Cadwell Park Track Day 13th + 14th of February 2010

[chris128]

Anyone fancy doing either (or both) of these track days at Cadwell? Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th of February. Only £59 for each day

I'm not sure if I want to go as there's a fairly high chance of the weather being pretty crap, but if a few others are going then I might book the saturday and if its nice weather see if I can cheekily book the next day there and then (cos if its anything like the track day I did this weekend then there wont be many people fighting for places on it...)

Come on PhilGale, you know you want another one to add to your long list of track days

[Guest philgale]

would love to mate, but isnt the 14th valentines day???? plus im working

[chris128]

oh yeah it is isnt it... I split up with my girlfriend last weekend so things like remembering valentines day are automatically erased from my memory

I might just go and do the saturday anyway just for the sake of a bit more experience on the track seen as its quite cheap. If anyone else fancies it then let me know and we can meet up

[chris128]

BOOKED! Both days. Better not rain on both of em or I'll be gutted.

[Guest philgale]

bast*rd....wish i was off work and could go..

instead gotta wait till the 20th to get out

[chris128]

lol ah well its only a few days later I noticed they also have "evening" sessions at cadwell in the summer, I wonder what time they start and finish as I might be able to get there after work... they are real cheap though so I assume you dont get that much time on track.

Still cant decide whether or not to book the Saturday in March as well as the Friday! I asked them if there was any chance of a discount if I bought both together but unfortunately not

[Guest philgale]

discount depends on who you know i got discount on both days

evening days tend to give you max 3 sessions depending on light, generally start about 5 or 6 so finish around 8 or 9.

can be a good taster for little money, if i get over to cadwell again which im sure i will ill look at doing a full day then an evening and maybe a day after if there is one...

oh, you need to get over to angelsey at some point as well, im planning 4th 5th april its easter sunday and monday....got them booked off work so will rob pay for them next month

[chris128]

Yeah I just spoke to the guy at NoLimits and he said that the evening sessions run from 5:30 to 8:00 PM with just 2 groups (slow/fast). So will probably give these a go considering they are only £40. They dont start doing them until summer though obviously.

[chris128]

oh, you need to get over to angelsey at some point as well, im planning 4th 5th april its easter sunday and monday....got them booked off work so will rob pay for them next month

Isnt it bloody miles away though, in Wales?? Unless I have a track bike and a trailer by then then I doubt I'll be going as I dont fancy riding my bike all the way there (specially with no GPS)

[Guest philgale]

its sooooo easy to find, especially from my house...

just jump on the m56 and drive until you see a sign post for anglesey circuit...

[chris128]

Even if that is the case (and trust me I would still get lost) its still the opposite side of the country to me lol I'm on the east coast and its on the west coast... I'll just stick to Cadwell for now

[Guest philgale]

Even if that is the case (and trust me I would still get lost) its still the opposite side of the country to me lol I'm on the east coast and its on the west coast... I'll just stick to Cadwell for now

 

i manage to get over to cadwell

[chris128]

lol manchester isnt quite as far away as the west coast of Wales I drive to Manchester (well Bury, pretty near I think) every Friday for work

[Guest philgale]

i forgot to mention i went via kent to pick a bike up on my way to cadwell

[chris128]

Yay this has finally come around Just been out on my bike though and its bloody freeeeezing. As long as it doesnt snow tomorrow and isnt too wet then I'm happy, its been quite sunny here for the last couple of days so here's hoping!

I'll update this thread tomorrow or Sunday with some video from the track

[Guest philgale]

have a great one chris, you will love it mate....

just remember it will take a little longer to warm your rubber up on the cold track

look forward to the videos

[chris128]

Yeah that was something I've been meaning to ask actually, roughly how many laps are we talking before your tyres are warm enough for you to start going for it? I know there is no exact answer to that question but at the moment I have no idea at all so to me it could be 2 or it could be 20... so if you can give me any rough idea it would be better than what I've got at the moment

[Revvin Kevin]

Take the first lap very steadily to sight the damp/frost patches then progressively up your pace but not braking or accelerating too hard for the first two laps. The tyres will be warm enough by the 3rd lap to ride a bit harder but still beware of the cooler damp patches around the Hairpin and Barn in particular.

If its wet, treat it as if you're riding on ice because you won't be far off on road tyres in these temps.

[chris128]

OK thanks last time I went (in january) it was damp but not soaking wet and it dried up towards the afternoon so I'm hoping it will be similar this time... pretty much no chance at all of it being completely dry when I first get there at 8 in the morning. Although looking on the BBC weather forecast it says rain for both days anyway, time for me to get some sleep ready for the finger numbing half hour ride out to the track tomorrow morning. Please dont be snowy

[Guest philgale]

0 laps for me i use these. best thing ever. go out first lap ever session and gun it. apart from sighting laps of course.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm99/tmbf_photos/Image011.jpg

[chris128]

How much did they set you back though? and I dont have any way of getting them to the track at the mo anyway lol

Anyway, just got back from the first day at Cadwell - was icy in the morning so they didnt let us start until 10 AM but then as there werent a lot of people they split us into 2 groups instead of 3 so that we got 30 mins per session instead of 20 mins which was good.

Then it was sunny and started to dry up.. but about half way through one of my sessions it started raining again Then it dried up a bit again over dinner... then rained again as soon as we got out.. then dried up a bit again for the last couple of sessions lol so quite a mixed day. I did get some footage but I foolishly took the camera out in one of the sessions where it was raining a bit and ended up with water inside the lens. It also didnt record audio for 2 of the sessions... so I'm going to see if I can get a replacement camera next week. I'll upload some of the more interesting bits of the video tomorrow night

[Guest philgale]

Sounds like a fun day...those earners cost me £70 I think

[chris128]

Well today was more of the same really, the weather was on and off constantly. Raining one minute then sunshine the next (though more rain than yesterday). I had a good time still though, although I did nearly run off the track at one point haha and I was hampered a bit by the fact that I was just on normal road tyres and most other people were on proper wet weather tyres, but I was surprised how much grip I still had on the road tyres. On the last session they put novice and inters all together... now I thought I was going fairly well in novice, I was overtaking quite a few people and there were only a couple of people that seemed to really get away from me easily (and in my opinion they were way too fast for the novice group) so I thought maybe I could keep up with a few people in inters.. but my god I was wrong. They all just left me for dust haha it got quite frustrating trying to keep up with them, specially when I kept messing up the lines and making silly mistakes (at one point I somehow change down a gear when I meant to change up!). But then I suppose I've got to think that this was only my 3rd track day ever so I cant expect to be much good yet... specially on a bog standard road bike.

Looking forward to doing some in the dry though cos I think riding in the wet will have built my confidence in the dry up quite a bit. Also looking forward to there being more people on track cos I find it quite boring when you don't see another bike for the entire session...

[Netmeister]

Glad you had a good weekend matey, even though you had a few problems along the way.

It's not all bad riding in the wet. As you say it will go a long way to improving your dry weather riding and showing you how much grip you really have.

Got any pics of videos to show?

[chris128]

Just putting a little video together now