We arrived at the windy Snetterton circuit late friday afternoon as we wrestled to put the awning up for almost 2 hours! The bike then arrived a few hours later as I found myself dribbling at the site of it when the doors of the van was opened. I wheeled it into our awning and took a long hard look at it with a big cheesy grin on my face, my dad stuck the fairings on and then started it up, and yes, it sounded just as good as it looked!

Next morning it was raining to my regret, nobody went out for the first session and so we sat down and shivered for a few more hours! Our next session finally came around and I decided to give it ago, only to find that the bike wouldnt rev above 7000 rpm. I was a little disapointed but sort of glad that I had a good reason to retire from the session as it was freezing cold! The boys later found out what the problem was as I later found out on track that the bike had a lot more bite when I opened up the throttle! I didnt really try to push hard at all and just tip toed around the track as I got to grips with the power and and slipper clutch.

I woke up the next day swearing as I peered out of my window to find snow everywhere and snow falling from the sky and snowmen! Many people went home but we decided there was no point going home as I desperately needed some time on the bike to get to grips with it ready for the first round at Brands Hatch so that I would even have some chance of qualifying.

By mid afternoon the marshals and various other people had cleared the ice and snow from the track and so I got a couple of 20 minute sessions on track which I was delighted to hear. I had a bit of fun, went a little faster as the sessions dragged on but obviously did not set the world on fire!

The next day the weather was much better, the track was still damp in the first session which was a little tricky, but my the second session the track was completely dry apart from the odd little damp patch at the ‘Bomb hole’ corner. I really enjoyed it and was leading a bunch of riders according to my dad, then it chucked it down with hale stones and the session was red flagged, I came in happy and everyone else seemed more than satisfied.

In the last session I went quicker again and started to find enough pace so that I could follow other riders round for a few laps to see where they was braking etc…

we was told my the track official people that those who were willing to stay was allowed on track all day tuesday for free, I was chuffed and was also told the weather was meant to be much better too. We stayed and found out it was a open track all day long, and there was only myself a couple of other 600 riders and British Superbike riders Billy Mc connel and Stewart Easton out on track, it was great! I got loads of laps in and by the end of the day I was really starting to get into a groove with my 600, I got a fair bit of ware on the tyres and was more than happy with my times considering there was salt down at the ‘Rusalls Chican’ as I found out as my rear end came out on me once!

I would like to say a Big thank you to the whole of the MSS Discovery Kawasaki team for helping me with the bike and mainly a big thank you to Nick Morgan for supplying me with the bike, thanks guys.

I would also like to thank Mark Davall also for his support and supplying me with boots, helmets, spark plugs and brake pads, thank you.

Also thank you to Keith Townsend at D.C. Butler motorcycles for his help in the past and present, thanks keith.

and also thank you to held gloves.

Jess.

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Tags: racing, Jess+Trayler, bmcrc, Race, Aprillia

We arrived at the circuit to first find that they had made a few alterations to the circuit at the bus stop to improve safety, which was nice to see, to add to this we was entertained by a few cars shooting around the track and having the odd “moment” here and there which made me laugh. This was to be my first outing back on a bike for 2008 as I found my leathers had shrunk quite a bit from when I last got in them, or I had just grown a fair bit!

Anyway, I was now squished in my leathers and headed out on track for the first time on a beastly R6 which felt very strange after riding a puny little GP 125 for the past year! I really enjoyed it, just the sound of it gave me a thrill and opening it up down the straight was a blast when the power kicked in, I found it so much better to ride compared to my 125, it was so smooth when changing gear as well, I loved it!

I knew that my training had paid off as I had to work harder on the bike just because of the sheer size and weight of the thing when on the brakes.

Thank you to Alan Harland for letting me use his R6 on this occasion and for preparing the bike ready for use as well as the transport to the track, cheers Al.

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Tags: bmcrc, racing, Jess+Trayler, Race, mro