www.chuffster.co.uk

[DavidH]

Well, its been a fairly eventful trip. Wals woes can be seen under general chatter so I won't bang on about that other than to express sympathy. Its a long way to go for a few laps.

The trip South was very much like last year. Its a long trip in one day (about 15 hours door to door) but Nimes is a beautiful city so it was good to have a day free prior to the start of testing. Wal and I enjoyed a very long lunch on the Tuesday and we were joined by Ian Soilleux and his new mechanic Guy.

Testing commenced Wednesday morning and there were more than a few butterflies around for the first session. I hadn't been on a bike since last September.

We took it fairly easy in the morning and spent a bit of time showing the Rookies around the circuit. In the afternoon we put the lap timers on, set up the beacon, and went out to play a bit more seriously. Myself and Danny Watkins tracked each other. I managed to equal my best time from last year (1.41.7) fairly easily, so clearly I had got faster during last season. By the end of the day I'd just dipped in to the 1.40's and was quite happy with myself and bike. TiM went out on my bike to give me some feedback on how it was set up. He was complimentary and said it had the best brakes of any mini-twin he had ridden (Brembo pads and Braking wavy discs). Wednesday night was an Italian with most of us taking over a little place.

Thursday was another good day with warm sunny skies, track temperature perhaps a bit low and it didn't take long to start chewing up and new set of Super Corsa Pros. The Rookies were speeding up and starting to to have a few outings in to the scenery, but nothing serious and very little damage. The exception was Steve Tibbs bike that somehow threw a chain and snapped the clutch actuator rod! This was replaced by a sawn up screwdriver, a rubber grommet, and some instant gasket. Real Heath Robinson stuff but effective

With a few minutes of the day to go I went out for the first time on slicks in order to scrub them in for Friday morning. In scrubbing them in I set my fastest time and broke in to the 1.39s

They don't have anymore grip but are more stable and instantly gave me the confidence to push harder. I was grinning like a cheshire cat and really looking forward to Friday. Thursday evening saw us sink a few glasses of vino at a local restaurant and a few more back at the hotel. It was a good crowd of folks testing. Only about 24 bikes but also a few helpers etc. including Ian McPherson who was tutoring Danny Brill on his R6 (in preparation for the R6 cup).

Friday morning I immediately went quicker and got down to a time of 1.39.3....then I kind of stuck at that pace. Ian Soillieux was right with me (he is flying compared top last season ) and we went out several times to push each other. I then asked TiM to hook up with me so he could give me some feedback. Surprise surprise with TiM tracking me the lap time dropped down to 1.38.3. That is quicker than I could have hoped for on this trip and TiM was complimentary about my riding and even admitted he had to work to keep up with me and was only quicker on a couple of sections of the track. I kept on pushing and went out with Andy Angel, and managed to dip in to the 1.37s......only just. I was delighted. Andy was still a bit quicker and will certainly be a force in Dyna Pro this year.

To put the time in to perspective, I don't think TiM bettered a 1.37, and neither did Grev Ball last year on his Superbike 400.

The Rookies were putting in some incredible times and are sure to be up there challenging for title. Particularly Steve Tibbs whose progress over the 3 days was spectacular.

We all left the circuit on Friday grinning from ear to ear. Everyone was in one piece having set lap times we could have only dreamt of. Roll on Brands Hatch!

David