IS THAT A WIGWAM DOWN THERE OR IS THIS THE DTS?
"Faster, young man!"
Click the image for the larger version
Drawing
courtesy of
Glockwork.
Anyone who has attended one of our novice
briefings will
understand the significance of "Granny on the back".
Happy Christmas and an enjoyable New Year to all of you from all of
us at the Folly.
Next year’s plans are looking good. Provisional dates and venues are:
Mon 23rd April Castle Combe Quiet day
Tues 15th May Mallory Park
Mon 11th June Cadwell Park
Tues 3rd July Oulton Park
Tues 7th Aug Mallory Park
Mon 10th Sept Brands Indy
Mon 1st Oct Rockingham
One major change over previous years by popular demand is that we are
presently putting the finishing touches in place to allow online
bookings with credit cards. You will still be able to order by post
using our booking form and a cheque should you so wish and indeed if you
want to take advantage of our block booking deal, you'll need to do it
that way anyway!
If all goes to plan we hope to end the year with another trip to
Almeria with Track Sense as all who went in November reported positively
and Track Sense said that we behaved ourselves (even though two of us
fell off—tut, tut).
Thank you from us to all of you for supporting us during 2006. We had
a great year and ended up with as much money as we had at the beginning
(that doesn’t always happen!). Look forward to seeing you next year.
In total eleven Folly riders and one guest went to Almeria
which, if it wasn’t for the fact that so many more have regularly asked
us to organise overseas event for so many years, I would regard as
pretty good for our first overseas outing.
The riders were Sid Reed (GSXR 1000 K1) with Carole Sims, Keith
Cunningham and Mark Chamberlain (ZRX1100s), Philip King (Fireblade), Matt
Long (FireBlade), Geoff Kendall (Fireblade), David Cooper (R1), Terry
Harris (Aprilia RSVR “Factory”), Jeff and Jackie Brown (sharing a GSXR
750) and me with the trusty Moto Guzzi.
All had heeded Track Sense’s warning that their groups were faster
than ours and with the exception of Geoff Kendall booked for
intermediate or novice. Geoff tried but ended up in advanced, which was
very, very fast. He managed to negotiate an orderly retreat into
intermediate on the first morning and then found himself on or over the
pace in intermediate where he could dice happily with David and Terry.
If I had wanted any dicing I should have ridden novice. In two days
of riding I managed to overtake one other rider in intermediate! In my
defence I should point out that I had been very nervous of the 1100
Sport since we fell off at Castle Combe in April and although it had
been fully fettled and passed as fit by Track Sense’s own mechanic Andy
(an ex Moto Guzzi race mechanic) before being shipped out to Spain it
took me a little while to get my confidence back. It was also the oldest
and slowest bike at the circuit which circuit is not designed for slow
bikes. Whilst the back section is fabulously technical with bend after
bend after bend, the whole lot is linked together by a 0.9 km straight.
You can picture the scene… Me, eyes staring, sweat beading, throwing
the bulk of the Guzzi from side to side through the back section and
gradually closing on those Blades, Gixxers and the like so that by the
hairpin at the end I’m the last man in a tight bunch. Suddenly the
straight opens up and all I can see are some miniature bikes somewhere
in the distance probably getting close to their 160mph terminal
velocity. Down I go, flat on the tank, using both handfuls of throttle,
paddling with both feet and managing about 120mph before braking hard
into the uphill righthander at the beginning of the start/finish
straight.
By now the rest of them are sailing past the pit garages…
I was very pleased to overtake one bike.
So the riding was fun, the circuit very interesting and technical
with a blind brow, a long knee down lefthander, a fast but scary
(because you can see it coming and it looks slower than it is) “ess” ,
and just so many other corners that it took me most of the first day
just to work out where I was and what was coming up next.
The pit garages are amazing, each with their own loo and shower as
well as power and lock down doors for overnight. The canteen is better
than most in the UK and opens directly to a long viewing terrace on top
of all the pit garages from whence you can see nearly all the
circuit--what an excellent idea.
All this topped off by the fact that it is situated about 30km inland
from Almeria (which itself is about two and a half hours east of Malaga)
in the desert foothills of the Sierra Nevada (think Spaghetti Westerns)
so in November the weather is perfect—blue skies, breeze, but not so hot
that you need to take those leathers off between sessions, and very,
very dry.
Getting there was a pleasure. I delivered my bike to Track Sense (for
fettling and shipping) and motored down to Cardiff for some family catch
up on the Wednesday night, met up with Terry and Dave on Thursday
morning and flew from Cardiff to Malaga. (Some fly direct to Almeria).
Apart from getting soaked on the walk to the plane, Terry directing half
the HGV traffic in South Wales on his mobile and Dave telling us that
the European weather forecast (falsely it proved) said rain on Saturday
the journey was uneventful.
