After three and a half (don't ask) track days in 2013 I thought it would be a good idea to try my hand at racing. Possibly not the most prepared I could have been, but there's always some excuse, just go for it! Over the winter I gathered together as many of the necessary bits and pieces I could think of, went to the BEMSEE rookie day in December, and made a rough budget. At this point in time my
bike (Suzuki SV650 K6) was lovely and red and shiny. February, and race school, seemed to take an age to come round, and when it did, it was unsurprisingly wet. I found myself very uncomfortable on the bike, having not ridden it before, and using race shift for the first time didn't help either. I promptly threw myself at the scenery and spent over an hour in the medical centre with ice on my right ankle. A very kind instructor lent me her bike to do the practice start and complete the course, without that my hopes and dreams for the year would have dissolved there and then. Again, thank you Gabrielle! The weeks following that little mishap involved a great deal of stress in repairing the bike, having to rapidly learn where to get parts, how to repair bodywork, how to spray paint, basic mechanics and most of all how to squeeze the most out of the hours in the day. After a great deal of mistakes and lessons learnt the bike was functional for a track day at Snetterton, a couple of weeks before the first race meeting of 2014. My confidence improved during the day, but my first on track crash had definitely had a negative effect on my lap times! Following that track day time seemed to blaze by and in the blink of an eye I found myself at Brands Hatch, setting up for the Friday test day prior to the race weekend! Hopefully from this point onward will be documented on this page!
