We went for a lap in the circuit security car and got them to stop when we got to the steepest part of the banking. I honestly had no idea it was as steep as it is. All I knew about the circuit before I got there is that it has 'a bit of banking' as I have never even seen the place on TV. I got a full appreciation of it when I was stood at the bottom and even more appreciation when we walked to the top and were looking down the bank. It is so steep that when you walk up you have to balance yourself by putting your hands out in front of you. Pretty damn cool!
Ben has been really helpful in giving me a few circuit pointers and, to be honest, so have most people in that paddock. They are all very friendly and it's a much different atmosphere to a GP paddock. Most riders in GP won't even look at each other, let alone speak to each other! Me included.
On Monday, it was time to give the track a go. I was again riding exactly the same bike as I raced at Mid-Ohio, a 2006 Yamaha R6, although the bikes were put together
for the test in quite a hurry as they had already been stripped down because the team were waiting for delivery of the '07 bikes and didn't expect to be testing this side of the New Year. My mechanic had to rebuild the bike and, as a spare, he used one of his own bog standard R6s, with an ignition system, exhaust and bodywork on. It was enough just to have a shakedown and get a bit more used to the four strokes, learn the tyres and, importantly, the track for when we go back in March.
The weather was quite fresh in the mornings, but then turned pretty warm by the afternoon, so we didn't rush out at 9am - it was more like 10.30am by the time I was out on track.. We had quite a few things to test over the three days, which was nice. I had plenty of tyres to try from Dunlop, different clutch settings to work on and the latest fork internals to set the bike up with, although they wouldn't be arriving until day two.
