LBN – Cadwell Park 2008

The LBN we had all been waiting for has finally arrived – let loose on Cadwell Park race track!  Andy met up with Jeff in Branston then both proceeded to Horncastle where they were met by Will and myself.  A short run took the four us to the track where there we a lot of bikes parked in the car park.

We found where we had to register, then took our bikes to be tested for excessive noise.  This should be fun, I thought, thinking about Andy and Jeff’s exhaust systems.  The young lady doing the test put the detector near the end of an exhaust and told Andy to give it half throttle.  Half throttle my a**e, it was barely off tick over!!!  But he got away with it, which did not go unnoticed by Jeff, so he did the same and also passed.  My exhaust is so much quieter, so I put my throttle on a quarter, and probably still didn’t register.  We were given a brief chat by our ‘guide’ leader and rolled onto the track.  We completed three laps at a moderate speed, staying in formation and behind our guide.  We were not allowed to ‘push it’ so the only way to ‘get a feel’ was to lag behind the one in front of you and then catch up at a higher speed.  Even so, the maximum I managed was 70mph.  The main image, for me, was how narrow the track was and then remembering how fast the BSB riders went round the circuit.  Frightening!!

Once off the track we visited the office where they had computer photographs taken whilst you were circulating.  We had to have them!  Outside we bumped into Steve who had just arrived.  He was heading for the track.  Near the refreshment area we ran into Paul and Peter (B).  Paul was on his older machine and would not be taking to the track.  I felt so sorry for Peter, as he wanted to ride but was not allowed to because he had forgotten his driving license!

It had been a brilliant evening.  What did surprise me was how few Chapter members turned up.  They missed a unique experience.