Today's trackday went moderately well. I'm coming to the conclusion that slower circuits with lots of both left and right corners and short straights like the Rockingham National one suit my style and the Aprilia too. Compared to the International circuit, the lack of transitions on and off the banking was nice, though there are a few dips & bumps that unsettle the bike (and me, for that matter). It also has the advantage of being relatively close to home: only Snetterton is closer. Another nice thing about today was that being a Sunday, the start was an hour later than most track days, which is *much* more civilized and I saved a precious day off work. I'm definitely faster than before, unfortunately, so it seemed was everyone else. This was a two-session trackday with the Superbike School making up the third session in each hour, so I'm claiming that there were a mix of much faster riders who would normally be in an intermediate group. I'm still getting stuck behind slower riders and getting overtaken as a result but I'm a *little* more aggressive now. I don't want to do unto others as was done once or twice unto me, however, which was to dive underneath just as I was hanging knee out about to hit the apex of the bend, taking my line and forcing me to sit the bike up. The first session went well, though oddly for the last couple of laps I was wondering when it was going to end; it seemed to last for ages. I did have one 'moment' around lap four: on the really short straight between the last of of the right-handers and the first left-hander, I suddenly decided that I needed to take the in-field left-handers in a higher gear, then dithered, changed my mind and shifted down again. Things would've gone smoothly had I actually completed the upshift; I hadn't, so there was a complicated moment where the bike squirmed and sat up, I hastily upshifted but found myself barrelling into a corner off-line, in a panic, unsure as to what gear I was in. Praise be for wide cicuits! Second session: depresion. I was slower than a slow thing. Bike after bike came past. Figured out afterwards that I was 'bimbling'; riding a gear too high in several places and without any real aggression. Remaining sessions: much betterer. Getting more aggressive, thinking more, overtaking more. There were a few crashes; one of my sessions was temporarily halted and another ended slightly early as a result. No serious injuries. There was one odd paddock incident: as I was strolling towards the photographers' garage: a TRX started to cross in front of me, presumably returning to the garages after a session on track. The rider slowed suddenly and there was a feminine wail of "Nooo!" as another bike that was following close behind glanced off it, stopped right in front of me, and began to topple towards me. For an instant I tried to figure out how to catch the rider and/or bike and save the situation, but at the same time my treacherous lower half, in a spirit of sciatica-induced self-preservation, pre-empted these noble thoughts by stepping smartly backwards, thus allowing bike and rider to land in a heap. Not my proudest moment. Luckily no damage was done. Well, I've now got some nice piccies and some seriously scrubbed tyres. Never again... until the next one.
