to sit down.

For a first go out on track...it was perfect for me. Taster! Yes its an expensive taster but i think i got more out of it than wobbling round brands hatch on my own on my own clapped out bike!

Originally Posted by BlackFlag94

What sort of level were you at before you went to the school and how much did you learn? Do you feel like you'd be ready for any track day now?

Find it hard to guage my level on the road. I ride with slow old men so it doesnt help. I guess i'd guess i was confident fastish road? The bloke i was paired with said he was slow inters on track days and i was about as quick as him so my only guess is slowest of the inters?!

Ready for any track day? I think it gave me a lot more confidence to go out there on my own. I probably wouldn't do one on the 650 after riding the CBR...(probably a comment that might gather hate!)

Originally Posted by specialone

Cheers for posting this dude, I've heard mixed reviews on this tbh. Does seem a lot of cash for 3x15 mins of track time.

I've been considering California superbike school for the last 18 months, slightly more money but a full day of tuition.

TBH i didnt do any research on the CSS. Dont have a clue about it so cant comment! Whats the format?
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Good to see people sharing experiences! Its expensive no doubt! And another drawback is the family have had to listen to me commentate on the F1 this weekend describing my experiences at every turn!