DON'T MENTION GLOBAL WARMING!

With all this talk about global warming you could be forgiven for thinking that the climate is getting warmer. But given the miserable cold start to the year it would seem that someone is pulling our collective legs (and using it as a convenient reason to squeeze some more taxes out of us).

Given that Spring never really looked like getting off the ground this year it was no great surprise to find that the forecast for the day was cold and wet.

As usual, various miscreants met up at the Crown the night before to enjoy a leisurely dinner and some friendly banter. We were joined by Barbara and Steve Dalloway, Mark Finburgh, Graham Alcock, Colin Mills and Dave Greenaway. Brian Holton travelled over from the Jolly Huntsman and God only knows what he made of the motley crew he encountered. To be fair the evening was quite refined until Richard Morris arrived - just in time for dessert - and then the tone just deteriorated. However, a good time was had by all concerned.

The following morning dawned cold and wet (how unusual) and it was drizzling on the way to the circuit, although the forecast promised that it would blow over by late morning. However, as riders started to arrive, the rain became more persistent.

As usual at Castle Combe there was the noise-testing gauntlet to run. There were only two bikes that failed to get through – one was Ian Fox’s K7 GSXR1000 (K7 Gixer owners take note) and the other was Dave Gregory’s CBR600 (let down by the special exhaust system fitted). To give him his due, Dave made about six attempts to get it through.

Graham Alcock delivered the briefing like a veteran and was keen to stress that riders should do their best to avoid accidents (this wastes everyone’s time) and trips to hospital should be avoided at all costs. Bear these immortal words in mind for later in the report.

Advanced group were on track first and despite the rain and the wet track, there were brave (foolish?) souls raring to go in the pit lane. On the very first lap of the day Nick Leatherland had the misfortune to be the first casualty after losing the front end in the wet. Although Nick escaped with just a grazed hand, sadly the bike (a brand new BMW) sustained a fair amount of damage (ouch)

The rest of the groups followed in turn and even though the conditions were tricky and slippery, most riders seemed keen to get out on track.

Second casualty of the day was Ian Ayres who also lost the front end. Ian was ok and the Daytona lost a mirror. Fortunately Ian was able to continue for the rest of the day.

As the morning was progressing it was noted by Richard and Graham while sitting in the café that the HM Plant Honda team had turned up. Richard remarked “perhaps we ought to go out and show them how it’s done”, “What? Crashing” asked Graham, “Crashing with style!” replied Richard.

This leads quite nicely on to the third and fourth casualties which happened together. Steve Johnson lowsided on his Fireblade and went down in front of Graham Alcock who had to anchor on and also lost the front (crashing with some style). Both riders suffered broken collar bones (obviously not wishing to be outdone by each other). Steve opted to tough it out and not bother with a trip to the hospital. Graham (let’s avoid trips to hospital – remember?) was advised to go to hospital as he’d broken the same collar bone previously. For the record, that’s actually his third broken collar bone. So he spent an exhilarating four hours in A&E in Bath.

The irony was that Graham had only just put the mended fairing back on the GSXR that very morning having had it repaired following his off at Donington Park at the end of 2006. (Yes, it took that long to repair.) Fortunately the damage was mainly cosmetic so Ian Lishman was able to carry on riding during the afternoon.

Fortunately the weather picked up at lunchtime. The rain disappeared, the sun made a valiant effort to break through and the stiff breeze dried the track quite quickly. As a result all the riders were able to get out and have a good blast in the afternoon sessions.

There was only one casualty in the afternoon and that was Martin Young, one of the PEMC riders, the other two being Laurie Evans and Robert Roe. Martin suffered no lasting damage but it looks like his wallet will take a beating with regard to fixing his BMW. I know there were quite a few PEMC spectators so there will be no keeping it quiet.

The afternoon made up for the wet morning somewhat, but if there’s anyone listening up there – a completely dry day would make a nice change. To add insult to injury, the next day was warm and sunny with temperatures about 16 degrees, which was great for the HM Plant and Northwest 200 boys who were testing there.

Nigel and team from EDP Photos were on hand to photograph the day’s action so if anyone wants photos you can order them from www.edpphotonews.com.

We have another two events to come this year. We are at Rockingham on Monday 4th August riding the National Circuit, and we are back at Castle Combe on Monday 15th September. There is a 105dB noise limit for the latter event, and the cost for each day is £135.

The events can be booked online at our website and accommodation information can be found under ‘Events & Bookings’. We will have Grip 'n' Rip on hand, as well as EDP Photo. So put it in your diary and come and join us for another great track day.

Jackie