Start - Finish Straight: Accelerating hard out of Camp, having avoided the bump (did anyone mention the bumps?) at the apex, I’m fully upright well before I reach the outside edge of the track. You can see a long way ahead as you go through here; keep an eye out for slower riders. Folly: The circuit is very wide all the way to Avon Rise, and undulates slighty. Folly is a real test of high speed stability and bottle. I can hold the 10 flat out through the gears all the way from Camp, but I have to aim to go between the white line at the inside edge of the track and the grass (more room than you’d think) in order to be in the right place to brake for Avon Rise. Drift too far to the outside of the track and it all gets a bit fraught, so definitely a place to make full use of the width of the track. Avon Rise: On the ZX I’m usually closing in rapidly on people with much better brakes by the time I get to Avon Rise; don’t wait for the bike in front to brake, pick your own marker (the cones are pretty safe) and stick to it. I line up along the right hand edge of the track as I brake. As soon as you’ve passed the apex of Avon, you‘ll be braking for Quarry; so it’s probably safer to go into Avon too slow then accelerate through it; run wide through Avon and you’re in the wrong place to get round Quarry. Quarry: After the Apex of Avon(I’m confused already, and we’ve only done a quarter of a lap), line up with the traffic light (or is it a hut?) on the outside of Quarry, and brake in a straight line. Go as deep as you can before you turn in, and then accelerate round Quarry. It’s quite narrow on the way out, and if you turn in too soon or apex too early you’ll run out of track at the exit. 
Get it right, though, and it’s a top knee-down corner and a chance to humiliate lesser mortals as you run round the outside or inside of them, knee on the deck and footpeg sparking. Plenty of room to change line through here, as well. Farm Straight: Chance for a bit of a breather after the fear of Folly and the complication of Quarry. Corner speed through Quarry will let you pass quicker bikes on the run up Farm straight. I go down a gear and brake before peeling into Old paddock, but good handling bikes with very confident riders don’t need to (I reckon it’s because the ten is going so much faster up the straight, but I would say that). Old Paddock: On the map Old Paddock looks like a similar corner to Folly, but the track is much narrower and on the ZX10 it feels like threading a needle. I have to use all the track through here, but can keep it nailed while getting over to the inside of the track for Hammerdown, which isn’t really a corner so much as a warning to get ready for Tower. Tower Corner: Downhill entry to a slowish off-camber right hander. Good place to outbrake people, but you need to pass them on the right, then get over to the outside of the track before the bend. Another bend to go in deep before turning, and I tend to apex slightly later than the cone, because of the camber. A very difficult one to get right (maybe because I apex late?) but all the more satisfying when you do. Flat out charge up to Westway, trying to get past anyone slower before you get to the bend. Westway: A flat-out kink that a lot of people shut off for because you can’t see the exit. If the track was there last time, it’ll still be there this time. If I catch someone going into Tower, I can almost always pass them through here. Unless they shut off and dither, that is; Aaaargh. Camp: If the person I’ve just caught and passed is any good, they’ll probably re-pass me on the brakes going into Camp, as the ZX10 fights against it’s momentum. The paddock entry lane is on the outside of the track, and I use the end of it as a braking marker. If you’ve gone through Westway flat out, there’s a lot of speed to scrub off before peeling into Camp. There’s also a lot of people watching, waiting to see your knee go down or hear you miss a gear. Satisfying to get right, but I always feel as though I could have gone quicker here. Keep an eye out for the man with the chequered flag, and try and catch the person who’s just re-passed you before you get to folly. Lap record is 1:01 (1:03 for 600s, 1:06 for 400s) which works out at about 108mph. Most of the magazines who road test here tend to do around the 1:08 mark on road tyres. Back to the index... |
© 1998 Martin Gelder