AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS...

Bookings still being taken for Almeria - see end of report

Actually a word about our sponsors without whom Donington 2006, or at least Folly does Donington, wouldn’t have happened. One of our long term riders and one who entertained us hugely some years back by falling off very spectacularly half way down Starkeys Straight (yes that’s Straight) at Donington, is Donald Mackay of Proddow Mackay Solicitors and a major force behind Club Hodgson the Neil Hodgson supporters’ club. Donald’s business is largely personal injury claims (including acting for bikers) and he is good friends with Lexelle - “a leading provider of specialist insurance products and claims services which provides one of the widest ranges of added value insurance products and services available in today’s market, mainly on a wholesale basis”.

Whatever, Club Hodgson and Lexelle underwrote our Donington day, laid on Neil Hodgson and James Haydon to mingle with the masses and provided brollyless brolly girls to try and sell Hodgson t-shirts, caps and posters (score - three t-shirts and five hats or thereabouts).

Thank you guys! Other regulars please note, you don’t have to arrange sponsorship of a Folly day every year but once in a while would be nice. Do it and I’ll never mention your embarrassing accidents in public again (or not often). I need also to thank God.

He doesn’t get a lot of good press these days, at least not in nominally Anglican England, but thanks where thanks are due — He (She?) regularly lays on unbelievable weather for Folly days and Donington was no exception. Clear, blue, lovely and warm but with just enough breeze to make it pleasant. On the way home I drove (whilst thinking of one bunch of you riding to Southampton after you had collectively turned down the offer of a lift for one rider and his bike) through absolutely torrential rain. I guess it arrived at Donington about an hour after we all left.

It was a Donington “quiet day” so we were limited to 30 bikes on track at a time (normal limit is 65 — not that we ever go above 45) and had to go to four groups of 15 mins rather than our normal three groups at 20 mins each, to pay for it. There were lots of noise problems at Donington a few years ago and they got (deservedly at the time) some bad press. They’ve certainly lifted their game and noise is now measured on circuit by drive by. Infringers are black flagged and offered a bolt on, removable “exhaust gas deflector” at cost price of £15 for DIY or £25 fitted. We had a couple of black flags, four deflectors sold and only one real problem. Jim the fitter was miffed - “I saw lots of race cans and thought great, a £90 day for fitting. But you were all so careful.”

As usual it’s the officers and instructors who cause the most problems and this time it was instructor Steve Jordan, who late in the day, finding himself without a pupil, went for a little blast. 111db on drive by and 60db on the Environment Agency’s noise sensors in Castle Donington over a mile away had the Local Authority on the blower within seconds!

Oblivious to all this I was tootling around the circuit on my half share FZR 600 (more of this anon) at about 4pm and on returning to the pit lane found a committee of officers including big Ian Fox and her in charge of the pit lane (Justine) waiting for me and looking serious. Assuming, naturally, that I’d done something wrong — I generally have — I was relieved to discover that although I had to report to the noise control enforcement officer on the top floor of the control tower for ritual chastisement/abasement, it was someone else in trouble.

Well me and Mr Noise got on just fine and I returned shortly to the pits to hand down a rest of the day ban on Steve who was just packing up anyway. As well as helping out with the instruction he’d had a busy day sorting out suspension settings for a number of riders.

Our view on the noise? Donington quiet is now fine and everyone should be able to ride there if they are a little careful on their choice of pipes or are prepared to add a Scorpion deflector.

Add the fact that Chief Marshal/Clerk of the Course Vaughn managed to run the tannoy all day without insulting all the riders and their parents and it felt quite civilised. He’s obviously achieved karma with his new slim line profile.

Dinner at the Donington Manor was also very civilised until the late comers arrived — Dick Powell, Rick Roberts, Aidan Walker and Alex De Rijke’s shorts. Alex was in them but they were so orangely garish that one sort of didn’t notice the wearer. They are Norwegian road crew day glow warn off the traffic shorts — don’t ask.

Until then I thought that Duncan Edwards’ patterned shirt took the biscuit, but Alex’s shorts were the whole bloody biscuit tin! No doubt a suitable photo will appear on the website which, was, no doubt the intention.

There were seventeen for dinner and a similar number for breakfast at 7am. Breakfast was enlivened by Aidan feeling that his manhood was being impugned by fact that he was given a small cafetiere for his coffee whilst everyone else got a man sized one. The little old ladies (Dick called them “Acorn Antiques”) took pity and brought him a rugby player sized item instead.

We were just over 90 at the circuit which is a very manageable number and could probably have gone to three groups but by then it’s a bit late to reassign people. Only two fell off. One in the morning (Tig on (or should I say off) his ZRX1200R muscle bike at Melbourne Hairpin. His very bent handlebar was sorted by Grip and Rip. And officer Graham “Bin it” Alcock and the Rizla GSXR at McLeans. He was first out in the Advanced group and found some oil left by the preceding novices - we don’t know how but one of them did it. In fact another one reported it to Justine at the end of the session but by the time the message had got to Race Control Graham had spotted it too. Graham put up a very respectable story that he had just been doing his officerly duty in drawing everyone’s attention to this track hazard.

Actually not entirely true to say that only two fell off as I did hear a rumour of a man who fell off whilst mounting (the bike of course) in his garage before even going on circuit. Fortunately for his blushes I did not get his name.

Justine got out on track at lunch time. Consent was granted to husband Peter Fox taking her for a couple of laps on his Suzuki 650. She was not convinced to go solo.

Another bike sharer gave the marshals a hard time. Paul Harris was sporting sparky knee sliders and obviously getting them down but each time the marshals came looking for his bike in the pits after seeing him offending on track the bike was back out there with another rider. It took them some time to nab him!

