(photos by Miguel "Kidhornet" Santos)
This year I have a small goal. To participate in the endurance race in October, if all things go well.
So, when I heard about DragRacingShow holding the first trackday of the year in the Estoril circuit, I kept checking the weather, until I was certain that it would be ok to take my 600 RR with the Metzeler Racetech tires to do some track time.
It was a very rainy week, but come thursday, the last day to sign up for the trackday, and the forecast for the week-end was of partly cloudy but no rain in sight, so I signed up. Talking to a friend, Paulo Cruz, which also owns a CBR 600 RR, he offered to take my camcorder on his bike and try and get me on video. As I always try to video tape my friends, he considered he would be returning the favor by following me around with the camcorder. The only catch was that I would have to slow down a bit for him to be able to keep me in the frame, since we have slightly different paces at the track.
Come sunday and the day was sunny with some scattered clouds. The temperature wasn't great but it wasn't cold either, and the track was damp due to some night showers, but was drying up fast (or so we thought). I was in group 1 and , according to the usual timetable, things would be like this:
9:00 - 10:00 - Group 1 (60 minutes)
10:00 - 11:00 - Group 2 (60 minutes)
11:00 - 11:30 - Group 1 (30 minutes)
11:30 - 12:00 - Group 2 (30 minutes)
Since the track should be a little wet/damp, I decided to be the first out on the track, and take a couple of laps to see how the track was. As I approached the marshalls near the end of pit lane, they promptly warned me of two corners where there was still some puddles of water. That would be the "variante" and the "parabolica", and marshalls would have the "slippery conditions" flags out at those spots.
Needless to say, the track was slightly damp, with the occasional damp patch here and there, which the rising sun should take care of soon, but at those two corners there was obvious standing water there. Easy does it, as in mere 4 recon laps I had two slides, one at each of those corners !
Came back in, and told my friends how the track was. I taped my camcorder to the tank of Paulo's bike, and we went for a few laps to see if I could bring home some footage of me 
. I tried to go slow, but it seems that Paulo is really careful at his out laps, much more than I am, so I lost him on the out lap. I thought he was following me, so I kept going, but in fact it was another bike.
After we came back in (we usually don't do the whole 60 minutes at once, we get tired at this age, LOL, so we do 2 or 3 outings during that period) I told him that he would go out in front of me in the out lap, and then I would pass him and would go as slow as possible, shifting way before the redline, braking earlier, etc... This time he managed not to get left too behind, and since I would go much slower at the two longer straights, he would catch up quickly. I finally have a glimpse of how I look like, from behind .
Check the footage here (first lap I was riding behind). You'll need the XVid codec installed first.
For the next session, I placed the camcorder on my bike's tank as usual, and went to have some fun. Again, at the end of the pit lane the marshalls would warn that the track was still slippery on those corners that were wet before. The day was somewhat sunny with some clouds, but the track was still amazingly slippery, specially at those corners. So slippery in fact, that there were many falls, specially at the "parabolica". It surely had to have something else than water, that they had tried to wash away. Then agai, with the amnount of falls at those corners, maybe some oil and/or gas was added to the mix. In fact, that session was interrupted with a red flag since 3 (three) riders tasted the gravel at the same time. Probably one of them slid away, while the other two behind went the same way trying to avoid the crash or something.
You can see the video from that session here. As always, you'll need the XVid codec installed first.
All in all a great morning, spent having fun and sharing the passion with a group of friends .
Many thanks to Paulo Cruz for having the patience to film me, to Miguel for letting me keep my backpack in his car, and to Miguel "Kidhornet" Santos for the always amazing photos he produces !