I hear you mate. But my experiences have been different. I can feel when they’re going/gone. Usually because I’m broadside coming out of Coppice going nowhere fast and my arse is going like a rabbits nose lol
Imagine running a business where your income gets chopped by a massive margin and the only way the company can survive is to borrow, with little end to lockdown in sight and no guarantee of your big moneyspinning events happening this year either? I can see he might want to sell a track or two off to keep the others going.
Many can run road type sports rubber and get a few days out of a set. I had a mate who raced 4 rounds, that practice, quality, races over 2 days on a weekend, on one set of slicks on a 996
I was hoping to do 4-5 days this year as our trip to Parc Motor has been pushed back and with the carnet charges on transport into Europe etc I’m waiting to see how that shakes out. However I doubt I will be able to afford it. I booked Donnington for March 22nd with MSV as it was £125, but looked at silverstone and even for the national circuit it’s £200, the appeal to silverstone is that it’s only an hour for me. I’m not a massive trackday guy, I want to be but been put off with the amount of red flags and crashes. People will always argue the difference but I went to Donnington with my mate helping him in sept, and all but 1 of the fast group sessions was red flagged and most of the inters, that’s No limits. Still not sure I’ve forgiven no limits for overselling Oulton a few years back and adding a 4th group, then absolutely packing them, it was absolute carnage. They claim they can still do the same track time without the break, but they simply can’t, as soon as there are a few red flags, you are getting 10 min sessions. And I travelled 180 miles each way for that. it’s I guess one bad experience but it’s been getting trickier and trickier to get good track time in the uk
Seldomly on the ones I've attended. 3 or 4 days on track, it's alot more relaxed and no one wants to bin it on the first day , not everyone feels the need to go out in every session either. I think there was 1 red flag at Portimao last October with NL.
usually nowhere near as many. Riding standards tend to be a lot better as a general rule as well. I’ve been on euros that have not had a single red all day !
I have never done a Euro TD event before, would love to have go, hopefully next year afetr covid has buggered off. Would need advice on who to go with, i'm no track hero so dont want to be causing a problem with other racers on the track. Would love to do something in Italy.
Booked 5 days this morning, and got a Donny MSV 22nd March which will hopefully go ahead. Euros are way better than Uk days, 4 days in Portimao is one of the best trips abroad I’ve ever had. But losing my bike for 5 weeks means missing a lot of fun in the uk so I tend to stick to winter euros to maximise the year. Although that said I am booked at Portimao again in may which will hopefully go ahead.
I went to Almeria with Farside, which isn't really a trackday company, it's a guy who runs it as a not for profit and treats it like a golf holiday with mates, it's impeccably organised and great fun, we did 3 days open pit lane in Almeria and stayed in a nice posh hotel etc, was a lovely week away. I have heard good things about Pacedayz also. We had 3 days on track, max 40 bikes, but in reality probably only 15 were ever out at one time, and not a single issue over 3 days. Thinking about all the crashes I've seen at UK days, it's often collisions in braking zones or people off line to pass/having just passed and I bet you could put most of them down to how crowded the tracks are, because actually, the crash volumes are often not the worst in novice... Some say Focussed Events euro stuff is good also, basically as long as Kev Healey is nowhere to be seen they will be good (queue thread about him again, needless to say it splits opinion)....
Pacedayz are defo the best in my opinion too done a few with them and even though they’re a little more expensive it’s well worth it! Good bunch of people! You can say what you want about Kevin Healey but at least he will take action if people are riding like dicks ! Unfortunately you can’t say the same for no limits!
Another big fan of Pacedayz, they really can’t do enough for you. I can be a pain in the arse with work when it comes to drop offs and collections and they always go out of their way to accommodate me.
Very true. I’ve not had many dealings with Kev but I’ve heard what gets said. What I will say is that all of last year he was fully on it with regards to riding standards. nice to see considering how bad the year was for it in general.
I’ve covered it before but I was on the receiving end of Kev years back at silverstone, when the gp circuit first opened and it was full of racers including Randy depuniet etc. Anyway... because the circuits long they were putting a chequered flag out at the new chicane, well I missed it, and ended up doing an extra lap, i hold my hands up.... however if it had just been me I wouldn’t have had an issue being screamed at in pit Lane, but 15 of us apparently missed it, including his own instructor! So we got gathered down at pit Lane and he literally turned up on his Scooter and just went in on us for 10 mins, all F’s and properly loosing it.... To this day I can’t see how 15 riders managed to miss it, I think they put it out after we went past, but whatever, I’ve never spent a penny with focussed since
Just found this thread, so a bit late to the party. I was gutted to see the price of Donington at £211. Which for me is too much! I love the Circuit and it’s only an hour up the M1 for me. But I’m not prepared to loose a days income and fork out that much, plus all the other expenses. I’ve been doing Trackdays for the last 14 years and I know I will miss the thrill I get from it and the banter in the garage between sessions. Gutted but enough is enough. I have a credit note from last year which I will use. And give the 250 a run out (or two?) Then I think it’s time to call it quits. Anyone want to buy my 924 big bored 749??
