MEMBERS 4 : OFFICERS 0

My apologies for the late arrival of this report but we have been very busy trying to sort out events for August, September and November. Now organised for you—see end of report.

Members 4 : Officers 0, is an altogether better (and personally more comfortable) statistic than the lamentable Officers 1 : Members 0, from Castle Combe. In fact in isolation it’s a very good statistic for a day with nearly 90 riders but one, no doubt, assisted by the weather—I am intrigued to notice how, as soon as the track gets damp people stop falling off. I suspect it’s because they start riding within their capabilities, which is not what they always do in perfect conditions.

It wasn’t wet all day. Looked as though it might be and the forecast was not very reassuring but we had no rain until 12.15 and then a few showers off and on until 3ish. Best of all it chucked it down during the lunch break. There is nothing worse than dining during the only dry patch of the day.

Rain sorts the men from the boys or (as someone pointed out to us boys sheltering in the pit garage whilst the men circulated at scary speeds in front of us) them with wets from them without. It also brings out the closet pervs who take the opportunity to slip into skin tight little pvc numbers (I think they are called teddies) and strut their stuff around the paddock.

Of course there are always exceptions to the rule that no one falls off in the wet and Michael Walsh managed to be exceptional by falling off his Ducati 749 both as a novice (most unusual) and on a wet track. In his own words “accelerated too hard out of Edwina’s in the wet”. Remove the words “in the wet” and that could be virtually everyone who falls off at Mallory these days—except Advanced Group rider Colin Stevens who told me quite straight facedly that although he had lost the back wheel exiting Edwina’s he had not accelerated too hard. His mates (a group of regulars from Track Sense of whom more below) were not so straight faced.

Sympathy goes to the friends of Chris Johns (another novice dammit) who packed up early to load his bike into their van and go and give him moral support in the Leicester Royal Infirmary after he apparently broke his wrist highsiding out of Edwina’s. Chris, please email us and let us know how you are.

Turning now to number four—he will be very relieved to know that I picked up no tittle tattle about him or his fall so he can maintain his anonymity for now.

Edwina’s was designed to move the accidents from the very fast entry to the Lake Esses at the end of Stebbe Straight to its slower but technically more difficult exit. It has certainly succeeded in that but someone said to me on the day that perhaps it’s too successful as how come so many people fall off there when they don’t at the chicanes at e.g. Castle Combe? Is there something inherently wrong with its design or the surface? Or is it just that because it demands low gear and riders want to accelerate hard towards the Esses they are opening up higher up the power band than they appreciate and whilst they are still tanked over? Recipe for disaster.

I have to say that had the assemblage voted for trying out the new chicane at the end of Gerard’s (which in close up looks really horrible) I suspect we would have had many more fallers and that it would not have had any effect whatsoever on any other part of the circuit. In fact the voting against was about 10:1.

I have several awards to announce arising from behaviour at and before Mallory:

• Prima Donnas of the Day: Alex De Rijke and Aidan Walker primping themselves and their respective Ducatis so that they could be photographed in the paddock for the Performance Bikes magazine “Men and Machine” feature.
• Most Enthusiastic Novice: Liz Barringer (described to me as the “nice one with the smiley face”) who started out dead nervous, was overtaking by the end of the first novice session, learned from the racer instructors and was riding like a professional by the end of the day. She described it as the best day of her life.
• Novice of the Day: Darren Cresswell, who on his first ever track day overtook and out performed me comprehensively on (would you believe it) his Yamaha WR 450 supermoto; was bumped up into Intermediate and then rode at the front of that group whilst his mates watched agog. He did confess to riding Enduro so he is not commuter to Valentino Rossi in one easy step but even so……
• Suggestive Cheese Eating: This award goes to Lisa who although she rides an SV650 has a restricted licence and was not riding on track. She came to the Royal Arms and the day with Philip King (who she swore was her father) and was part of the dining contingent of 20 at the Folly table on the Wednesday night. My descriptive skills fail me.

We had a fantastic night at the Royal Arms where clearly the locals had got wind of our coming and we had the dining room to ourselves. Virtually all the twenty were staying there too so the place was monopolised.

Certain saddos were constantly badgering the waitresses for information on a game of football that was taking place somewhere between Arsenal and Barcelona. Eventually one of them came back to announce:

“Arsenal scored the first goal it’s 1:0”

General relief all round. Shortly afterwards she returns:

“Bad news I’m afraid. Arsenal’s goal keeper has been sent off”

(Pause)

“The score is now 20:1”

Horrified silence from those of a football persuasion before she relented and put them out of their misery. Waitress 1 : Hairy Bikers 0.

Lisa, as Philip’s companion, was part of the usual contingent of monstrous ZRX riders (generally) and machines (always) who take their annual outing at Mallory. Much more genteel (than the contingent, not Lisa) were Darren Hehir and girlfriend/lifepartner Sonia. Sonia is one of those pillion riding ladies of whom we so approve—she bought track virgin Darren a day with the Folly as his Christmas present and then came along to make sure he had a good time. He did.