Malaga airport has an interesting car park, which seems to have no
exit. Terry found a convenient bit of pavement, dodged a few
pedestrians, and shortly thereafter we were eating grilled sardines at a
beach café.
The road to Almeria is just amazing. It’s slowly becoming motorway
but motorway or not it hugs the coast at several hundred feet above the
sea with precipitous drops on the right. Worth going just for that
drive.
Now of course, as all seasoned trackies will know, it is not sensible
to over indulge the night before; particularly not if you need to learn
a new circuit. As a result we only drank four beers each in the Almeria
hotel whilst awaiting the arrival of Geoff Kendall and brother Mick
(down to supervise the building of his local pad) and only about a
bottle of wine each with our fish dinner later… As a further result I
only drove about 10km back towards Malaga next morning before realising
the error of my ways and doing a U-turn on the coastal highway… The
following 30km drive to the circuit itself (hey, are those wigwams down
there?, is that a US Cavalry fort?) was faster and more concentrated
than I would have chosen but we arrived before the briefing—just.
Could have been worse. The entire upstairs of the restaurant had been
taken for a Spanish hen party. The gents was up there. As the evening
wore on the level of noise from upstairs increased. Every time one of us
went up to the gents it peaked as we ran the gauntlet. Fortunately my
Spanish is poor (non-existent really) and their English patchy. Terry
however was asked meaningfully whether he had seen “The Full Monty”. He
expressed innocent ignorance and retreated.
I was impressed by Track Sense’s organisation. The briefing was good
(and longer than mine please note), sign on trouble free, the bikes were
all waiting on their pallets, everything happened on time and there were
very few stoppages. Tyres fuel and mechanics were available if required
and there was maximum track time including no lunch break if you were
really keen. In between sessions you could watch, wander and chat, or
enjoy the surroundings. Now I know this is not a travelogue but I should
point out that there is something a bit special about a backdrop of
folded mountains (soft rock shaped by occasional but torrential rain so
with fluted gullies running down their sides) and clear desert air all
under a hazy blue sky—eat your heart out Snetterton.
Spectating is also worth doing here. Not only because of the roof
terrace but also because some of those fast men are really fast. I would
mention particularly a large contingent of Finns who attend regularly as
a group organised by Joha Berner (he rode BSB in ’97 and ’99) and now
has his own race team in Finland. We were much entertained by team
member and Finnish Nat. Championship contender, 21 years old (and thus
totally fearless), Aki Taipale on his GSXR 1000 K5 and by the older,
pipe smoking, and didn’t look the part at all, Jussi Nuppohen on a
tricked up Ducati whose riding was just stupendous. The fast group was
very fast but watching from the terrace you could see these guys just
reeling in the others as though they were standing still.
On the Saturday morning something was not quite right with Aki’s
bike. On each occasion that he exited the esses at the start of the
start-finish straight (so right in front of the pit garages) the bike
would go into an almighty wobble and we were all expecting it to turn
into a tank-slapper and see him cartwheeling down the run off—this
generally occurred whilst he was winding it open and coming upright down
the edge of the rumble strip! After two sessions of this the team
decided there was something wrong with the fork set up and he sat out
for two sessions whilst the mechanics worked on the bike. It did the
trick and things appeared much more stable until, towards the end of the
day when, presumably, tyre wear started producing the same effect again.
Not something that we would usually witness at a Folly day.
Saturday morning was also slightly more clear-headed as at our
restaurant on Friday evening we drank less, but better quality, wine.
Jeff and Jackie joined us and we dined on Octopus and Sweetbreads
amongst other regional delicacies.
Also by Saturday riders new to Almeria were beginning to get the hang
of it. It’s just great to be able to turn up on the second (and third if
you stay) day to find the bike ready to go, no sign on and no briefing.
Just get on your bike and ride. Tony of Track Sense says that in his
opinion one of the reasons that they have so few fallers is because
everyone is so relaxed. There is no need to push it on day one and pace
can be gradually increased over the whole weekend. There is also the
point that if you and your bike are several thousand miles from home
dropping it is rather more serious, particularly if early on.
Saturday was the last day for Terry, Dave and me although the rest of
the Follyists were staying for Sunday. Sid and Carole stayed for the
following week—Carole’s reward for supporting Sid in the paddock I
guess. At the end of the day we packed our bikes and kit bags onto the
pallets and headed back to the hotel for one last night on the town and
to prepare ourselves for the 7.30 am start next day. As on the previous
night we took over the sauna and jacuzzi at the hotel (to be recommended
as a post track relaxant) before going out.
Verdict—wonderful. Hope to go again. Tony says he will do the Folly
another deal next year. The weekend will be Friday 23 to Sunday 25
November 2007 inclusive.
If you want to mail me with comments try . If
you sent me a Christmas card with an illegible signature and enclosing a
press cutting photo of a young woman dancing ... please confess, I'm
bemused.
Geoff.
|
The Motorcycle Folly :: News & Pictures
