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1 November 2000
Brands Hatch track day November 2001
The track day was set up at Brands Hatch
by Ian Porter for today but
Mark Parchment and Matt Turner
could not make it so that left just Ian and myself ,Sean Onipede
Ian was there to run in his new Yamaha YZF R1 race bike
in and I was there to make sure the racers were not having too
much fun.  I
could not get out on the track myself because I took the wrong bike
to the track (???!!).
Ian seemed quite comfortable on the bike and put in some
reasonable times (low 56 sec) on a motorbike with a faulty
tachometer, ripped tyres and rear suspension harder than my granddad's
bicycle. Especially when you consider that this was his first
real outing on the beast. However it also indicated that there was a
lot of work to be done to the bike before the next track day on the
7 November at Brands -visit Ian's website
for more details
Hopefully the rest of the guys will be able to make it then.
However in the paddock we met a few characters.
We met Nick Varker who found the
limits of his Triumph 600 TT at clearways. His first track
crash. Clearway at Brands is a very difficult corner and most riders
tip-toe around it , but not him. Cool.
The bike was not too bad with the worst being fairing
and maybe a bent fork. It was good to see that he could see the
lighter side of the crash and he promised that he would be back and
we hope so too.
Remember "pain is temporary, glory is forever".
When I arrived at Brands, Colin Murphy,
 the
guy beside us in the paddock was just wheeling in his crashed Kawasaki
ZX400R. The bike looked a mess. He took apart his bike, emptied
about a skip load of gravel from the bike on to the floor.
 He
then put it back together after a load of banging and was out in
time for his next session. What a character!! The track photographer
actually managed to get his picture mid crash. He reckons he will be
going a 4 day track day holiday in France. A true trooper. I liked
this guy.
I must also mention and thank the Yamaha YZF R1 rider
that shared of paddock with us for sharing his experiences on the R1
with Ian. Apparently he has spent the whole year doing loads of
track days preparing his bike for a session of racing next year. He
seems cool too. Hopefully we will see him again.
Sean
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