Dave on the track

Photo: Kaye Moore

Having survived a track day at Brands Hatch in March, my interest was piqued by several favourable descriptions of Lydden Hill from fellow club members, with the added attraction that being this side of Dover it is easy to get to. So it was on to the internet and there I duly found the HotTrax company and checked out their dates. I was not the only person interested in fact, so after discussions over several Tuesday nights at the Pied Bull, Chris Moore, Chris Biggs and I agreed on May 20 which conveniently was a Saturday. We booked ourselves on (novice for me, intermediate for the other guys) and marked the diary.
In the preceding week I kept a close eye on the weather forecast and watched the predictions for Saturday get progressively worse. Still, at least I'd get experience of riding in the wet. Or falling off in the wet. On the morning itself, the sky was clear and things looked more promising, so I chucked my waterproofs in the tank bank with my pre-filled indemnity form and headed off in the direction of Dover. Not wanting to stop for petrol too soon, I passed by a couple of service stations on the A2 and banked on there being one nearer the track. As I spotted the turnoff for the circuit this became less certain and I started weighing up my options. Did I have time to go back a good 20 miles to the last one I'd passed? Not really - it was gone 8:00 a.m. and registration had already started. Would there be a petrol station in Lydden Hill itself? A quick scoot up the road into the village and back drew a blank. What about going further on? Had to be tried because I didn't reckon I'd have enough juice left to last the whole day.
A few miles on with the time ticking away, I reached a roundabout and saw a sign for services. I turned the bend and there they were - closed and dilapidated. Aarg! However my enquiring mind had spotted another sign for "superstores" and putting two and two together I reckoned a Mr Sainsbury or a Mr Tesco had probably put Mr Esso out of business by flogging cheaper petrol. Another couple of roundabouts later and - eureka! L'essence à la Tesco. Once filled up I hastened back and took the unmade road into the circuit. My first impression was of a travellers' camp with ensuite race track! The contrast between the purpose-built garages, grandstands and pit facilities of Brands Hatch and the porta-cabins and caravans at Lydden was dramatic. Still the track looked well-kept, and there was plenty of paddock space, part of it occupied by Chris B's people carrier and Chris M's pickup. No riding to the circuit for them!
I parked up and said hello, then went to the main shack to check in, getting a green wrist band and numbered sticker to go on my bike. By this time the fine weather was just a memory and the clouds had built up. Sure enough, as we stood outside for the initial briefing, the heavens opened and it chucked it down for several minutes. The organisers took pity on us and moved the proceedings to the scrutineering shed where there was just enough space to get out of the rain. The general briefing for the Advanced, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2 and Novice groups was fairly standard and it was followed by a more detailed one for the novices only. This covered the quirks of the track itself and the implications of the weather. It also featured rather more references to falling off than the one they'd given at Brands, making me wonder whether Lydden was several notches up on the empirical hazard scale or whether the instructors for HotTrax were more honest. With the briefings over, the rain had stopped and the first group on were the advanced riders, followed by the first intermediate group. Chris and Chris went next in the second intermediate group and by the time it was the novices' turn the track was pretty well dry except for a section in the shade.
We got four sighting laps behind an instructor and then away we went. Caution was the order of the day while the track was still drying out, but gradually we got the feel of it. There were no handy cones on the bends to indicate the turning and apex points, like they'd provided at Brands, but I just about figured it out. Each session was 15 minutes and for the early part of the morning the schedule went like clockwork with little time wasted between the end of one and the start of the next. I was impressed, but in the later part of the morning there was a bizarre bout of confusion in which the order of the intermediate groups was mixed up and one lot of assembled riders told to go back to the paddock, then the next lot were sent away as the first were called back again. How hard is it to remember "blue", "orange", "red", "green", "... and repeat"? By lunchtime the weather was bright and sunny but the poor marshals out on the far side of the track deserved a break so everything stopped for an hour while the food hut served up jumbo sausages, burgers and other healthy sustenance for the discerning rider. As two o'clock approached, so did a bank of ominous dark clouds. With the intermediate 1 group poised to retake the track, the rain started again. It didn't seem to put anybody off at that stage, but it did give rise to a number of accidents on the exit of the North Bend section.
One of these occurred early on in an intermediate 2 session and here the organisers dropped the ball again: with all the other riders from that group back at the pit lane to re-start the session and the crashed bike and rider off the track, they cut short the session, sent the riders back to the paddock and called out the novices. However everything went smoothly enough for the rest of the afternoon, although Chris M's RD350 was playing up, leaving him riding for one session with a loose gear selector that prevented him from getting out of third, becoming reluctant to start for the next session and causing more problems with a lack of power delivery in the midrange. Kaye Moore and Mrs Moore Senior came along to see how we were doing and Kaye kindly took some photos. I'm the one on the Triumph - the only Triumph there in fact, which I was surprised at.
The weather remained damp and drizzly so by half past four some people were packing up for the day and the groups had shrunk down to the point where the last session was switched to a 25 minutes "all comers". I took the opportunity to get back on for a few more minutes of wet-weather experience and was roundly lapped more than once by several guys, including some on supermotos, for whom a bit of dampness seemed not to make the slightest difference.
I came off before the chequered flag was brought out as tiredness had set in and I still had to ride home. I bade farewell to Chris and Chris who were packing up their stuff and headed back for the A2. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the day despite the dodgy weather and limited paddock facilities, so I would recommend Lydden Hill and look forward to going back there some time. I would also like to thank Chris and Chris for their advice and encouragement on the day.