Smiley Liz was also at the hotel with Folly regular Adam Soutar. They went off to their room at about midnight and he returned almost immediately to the bar apparently for a quick nightcap. I am told that a quick nightcap, several fags and a long chat with the boys lasted until about 1am. At this point with his judgement presumably somewhat impaired by alcohol he returned to the room bearing a gin and tonic for Liz!

Now over the years I have known some patient and understanding women (yes, yes, I know that is particularly necessary in my case) but I can imagine the response of even the most patient and understanding of them in such circumstances and I would not want to put that gin and tonic where directed.

Liz I am told (by herself at breakfast) woke up, sat up and, as the nice boy had brought her a G&T, drank it. And she rides a bike too!

There were three other contingents at the day itself that are worthy of mention—several quiet but oh so speedy men in Advanced all of whom are subscribers to the Sportsbiker.net message board, (thanks for coming guys see you again) a group of riders who normally ride at exotic foreign circuits (where it doesn’t rain) with TrackSense (we hope to return the favour in November) and most notably three generations of the Fox family all involved in running the day.

We are accustomed to Ian and daughter in law Justine Fox being there and erstwhile full-time officer Peter (Ian’s son) has been helping out again recently but we do not normally have seven year old Lydia helping Justine in the pit lane. Lydia very quickly picked up the necessary skills but I think I now believe that the tendency to make imperious hand gestures of the “stop there” or “hey you, over here” variety is inherited. Lydia apparently had a tummy upset that prevented her being sent to school that day. Clearly it was one that responded well to copious quantities of bacon butties, chocolate muffins and the like.

We also had two new instructors on the day—Dave Lodge and Mick Cheshire both of whom seemed to settle to the Folly ways very easily but were a little under utilized in the afternoon when the track was damp. Thank you for stepping into the breach lads. Mick was obviously impressed by us too. As soon as he got home he got onto visordown.com to sing our praises. Thank you again, every good word helps.

A final thanks to all the riders who responded magnificently to our appeal for numbers when needed. We ended up about ten short of full complement—a fantastic result.

If you missed buying photos of your glory moments at Mallory they are available to view and purchase online at http://www.reillystudios.co.uk/performanceart.php

So now to the serious business:

June

We have failed to find you a suitable day in June. Sorry, but you will all be watching football anyway.

July—Oulton Park

We really need your bookings for Oulton on July 26th. I know it seems a long way off but if you are coming please book now. Right now we are in a Mallory situation again of virtually no early bookings. This makes us really nervous and bearing in mind that we do this for you lot please give us the comfort of sending in the cheques. Booking form on our website. If you want to stay at the Swan in Tarporley on the night of the 25th definitely book now--01829 733838 or there will be no room at the inn.

We hope that Grip and Rip will be attending —if you want to pre-order tyres phone them on 07808 943458 or 07831 342851.

Steve Jordan (Mr Suspension) may also be in attendance—again if you need something special we would advise ordering in advance on 01372 453322.

August

For August we have arranged a “Club Folly” outing to Silverstone. More specifically to a Hottrax day at Silverstone on the 17th August. This is not a Folly day but we have obtained a 10% discount for Follyists who wish to attend the day. All you need do is log on to the Hottrax website http://www.hottrax.co.uk/ and book either on line or by phoning them. In either case quote the discount code folly17 and you will be able to book at £135 rather than the standard price of £150. If booking on line you need to put that code into the discount code box and then check “redeem” and the discount will be applied.

We have also selected an hotel for the evening before. It is the Saracen’s Head at Towcester, phone no 01327 350414. It looks like our kind of hotel. I will be there so I hope to see others of you there too.

Perhaps those who book for Silverstone would check into the Folly chat room and let the world know (and whether they are coming to the hotel too) so we get some idea of numbers.

September

On Monday September 11th we are doing a Donington quiet day as our season closer and possibly the Folly’s last ever day. Because it’s quiet (98db on drive by, which means about road legal or careful with the throttle) we can only have 30 on circuit at a time (normally over 40) and we will be running four groups. It is also cheaper than usual at £135 vat incl. There will however be no 10% group booking discount available. The Neil Hodgson supporters club will be attending as will Neil and perhaps James Haydon.

The booking form on the website has been updated with new dates.

The Folly’s last ever day????

Yup it’s looking increasingly likely as despite some interest no one has yet finally agreed to take over financial management and risk (and bookings of circuits and riders etc) from Ian and me and whilst willing to continue helping with running the days themselves (like the other officers) we are not going to do the off circuit admin next year. We’ve been doing it for ten years, for love not money, and we’re getting tired.

We would love to hear from potential volunteers but you need to understand that as well as commitment, charm and flair you also need a pot of about £10,000 to pay circuit hire deposits and to fund cash flow during the year.

So—Folly go wild at Almeria.

As previously trailed 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 http://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.

My guess is that we want to stay in the three star (as we will be out riding or eating most of the time anyway) but I’m happy to go with the flow, and that enough of us will be going to enable us to ensure that cars can be shared.

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.

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 Standsted, 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 or a party to mark the end of an era. 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 (I can tell you now that I am) or organise share transport etc go onto the Folly chat group and “talk” with the others.

Geoff.

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

Views or suggestions on our instructors/instructing to