At a party in April I heard a drunken Mr Carrick - your Thumper Club chairman - declare that he was going to a track day at the Pembrey circuit in West Wales. Mr Carrick was also heard to say "I'll show these sports bikes a thing or two about corners!" and being equally intoxicated I heartily agreed. a few days before the event I contacted Mr Carrick and offered my services as photographer (I'm not) and said I might write a few lines for the club magazine. He agreed to give me access to his track debut. in the days that followed this I had a terrible feeling that Mr Carrick would be rudely awoken to the cornering speed of modern sports bikes, which might make him try harder and cause an incident .
At this point I would like to draw the reader¹s attention to Mr Carrick¹s recent motorcycle purchase, his lovely Harris-framed Ikuzawa supermono racer. Now is this the bike he took to a track day? No, he took his daily drive GB500 with lower clipons and new tyres that he'd found somewhere. when asked what tyres he was using he said "uh um I don't know, new ones, I think one¹s a Dunlop".
Mr Carrick went to the circuit the night before to meet some undisclosed sports bike riders and drink beer. I arrived during the lunch break and wandered through the paddock. After passing the usual track day toys including some rather full on racing Aprilia's I found Mr Carrick's steed and it looked very small. I found Mr Carrick asleep in the grass; he seemed to be in high spirits and pleased that a fellow thumper enthusiast had come to cheer him on or carry home the pieces. When asked about the morning session he said, ³I think I've already annoyed a few people.² I had a vision of a full on racing Aprilia RSVR closing in on a small thumper in mid-corner but I am pleased to report this was not the case. The only incident I had missed was a Ducati 996 having a splash through one of the trackside puddles, and the rider was later seen wading around looking for his mirrors.
. I must now take a moment to discuss track day fashion. Most of the riders were in the latest flashy leathers with matching accessories, a few were in plain leathers, and all were in full-face helmets, except one. Mr Carrick was in his open-face lid and dressed like he was on his way to the Dragon Rally, and when he came past, he looked like something straight out of the 1950s, fantastic.
Mr Carrick was out in the first afternoon session along with a very bouncy FJ1200 in yellow, a Buell, a full race Honda Hornet, and lots of fast sports bikes. For this session I stood on the last curve leading into the start finish straight. The guy on the bouncy FJ was lapping at a fair pace and undulating through the bends, the Buell was enjoying a steady cruise, and the Hornet was being ridden by a 15 year old budding racer - he was fairly talented but did have a tendancy to hang so far off the bike it went round corners upright. The other assorted sports bikes passed with various degrees of hanging off. Mr Carrick has always stated that "Mike Hailwood never needed to hang off so neither do I" and he didn't. During the session he performed a couple of mid-corner overtaking manoeuvres in front of me and most of the time made it stick. Although one sportsbiker did thrash his bike down the straight to get back past, I suspect he was looking at the back of the GB500 after the hairpin. The mid corner speed of an enthusiastically ridden GB500 seemed to take most of the sports bikes by surprise either by passing or, if they were following, by the way the bike didn't slow down.
For the second session I moved to a long sweeping left by the track entrance and managed to get some good shots of Mr Carrick in fast corner mode. Just before the third session I broke the camera with the big zoom and missed most of the session. However I took some shots with a compact camera. At the end of that session I met Mr Carrick in the paddock where he stated that he had gone on to reserve and was heading for home. I wandered about the pits chatting to some of the other riders all of whom had a good day even if they had found it mildly annoying while riding the latest sports bike to be passed mid-corner by something with about 40hp that wasn't being used at full throttle because "the engine's not sounding right".
Mr Carrick appeared with panniers and rucksack on board and rode out of the track into the afternoon. All the riders there had four wheel support vehicles, tents or vans and bikes with at least 100hp . Mr Carrick turned up riding his bike, had to listen to stories of the power and glory claimed by some of their riders, slept in a bivvy bag, woken up covered in frost, then went out on the track and "showed those sport bikes a thing or two about corners". I have had the good fortune to have been on many good runs with Mr Carrick and was very envious that due to injury I wasn't able to participate. but it was a good feeling to watch a bike, that has just completed a winter of being ridden through all the weather you can think of, go out on a track and go faster than at least half of group on track at the time. It was absolutely fantastic and great entertainment.