Mark Hanna from Cadwell

well,, it’s been a few weeks since I put anything on the old net for you,, but since I been on last its been a bit of a rollercoaster ride;;;,, I’ve been from pembrey to japan for the eight hour at suzuka;; and I was with john mcguinness, keith amor and cameron donald…; it was a big experience for me ,, I’ve done most things in racing but ive never been to suzuka so it’s a box that I’ve ticked and a life time ambition….

unfortunately we didn’t finish the race;; we qualified well, the boys rode really good,, but we had a bit of an issue in the race with the rear end of the bike so out of safety reasons we pulled out but we’ll be back there next year and hopefully get a top ten result for Honda;;

since then I got back on the Monday;; keith phoned and I was over to oulton park with him on the Tuesday!! We got there and had a good track day ;; then on to brands for another day and what a big improvement I’ve seen in keith’s riding;; as I’ve said before he’s come from being a track day boy to a racer now.

from there we had a week off then it was up to cadwell park for the next round of the hottrax endurance championship;; we were all looking forward to that,, for me I was thinking it was going to be our bogey track;;. It’s such a hard track to learn and keith had only been here once;; it’s so uphill, downhill, blind, off-camber;; and such a hard circuit to get your head round,,…..

we started out on Monday evening,, keith got his head down and rode for a couple of hours;;. Tuesday we did a full track day;; but on the last lap of the last session keith came off on the gooseneck;;.. didn’t damage himself thankfully ,, bike took a bit of a battering,, with all the new Samsung bodywork now in a box needing repair;;;..

so thankfully no injuries,, repaired the bike;; and wednesday we had a day off ,, and were fortunate to be here,, as all the top honda teams like hm plant and wfr were testing in the evening::;; so we watched them boys and I think keith probably learned more watching top riders out there than what he did riding round the track on tuesday;; seeing how they attack the mountain, the gooseneck,, seeing their lines..;;

on thursday we’d booked a full track day with mike ‘spike‘ edwards,, for him and keith to do a bit of work together;;:,, so keith had both mike and myself badgering him all day,, must do this ,, must do that!! friday came and we had a day of practice for hottrax,,, keith got his laptimes down to a ’42 flat;;; he wasn’t happy but I was,, knowing how hard cadwell is,,, and you have to keep attacking it day after day. then saturday qualifying…;;; well what can I say?? the boy was quickest in class and did a 39.8,,, and he was peaking again;;; the atmosphere was good, everybody was buzzing, keith was flying!!

so race day,, we started off quite good,, but unfortunately we’d been chasing a problem all weekend,, the head gasket on Paul’s bike::;;, they thought it was the radiator and had tried so many things to stop it overheating and looked like they’d cured it;;;, it was maybe 8 laps into the race and it overheated again,,.. so that was the end of our weekend really::;;,,, keith went out and did his stint but then end of play;::;;.. but it’s been a mega experience for both boys;;; keith knows his way well round cadwell park;; managed to get maybe 100 laps round here this week;;; so onwards and upwards to the next round at oulton park,, and I think that will be a strong one for us;;;,

next time;;; mark hanna