Guzzi was pants again. Either I’ve lost confidence in its stability since Castle Combe or there is something inherently unstable about it this season. Anyway it cracked an exhaust weld again after three rather nervous sessions so I spent the rest of the day having great fun on my half owned 1993 FZR 600 ending up with a dice with Jeff Brown on his GSXR 750. As he is going to be the boss next year (well actually I suspect that Jackie Brown will be the real boss) I may need to be less competitive when giving him a 150cc advantage.

And that brings me very neatly to the fact that Donington was Ian Fox’s and my last days as proprietors of the Folly (proprietor means those whose cash is at risk). We’ve been “in charge” since the late 90’s and couldn’t have done it without all the volunteer officers and all the support from the members. Some of you have been riding with the Folly since the early 90s. We have had a great time. Haven’t lost our shirts and we are hugely grateful to all of you for your support.

Business as usual next year, its just that him and me will be looking cool and relaxed and Jeff and Jackie will be looking harassed. They’ve started working on a programme for the year which will as usual be announced in February. I’m sorry to say I will still be doing the briefings (for so long as I behave myself) and Ian will still be coolly efficient at sign on. All the other familiar faces will still be in evidence.

If you are coming to Almeria (and about 12 of us have booked now) see you there. If you want to come and haven’t yet booked get your finger out. Otherwise have a good off season—we’ll see you next year. If you want your track bike fettled in the off season give Simon “Wally” Watson (the sort of official Folly mechanic) a call — it’s what he does and very well too. How else could a 12 year old 600 show a new 750 how to do it? He’s based in Bishops Stortford tel 01279 755544.

DONINGTON PHOTOS

If you missed buying photos of your glory moments at Donington they are available to view and purchase online at http://www.edpphoto.com/galleries.htm with a selection of smaller images in the Folly Photo Gallery.

ALMERIA

We are supporting the Track Sense outing to Almeria in Southern Spain for the weekend of 24th to 26th November. You can find details of Track Sense and their days at www.tracksense.co.uk.

They are doing a special deal for Folly riders (which is about a 15% discount) as follows:

£549 per rider incl. 3 trackdays, 4 nights 3 star hotel, bike transport & car rental (car is for airport/hotel/circuit transfers, and detailed driving directions are provided)... Non-riders £138 each... Prices are based on 2 sharing a 3 star room and a basic car (Opel Corsa or similar)... 4 star hotel is £10pppn extra, single rooms are £10pn extra for 3 star, or £14pn extra for 4 star, single occupancy car £38 extra.

I’m staying four star which is, I understand the posh annexe of the three star across the road. Others have chosen three star.

You fly out on a Thursday and back on the Monday although you can probably fly back Sunday night if you must—I’m told it’s a sweat and you are too tired to work on Monday anyway. I’ve decided that three days on track is a bit much for me so I’m flying home Sunday during the day.

Track Sense say:

Almeria circuit is situated near the coast in an area of southern Spain that is officially classed as a desert, so the winter climate is very bike-friendly (typically it's 21 degrees with 7 hours of sunshine per day in November). The circuit is 2.5 miles long, and is used for testing by many MotoGP, BSB & WSB teams, as well as for Spanish national championship racing. It is twisty, technical & undulating, with 13 turns (8 right & 5 left), a left-right chicane, and a 950m back straight. There are large run-off areas at every corner, the paddock is huge, and all garages are equipped with power, light, toilets & showers. A cafeteria serves good food all day, and we don't skimp on medical cover either (2 doctors, 1 paramedic, 1 nurse and 2 ambulances (one of which is a fully-equipped ICU) are at the circuit every day). We operate a 3 group system on track, with 7 hours of tracktime per day, and free tuition by our own instructors, all of which are multiple national champions. There are mechanics, an interpreter, a fuel service, and a tyre sales & fitting service at the track every day, and hire bikes (track prepared 2006 Yamaha R6) are also available.

We offer a choice of 3 star & 4 star hotels in Almeria old town. The town is a lively place on the coast, with lots to do in the evenings. For the ladies (the ones that aren't riding that is), there are lots of shops, historic buildings & cobbled streets to explore during the day.

Getting there is simple... All you have to do is to drop your bike off on the Sunday before the event, fly to Spain, and pick up your bike on the Sunday after the event... There are lots of other bike drop off & collection options, bikes are transported in purpose-built steel cradles by motorcycle specialists, and all bikes are fully insured whilst in transit and in store. Ryanair & Easyjet have daily flights to Almeria from Stansted, and they are cheap if you book reasonably early (typically less than £50 return incl. taxes). There are lots more low-cost flights from other UK airports (see the flight advice page on our website for details). For the November event, you need to fly out on Thurs 23rd, and fly home on Mon 26th, but if you want to stay longer to explore the local area or whatever, extra nights in the hotel are not a problem.

For more details & info, visit our website at www.tracksense.co.uk To book, simply give us a call on 08704 450 600... A £199 deposit is required at the time of booking, and the balance is due 1 month before departure.

They also say that group for group their usual riders are slightly faster than we are so if you would normally ride slow inter (if we give you a choice) go novice with them. If you would normally ride fast inter then stay in inter.

Please bear in mind that the Folly are not organising this outing. We hope lots of Follyists will go because we would like to share a celebration that the Folly will live on (Cava anyone?). If you want to go deal direct with Track Sense who will customise deals for you if you want or need them to.

If you want to find out who else is going or organise share transport etc go onto the Folly chat group and “talk” with the others. An Almeria thread exists.

Geoff.

Any comments on the day or this newsletter (not bookings) to me at