Go Star Riders in attendance:

• Ben Hallett
• Terry Oliphant
• Stewart Willetts
• Tony Byrant
• Ade Adeyemi
• Steve Thomson
• John Hewitt
• Barry Lukehurst (Instructing)
• Dave Daws
• Gerrard Fallon
• Simon Field

With the Bemsee round at Cadwell Park in a couple of weeks time, some of the Go Star racers decided to get in some practice of the circuit with the new ‘Bus Stop’ chicane.

Cadwell is a long drive from down south, in the middle of nowhere and the facilities are…. well shall we say not the best, but the circuit is legendary with something to please everyone, be it fast sweeping bends, tight twisty sections or most likely the mountain section where it is possible to get the bike completely airborne if that’s what floats your boat!!

Terry, myself and Simon Field (Terry’s mate and another potential rookie, he just needs some more persuasion) arrived at Cadwell on Saturday evening. Having left Kent in glorious sunshine we were a bit disappointed, but not surprised to find it was raining when we finally got there. When the rain broke we decided to walk the circuit and were pleased to find that the grass bank on the right going through Hall Bends had been   removed giving a little more run off area. The new chicane didn’t look too bad but we reserved judgement on it until the next day. Then all eyes on the ‘Mountain’, ‘holy shit!!!’ Were I think the first words out of our mouths when standing at the bottom of the slope looking up, ‘gonna to be some fun there tomorrow’.

With the image of the mountain ingrained in our minds it was back to the pits to set up camp. There were a few people starting to arrive and one of those was Gerrard and his wife fresh form the Bemsee round at Croft, which went pretty well by all accounts considering he had no practice and had never seen the place before. After grabbing some food and downing a few beers with Gerrard in his caravan we decided to turn in, but by now the wind had picked up and it was chucking it down……and things were not looking good for Sunday!

Spending a night at Cadwell in a howling gale and heavy rain in a tent is not fun!! At 3:30am I was aware that my tent had got a lot smaller, when I finally got my senses together I realised that the tent had in fact collapsed!!! I did try and make a repair but in the driving rain and wind it was a wasted effort as one of the poles had snapped in two. I was saved by Terry and Simon who made space in their transit so I could get some kip. But three blokes and a load of kit is not conducive to a good nights sleep before a track day…….B&B next time I think like some of the others!!

Out on track for the first session and some plonker bins it over the mountain on the 1st lap out right in front of me, the session was subsequently cancelled.

Session two and Rug Rat was first out on track of the Go Star boys, he flew off into the distance at a rapid rate. I eventually caught him up as he was slowing down after having a moment at the new chicane. It can really catch you out, there seems to be quite a negative camber and you have to trail the front brake well into the right hand turn otherwise you carry too much momentum to make the left hand turn then run out of room and end up in the dirt!

Third session out and Terry was starting to get on the pace, Cadwell is a fast track but there are many blind corners that require quite a bit of circuit knowledge (and courage!) before you can fully commit yourself. Everybody seem to be in agreement at this point that the new chicane was a bunch of arse, but at the end of the day you just have to get on with it! Near the end of the session I noticed that Steve and his recently renovated and Go Star painted gixer were parked up on the outside of Chris curve, it turns out he had a bit of a fuelling problem!!!!

Fourth session before lunch and all is going well; everybody is picking up the pace and getting into the groove of the circuit. Then the mystery fuelling problem strikes me down at Chris curve as well except I end up stranded on the inside and have to watch the remainder of the session feeling a right dumb arse.

After the lunch break it was back out on track, James from Set Up engineering had arrived with Tony Byrant on a very trick CBR600RR (James if you want someone to test it in the Rookie 600’s I will be a more than willing to help you out!!) . I saw him twiddling with several Go Star bikes helping them sort their handling issues.

In the final session everybody was getting tired Cadwell is a very physical circuit with a lot of heaving the bike around, but the pace was getting quicker. There were a few very quick people who obviously new the circuit inside out but in general Go Star ruled the fast group. Two laps from the end of the session the heavens opened so everybody decided to call it a day.

I think in general all Go Star members had an excellent day out and all learnt something about Cadwell, which will be useful for the Bemsee round on the 17th & 18th April.

Finally, I have to mention Barry who was out on his Gixer for the first time since his last super sport race in 2003. He was instructing all day for the event organisers Track time Promotions, and hence was very busy most of the time, taking people out showing them lines and generally helping anybody who wanted some advice. However in that last novice session which was a bit damp after the earlier downpour he was leading them out on the sighting lap. When coming into Mansfield, the downhill left hander the front end just disappeared from underneath him………gutted! Still Barry was smiling back at the pits, and commented that Cadwell was the only circuit he hadn’t crashed at so had now broken his duck!!

See you all next time…….

by Ben H

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