Ok so my first ever race start and I am 3^rd out of 4 people, but I didn’t stall and didn’t crash.......SUCCESS, Rossi eat your heart out!!

After this we have another session just as cold, wet and sadistically enjoyable as the first. After this Kevin tells us all he is satisfied that we are all good riders and he doesn’t need to see any more and therefore the final session is optional.

As it’s Valentines Day, (and more importantly starting to hail), I decide to make an early retreat and head home.

I AM NOW READY TO RACE*

*once I receive my ACU licence, post of my first race entry forms, get my transponder fitted and sort out the carbs to stop the incessant backfiring at idle.

The saying goes “failing to prepare is preparing to fail” but what do they know? Personally I have always found I perform better under pressure and this is exactly why I decided to work on my bike until midnight the night before my Race School.

To be fair up until that point the weekend had gone quite well. I’d spent the afternoon at the Brand Hatch MSV centre attending the Bemsee run ACU “Competency to Compete” (CTC) course. The briefings had been informative but not boring or overly long and the multiple-choice test held no surprises. All I had to do now was get my bike running and get it to Brands.

In hindsight I may have left things a bit to the last minute and working till midnight with a 5am start is probably not the best preparation for the day ahead. Essentially it would be a day of firsts:

First time riding my new race bike.....assuming I get it started
First time going through scrutineering
First time riding round Brands Hatch......how hard can it be?
First time riding on wets.....still at least the snow had melted, mostly
First time using a race gear change.......just keep telling myself down for up and up for down
First time (since Xmas) wearing race leathers......nice snug fit

Fortunately the sun shines on the bloody disorganised and the first sessions of the day were delayed thanks to snow giving yours truly time to; get my tyres fitted, get my bike through scrutineering and getting the bloody bike to start. Actually getting the bike started was more down to all the helpful people in the paddock especially my instructor Kevin and a fellow rookie (and more importantly mechanic) Lewis. Their hard work saw me ready to venture out for the second session of the day.

At the end of this session I couldn’t help thinking to myself BLOODY HELL ITS COLD! Still for some reason I enjoyed it and despite spending the whole session not being able to see, (oh the joys of a misted visor), and half the session not being able to feel the controls, (numb fingers), the session did go well. I seemed to be overtaking a fair amount of traffic and received only positive comments from my instructor.

After lunch came the most exciting and scary part of the day:

THE RACE START

This involved lining up on the grid in rows of 4 and being allowed to practise a race start one row at a time.

The theory is simple...........

Man with red flag walks to the side pointing at starting lights
Lights show red
When lights go out pull away as fast as you can

......but somehow I managed to complicate it:

Check I’ve got the bike in first gear – DON’T STALL
Recheck I’m in first gear – DON’T WHEELIE
Check that gear again once more – REALLY DON’T STALL
Get weight over front wheel – WHEELIES AREN’T GOOD
Watch man with flag walk away
See red light go out
Watch in disbelief as bloke next to me spins back wheel and crashes
Remember I meant to go too
Panic, dump clutch, pull massive wheelie, have to back off to bring front wheel back to earth.

The saying goes “failing to prepare is preparing to fail” but what do they know? Personally I have always found I perform better under pressure and this is exactly why I decided to work on my bike until midnight the night before my Race School.

In hindsight I may have left things a bit to the last minute and working till midnight with a 5am start is probably not the best preparation for the day ahead. Essentially it would be a day of firsts:

First time riding my new race bike.....assuming I get it started

First time going through scrutineering

First time riding round Brands Hatch......how hard can it be?

First time riding on wets.....still at least the snow had melted, mostly

First time using a race gear change.......just keep telling myself down for up and up for down

First time (since Xmas) wearing race leathers......nice snug fit