Italian weekend - Saturday 2 July

Saturday, 2 July, 2011
I've been looking forward to this weekend for a long time.

source: www.mylot.com

The Italian MotoGP is on at Mugello on Sunday, 3 July 2011, and there is an Italian motorcycle track day at my local race track on the same day.

Today is MotoGP qualifying and the weather was very similar here in Mugello and Cape Town. Our local event organizer is really going the extra mile to make our experience realistic! At least I got more biking time on route to Cape Town than what VR46 did at the MotoGP qualifying session. However I had to cancel my morning pedal cycle ride due wet roads and morning showers. Fortunately the roads dried at by about 12pm and I could get onto my motorbike.

My biking day started with an engine warmup before I took to the road. The mission for the day was to check that my bike is in good running order for track day and to make a brief stop at Ducati Cape Town. A short stint through my town tested my patience, but I kept calm and flowed with the traffic to make it onto the freeway. I had a blast of a ride to Cape Town.  The motorists were very observant and well behaved today. Could it be that all off the road hogs were at Newlands rugby stadium?

Organising an event is huge undertaking and the Ducati guys were busy loading bikes into the van and had two more ready on the trailer when I arrived in Cape Town. They helped me with a quick product exchange before getting on with their final preparation.

I left just as the guys were going through their check list for the Italian track day at Killarney.

I headed home with clouds looming and recited some lessons learned from track days:
1) Slow corners can collect dirt - be smooth.
2) Tires take longer to warmup in this weather - be smooth and warm-up your tires if possible.

The ride back was also great fun, but I just could not help but thinking that freeways are only good for short stints. Roll on the twisties or even better: "Bring on the track!"

Now I'm hoping that the weather plays with and that I can get ample track time at Killarney. The WP marshalls are also providing braai packs and a big screen to follow the MotoGP. Even it it rains it will be a great event.

Forza VR46 and OWB!

source: http://automaxmotorsportclub.com