‘TRACKDAY NUTTERS COULD SPOIL THE FUN’
Journo, racer, survivor of nasty track incidents – Fagan at 44Teeth knows a thing or two about incompetent track-wittery
It’s a little-known fact that scorching heat and sunshine render the male species incredibly horny, which’ll probably explain the impending birth spike next February. Evidentially, sunshine also brings out the inner ‘act-like-anob’ hormone, particularly when it comes to riding motorbikes.
I was at a Ducati trackday at Donington recently; my first UK trackday in 2018. Apart from surviving brake failure on my 999S heading into Redgate, I also endured a few unsavoury moves.
It only takes one or two monumental Jeremy
Hunts to ruin a day.
The advanced group managed just half a sighting lap before an ensuing cleanup operation and 30-minute delay. And, before the first block of sessions had ended, there was a trio of brand-new Panigale V4s looking very secondhand. One had fallen victim to the aforementioned hormone release, also resulting in its pilot suffering a broken collarbone into the bargain. You’d assume that these classy Ducati conglomerations would be gentlemanly affairs, but it would seem not, just like Ascot has become a bun-fight of Tarquin and Antonia wannabees dressed posh and acting like chavs. Without wanting to sound like a miserable balding 30-something, I can remember the days of riding to a trackday, followed by riding the very same bike at the trackday and then riding it home again. No tyre warmers, building slowly into your day and enjoying the art of nursing the bike home. Don’t get me wrong, I love trackdays. They’re one of life’s few undiluted(ish) pleasures where sucking, squeezing, banging and blowing is perfectly acceptable in a public place, but it’s a sad day when folk are packing up before lunch because they’re scared of not making it home in one piece. Later in the day, I got chatting to a chap who’d recently binned his Panigale at Cadwell. He was one of five who went down on someone else’s coolant. I can’t recall the end result (if there was one) of the on-going legal case involving a third-party trackday crash, where one rider was suing another but, sooner or later, insurance will dictate lengthier risk assessments and greater pre-ride safety measures. Bookies have stopped taking bets on when scrutineering will be introduced at trackdays and I haven’t even mentioned noise issues.