I thought 2019’s years price of £189 (Iirc) was about my limit. I haven’t had a good look, but so far haven’t seen any quiet days listed. Which we’re way cheaper in 2019. I had booked my first day out in April last year. But was cancelled for obvious reasons. Then lost my contract with Mercedes for the majority of the summer so was forced into a year off the bike.
Silverstone was always my go to circuit as it's nearest (apart from Castle Doom) the GP is now £259. Ok, you can gamble and get it a bit cheaper by buying on Black Friday, or an early date. £259, is simply too much to pay, especially if (like me) you want to go on a regular basis. There are still a few cheaper places to go, one mentioned above, Pembrey and Llandow are still relatively well priced, all are lacking in facilities and a bit run down. I'm just not up for travelling the night before, sleeping in a truck stop, for half a wet day in a cold garage in Oulton Park, then driving home pissed off at all the red flags. Euros are (for me) the way to go, however, we're still some way off before these become viable again.
judging by the comments about price it seems it's gone over the edge for a number of you. For me personally, it's the associated cost of all of it, for example tyres are creeping up now. Ultimately what's going to happen is that fewer people will attend, and then they will have to drop the prices, it probably only needs a dozen people per trackday deciding that it's too much money before they have lost the revenue from the price rise anyway, the issue is that the person suffering will be the TDO not the circuit. So what will the TDO do? they will run it with one less member of staff.. so then the organisation suffers and you end up with a big issue out on circuit and again.. it's the TDO held accountable not the circuit. Maybe the long term goal from MR Palmer is to bring it all back in house and have it all run by MSV, if you think about it why would you not do it yourself? the next few years will be interesting for the following reason: 1) Packed UK race dates due to UK testing for BSB which will filter down. 2) Ever tighter pressure around noise restrictions 3) Difficulty or increased expense travelling to Europe 4) Our own pockets not being lined, especially for all you Self Employed lads, it's not a £211 trackday, it's a £600 trackday I guess. My mate has an entry to Tri-Options this year, slightly complicated situation but he's been offered to attend the test day, that's £275+VAT for I think he said 3 sessions.
That’s standard bsb mate as Spence will tell you. its mega money for little track time. Palmer owns that as well haha
You’re right about the associated costs creeping up and folk saying it’s only a £20-30 increase. That’s all fine and well if you only do one trackday a year but who only does one day a year
You must be an absolute beast on track or trying to eek out every second. Thats the only way I can see you getting/needing to get through tyres like that. I don't want to compare you to me as I'm probably not using the bike to its limit an you probably are (but I'm by no means slow). Sylvain Guintoli did several on the same set of tyres on a GSXR1000 road bike and smashed everyone. Granted he's obviously way up there, but Tyres don't care whos on the bike I think 300 is about right not changing tyres every time. Fuel, Van rental inc fuel, Food, Trackday (most aren't 200 quid, only a few are so lets say 150), Tyres every 3-4 trackdays.
He is in a different league to all but a very few on here. I generally do 3 day track holidays in southern Spain and always take 2 rears. Andy
One mans beast is another mans vanilla I guess. I've had moments of pace. I can count two guys off the top of my head who are definitely quicker than me or at very least more consistent than me on here. And one that is generally in the same ball park as me. I fell out of love with racing before I achieved what I believe I could have maybe achieved. On a bad day I was nowhere. On a good day I was competitive. I had three crashes fairly close together and struggled with set up massively all the way through the 19 season. It was emotional tbh and I was struggling with that side of it a little if honest. The week after a race meet was a real downer, I really was not happy. If I'm going racing, I'm going racing to win. Otherwise I didn't see the point and the calculated risk was not one I was really keen on. Also lot's of people around me getting seriously injured which messed with my head at the time. At one race meet I found something ridiculous like 6 seconds from one click of preload. I'm a real 'feel' rider. I knew after my Oulton Park shunt that if I wanted to go any faster I would need to be on the bike a lot more and really invest a lot more time and effort in to getting the set up working. I would also most likely have had a lot more, potentially even bigger spills. At this point I really just couldn't be assed with it anymore to tell the truth. Then my best mate told me he wasn't racing anymore and the rest is history. We did alright though. Won our respective class and got some silverware. At some points I was doing laptimes on my little 600 that wouldn't have seen me embarrassed in some of the BSB classes. And the bike was on a stock motor at the time (And I was 18 stone in kit). It turned out that I also had ZERO rebound adjustment in the front end for most of the season. Which would explain why I struggled so much with the bike at the time. In Spain we put Hickman out on my bike and told him to spank it. He managed 4 tenths quicker than me on my bike. Which whilst it was not set up for him.. told me atleast that I couldn't of done much more on it as it was anyway. So I can sleep easy enough at night knowing that I set out to achieve what I set out to. I could then generally speaking 'close the door' and draw a line under the bike racing. I didn't have anything else really to prove to myself. To go any further would require the aforementioned which I couldn't justify. So in trackday terms I would usually be one of the quickest people I guess. In racing terms, I've had good days and bad days. I haven't ridden 'properly quick' (for whatever level I am considered) since probably September 2019. I have no idea what I'd be able to do now. I've only ridden the road bike fairly sedately (which is a 1000 and I have never raced a 1000). I have spun a few half quick ish laps on it on old rubber in stock trim. It talks to me still. I can still 'feel it'. But I'm no Guintoli and I also don't want to smash my shiny road bike up haha.
So basically... Are/were somewhat of a beast on track ! Makes sense then. When being competitive, I can see why you'd smash through tyres. Most of us mere mortals though would never get through tyres like that. Shame you didn't continue, but if you fell out of love with it there's no point. It's supposed to be enjoyable.
I can't just 'circulate' mate. It's not in my nature. The relentless 'i can do better' 'i must improve' thing is exhausting I'd end up fully broken . Now I just enjoy coaching. It's also an excuse not to have to push because I'm on a road bike and usually on absolutely shagged rubber. Being that it's not a race bike it seems to release me from the 'I must go as fast as possible' thing and I can just enjoy riding again. I have debated going back to car racing though
It depends on what you want to do. But in a word yes. All sorts mate. I came up as a youngster in karting and then went on in to cars before running out of money in fabulous style. I have a friend with a historic touring car who’s asked if I would do some endurance stuff with him. It’s a possibility. But for the moment the house and work is taking centre stage for me. Can’t afford another divorce. And I’ve not even married again yet ha
