THE GOOD LORD SMILES……..

The title is a reference to the weather¬¬-of which more later........

First thanks to Justine for the Oulton report although I understand she did not mention (as I very definitely would have) the circuit management’s addition to Graham’s briefing—a goose warning! Yellow flags at Oulton may now mean Canada geese ahead, crossing the circuit—on foot.

I missed Oulton whilst holidaying on the Greek island of Cephalonia. If your bike travels ever take you to south-western Greece then take a ferry to Cephalonia. It’s covered by mountains going up to 5.500 ft and the EU has paid for fantastic roads all around it. They are cut into the mountainsides at about 1.000 feet above the sea. Incredible, and scary. Unfortunately I only had a hire car.

Back to Leicestershire: no one really believed that it wouldn’t rain in the Midlands for our Mallory day. The weather had been atrocious for at least a week and it was pouring on the South Coast and in the North that day but the clouds parted over Mallory Park and we had a day of blue skies, largely white clouds and approximately nineteen drops of rain. As observed—the Good Lord smiles on the righteous.

As usual we shared the canteen with fishermen. Unusually we shared the Royal Arms on the preceding evening with some of them too. Apparently (I asked) the Mallory lakes complex (there are dozens more outside the circuit) is famous for its fishing. This lot were down from Nottingham for their annual week away. Never before have we woken to the sight of serried ranks of keep nets drying (?) on the dewy grass outside the hotel. Breakfast was strictly segregated; twelve bikers in one room, anglers in another.

At dinner I sat next to Gregg Benner, one of the ZRX bunch (1200 in his case) and a USAF helicopter mechanic. He was obviously a fast rider (this is not an ironic comment) as despite the fact that it was to be only his third track day next day he was happily (although not of choice) booked into Advance. Less happily he managed to wangle a swap down into Intermediate with Dick (Honorary Dr of Design he tells me) Powell and fell off as soon as he was let off the leash in the first session of the day. Edwinas of course, but on the way in. Front slid away.

His bike was largely undamaged but he sprained or broke something in his left foot. It was all bandaged up and I have never seen such swollen toes—ouch. Fortunately he had come in a van but was going to find out if he could operate all three pedals with his right foot. Hope you got home safely Gregg. Hope to see you again.

Advanced had a number of very fast riders—so fast in fact that Dick used the first opportunity to scuttle back into Intermediate. Don’t get me wrong on this he’s a fast rider and rode for years in Advanced it’s just they were very fast. In fact I decided to go out with them myself and find out just how fast they were. A goodly number overtook me and I think I only overtook one (but I would have taken Graham Alcock too if he hadn’t run out of petrol) but one bloke (don’t know who he was or what he was riding—didn’t have time to see) came past me out of the Esses at what, I swear, was twice the speed I was doing.

Dick may have also been influenced by the fact that, unusually, most of the offs occurred in Advanced. I waited until they’d got that out of their collective system before I ventured out with them.

Some of those fast riders were with a group of 15 riders from the internet chat group Sportsbiker.co.uk who’d come along to the day for their “Sportsbiker Summer Bash” so that they could chat to each other face to face and ride together for some fun. From the size of their smiles they appeared to enjoy themselves and we hope to see them again.

Overall however, a good day for fallers (not them personally you understand) as only five came off which is about half the industry average. One incident in particular must be recorded for posterity. This rider scraped the high curb while entering the hairpin thus spoiling his line somewhat and sending him off at a tangent up the exit road from the circuit. Realising that he was speeding straight towards the metal five bar gate he desperately pulled right—straight into the Armco over which he shot, slap into the old style red telephone box.

I didn’t get this from him but understand he was uninjured. My source was Diane, the hairpin marshal, who was still shaking at lunchtime. “Never seen it before. Don’t think anyone else has ever hit the telephone box.” According to Chief Marshal Wayne her radio message to Control at the time was very short and uncharacteristically loud (“She never normally shouts”)—“Ambulance, NOW!”.

The other event I must mention relates to husband and wife riders Ruth and David Sexton. He borrowed her bike and dropped it, was recovered by ambulance. She went to the medical centre to find out what had happened. I am reliably informed that her first words to him were “How’s my bike?” followed immediately by “What did you do this time?” Ah, the sympathetic female. I am pleased to report that all three of them were back on track in the afternoon.

On the subject of females (one of my favourite subjects) nice to welcome back Janet Bradbury and new regular Lottie Roskill who, famously, turned down a free day at Brands to come and play with us at Oulton. We are hugely complimented.

Improver of the day award goes to Paul Roberts, a first timer (who I met at a business dinner and convinced to come along) on his big, black, something or other, sit up and beg Yamaha. 40mph around Gerrards at the beginning of the day and pushing 80mph by the end. That’s progress.

On the admin side I am pleased to announce that we have succeeded in recruiting two new volunteer officers to take over Peter Fox’s responsibilities when he retires after Snetterton. Richard Morris (garrulous ZXR rider) for web stuff and e-coms and Jeff Brown (silver and black GSXR 750 and lovely wife Jackie who comes to all the days but will now have to take up track riding!) for database and related paperwork. Jeff rode in Intermediate for the first time at Mallory.

Finally Snetterton, last day of the season, is at yes, Snetterton, on Thursday September 23rd. We are scratching around for numbers so first 60 to book get £10 off so that’s £80 for the day. N.B. This offer cannot be used in addition to our normal 10% discount schemes (groups etc). Booking form and hotel details on the website. August weather may have been (and is likely to continue) awful but the weather watchers among you will have noticed that September has been pretty good over the last few years and, hey, we’re the Folly and the sun always shines……………………

Geoff.

Any comments on the day or this newsletter (not bookings) noisygeoff @ megalith.plus.com.

Views or suggestions on our instructors/instructing to mike.edwards @ biketrackdays.co.uk.