Brands Hatch Track Day with MCN

Tuesday morning, but not my first visit to Brands Hatch this week; on Sunday I popped down to watch Ben and Michael Neeves racing in MRO Powerbikes on the GP circuit, and also their mate Jim, who was racing in the Yamaha Past Masters series, and Spencer and ‘Lloydy boy’ who were racing in the 600s. They all did really well, and you can obviously read Neevesy’s blog and catch up on their results.

So I’m here to ride the MOTO2 bike, it’s a bit of a shakedown and I’m gonna be doing an article for the MCN and their Sport magazine that they do as well. But yeah, Brands Hatch GP, I love it; it’s probably one of the best circuits in the country. I mean to be fair I love Silverstone GP, Brands GP, I love Cadwell, I love Alton, and you know what; any track will do but I’d choose them four on a sunny afternoon any day of the week.

I suppose the day hasn’t really started perfect; like a numpty I’ve turned up with no petrol cans, and am missing a few other bits and pieces, and starting to think it’s gonna be one of them days. Luckily enough Rick and Jean, who we’re sharing the garage with, come to the rescue and got me fuelled up for the day. Thanks for them boys. As with anything new, it’s a shakedown; you’ve got the suspension to set up, tyre pressures, working out how things work their best, and getting yourself to fit the bike; leavers, bars, footrests. And that brings it’s stresses and apprehension of how it’s going to perform and whether I’m really going to get on with it, but there’s riding a nice bike and having fun in the sun; and then there’s getting to grips with and being as one with the bike, having confidence enough in the bike to ride it hard and do hot laps, and they’re both very different things.

So me and Neevesy shared the ride, cos he’s doing a piece on the bike and needs to give his feedback, and also just enjoy it and have some fun. And to be fair, in the morning it took me a bit of a time to get going, because moving from the 1000 to the 600cc is definitely a transition, you know, different power delivery, different weight, different brakes. The 600 is just so nimble, and it goes where you point it; it really is hard on the brakes, and the harder you ride this bike the better it becomes. So you almost have to be less smooth and more ragged, really slamming the brakes on, throwing it in; lots of corner speed, lots of exit speed, then straight on the gas; I mean literally on the stop as soon as you see the exit of the bend, and just powering it out. And once you get to grips with that, then the real fun begins; I was buzzing.

Me and Neevesy sliced through the traffic and we had a little bit of a tear up to be fair. I took advantage of him riding his GSXR750 when I was on the FTR and he hadn’t quite warmed his tyres up, so I had a couple of glory moments there, where I overtook him. And then I waved him by because I wanted him to tow me so I could really forget about the track and just follow his lines to get the best out of the bike. (Let me tell you now, Neevesy is red hot round this circuit, he loves it and you can see it; I couldn’t touch him, but in the slower bends, Druids and Surtees, I had much more corner speed and could catch him slightly and without a doubt was able to get on the gas a lot quicker) And the thing really lit up; the more you wrung it’s neck out, the more you threw it into the bend, the more committed you were, the more it came alive.

Come the end of the day I was left wanting more, I was gagging for it; it was like a drug and I was hooked believe me, and I thought if I had another half a day here with the bike I’d be really moving, you know. So I came away really excited, really buzzed for the next time out. FTR took the bike back to their workshop, they’re going to do a bit of work on it; a couple of things we need to do, make another pipe for it, cos obviously the Moto2 pipe is 115 decibels, so we’ve got to build a 98 decibel pipe and make it look sexy. You know, it was nice of them to throw together a temporary can to put on the bike. But it was like putting a wart on the nose of a beautiful super model, and it was the quietest bike on track; hence I got on track, which I wouldn’t have done with the Moto2 pipe, but it looked ugly, and we all knew it. It was a shame, but we had to do it to get by. But Arrows are going to be making me something far sexier, to get the bike back to it’s natural beauty.

So as I say, can’t wait to get this thing back out, wring it’s neck and really get moving on it. A good day had by all, but proof that not every day starts off perfect; there is that little bit of stress cos you want everything perfect when you go out on track; no ums, ahhs, and maybes, you really wanna just jump on it and be absolutely sure you know what you’re riding. So it didn’t start off perfectly but that’s good cos then it comes to you, and the day did come to me, it was fucking mental! And me and Neevesy had a good tear up and that’s what it’s all about.

Nice one,

Flinty