Bike track training.

[Gringo]

Did my first bit of track tuition yesterday, at Llandow circuit in Wales. My mates lad, Rob Shaw, had just won the British MiniMoto Championship for this year, and was keen to progress to a proper full-size race bike. He's got himself a Honda VFR400 ex-race bike. He'd had a 30 minute session a couple of months ago, learning clutch and gears on one of our school 125's, but that was it. Apart from a couple of ropey attempts at pulling away at the beginning of the day, he progressed amazingly quickly. It was a private track day, organised by one of the guys I used to race against a few years back. There were only 12 bikes on track, and they were all race bikes, with the exception of me on my Yamaha FZ1 training bike. The first couple of sessions were taken steadily, just learning the gears, and getting used to the higher speeds. Llandow is only a short circuit (less than a mile), so you only really use the first four gears. By lunchtime, Rob was both fast and smooth. After lunch, I let him ride by himself, but looked in occassionally to see how he was progressing. By mid-afternoon he was up to race pace, overtaking four out of the twelve riders, and keeping pace with two others. Stunning, especially as he'd such limited experience. He is the right sort of age (16), and certain to go places in the future. As usual, it all comes down to sponsorship. So if anyone out there has money burning a hole in their pocket, and they'd like to see a young lad make it big, please get in touch. In the meantime, look out for Rob Shaw. He should be racing in the Thundersport series this year, which is also a support race at the British GP in the summer.

I still kicked his butt of course...

[Cannonball]

Did my first bit of track tuition yesterday, at Llandow circuit in Wales. My mates lad, Rob Shaw, had just won the British MiniMoto Championship for this year, and was keen to progress to a proper full-size race bike. He's got himself a Honda VFR400 ex-race bike. He'd had a 30 minute session a couple of months ago, learning clutch and gears on one of our school 125's, but that was it. Apart from a couple of ropey attempts at pulling away at the beginning of the day, he progressed amazingly quickly. It was a private track day, organised by one of the guys I used to race against a few years back. There were only 12 bikes on track, and they were all race bikes, with the exception of me on my Yamaha FZ1 training bike. The first couple of sessions were taken steadily, just learning the gears, and getting used to the higher speeds. Llandow is only a short circuit (less than a mile), so you only really use the first four gears. By lunchtime, Rob was both fast and smooth. After lunch, I let him ride by himself, but looked in occassionally to see how he was progressing. By mid-afternoon he was up to race pace, overtaking four out of the twelve riders, and keeping pace with two others. Stunning, especially as he'd such limited experience. He is the right sort of age (16), and certain to go places in the future. As usual, it all comes down to sponsorship. So if anyone out there has money burning a hole in their pocket, and they'd like to see a young lad make it big, please get in touch. In the meantime, look out for Rob Shaw. He should be racing in the Thundersport series this year, which is also a support race at the British GP in the summer.

I still kicked his butt of course...

BUDGIE