: : : : James Whitham Superbike School: : : :
I bought my Best Man a track day with Jamie Whithams' Speed Freak Trackdays, so my good wife bought me the same for my birthday to keep him company. :) While waiting for the 2005 dates to come through, Speed Freak did a bit of a reshuffle and merged with Track Attack Trackdays, from which came a variety of track options. We opted for the James Whitham Superbike School [info] where we would be arranged into groups of 7 riders to every superbike/sport racer available to provide first hand experience and tuition. Mick Grant was there to help with suspension set-up.

Altogether a fantastic day out, with a friendly, sociable & helpful atmosphere throughout the pitlane. The sun shone all day and there was a wealth of talent there to take the various groups round the track including, Lee Dickinson, Cal Crutchlow, Craig Jones, Paul Young, Paul Shoesmith to name but a few. All the racers chatted about anything from suspension guidance and racing lines, to who has the best right hander between Cal and Rob Frost. (see BSS race from Brands 28/03/04 ;)

This was my first time out on a track on the Blade and first time at Silverstone. We used the short club circuit [map], which helped to learn the track and set about focusing on the riding. My wife managed to time me at 1min 21sec on one lap, so don't know how good or bad that is, but to say the professionals have more skill in their little fingers than many of us out on the track is a major understatement. Just when I thought I was braking as hard as I could after the Club Straight heading into Brooklands , the likes of Craig Jones (on a very tricked R1 170bhp+) would come blasting past hardly braking at all, and fly through Luffield and that poxy chicane like it didn't exist....utterly humbling and awe inspiring! I didn't have any 'real' incidents to speak of, so as Dicko rightly pointed out, the bike has plenty ability left in it so I could still push harder. This I couldn't do as it would have meant a very long walk home, considering we had ridden to Silverstone on it!

Highly recommended if you want to do more than just razz round a track with little or no chance of improving your times and knowledge. Check out their website for further trackdays here

Striking a pose in my stylishly modern titaniucarbonevlar 1 piece	"...and in the event of a crash, it's all your fault...sign here.	Best man Dee & his missus Julie
Awaiting our turn with Jamie filling Lee's tank in background	Dicko fuelled up and ready to put us in our places on the track.	Our group head out. RGV was fast, but binned it in last session
Braking into Copse Corner on the inside line under an R6	Blubberboy leaning into Copse	"I coulda sworn that apex was round here somewhere..."
Trying hard to get away as Dee lets a sly one go	Feeling good after a grand day out	Posing with Lee Dickinson... A real top bloke