Oulton Park

What a fucking fantastic circuit.

The ex-Blaney brahn bike performed wonderfully, even though it has
acquired the nickname "The Springer" on account of it's rather bouncy
suspension.

I was only booked in for the afternoon sessions and only managed to
cock up one corner and left the circuit at the exit to Lodge, ending up
on the weird hardstanding on the run off. I stayed on, kept the bike on
a neutral throttle and steered back on the track. It's one circuit I
will definitiely be revisiting. Link to pics will follow as soon as
they go up on the snapper's site.

Silverstone GP on 31st march is the next one.

 

Make sure you do go, it really is that good a circuit. You'll need a
map of the place gaffa taped to the tank, there's so many corners.

 

Or a GPS[1].

[1] Geordie Pointin' System

 

It's the only place I ever fell out of the sidecar during a race.

Brittens chicane on the full circuit - driver hit the auto eject button.

 

Heh.

I got a bit cocky during a corporate jolly, hosted by Vauxhall when they
launched the warm version of the Vectra. After 3 laps I started giving it a
bit more welly. I misremembered a corner[1], got into a bit of a
"tankslapper", ran onto the dirt and just managed to get it going back on
the tarmac before careering off into a wall.

[1] Lodge, possibly

 

OK, admission time. I ran off the circuit at Lodge because I turned in
way too early on one lap. Basically I was following someone else who
did exactly the same, he managed to stay on circuit cos he was going a
fair bit slower. I saw the edge of the track, knew I wasn't going to be
able to get the bike over enough to stay on it so sat the bike up and
rode onto that weird mesh surface they have there. There's a huge hard
surfaced run off so I just stayed on a neutral throttle and steered
back on circuit and off I went again. No dramas, just carried on as
before.

Worst thing about it was I'd just overtaken my mate Danny, who was
instructing a slower rider.