Airfield Riding Day

[lee]

Hi guys and girls,

Sorry I realise I'm still half way around the world but I had to share this with you all.

Yesterday I ran an Airfield Riding Day at RAF Cottesmore (about half way up England). Basically we closed the airfield and set up a racetrack. It was a beautiful day and I did some marshalling/riding like a loon. We had a 3.4 mile course including a 1.5 mile runway (sorry I will convert to km once I'm over there I promise!), and a 120 mph (sorry again) left hand knee-down corner. The day was brilliant. We organised lots of extra stuff like a burger van, photograhpers and all that sort of thing. further to which we had a guy from www.bikecameras.com (someones got to show me how to make this clicky) and we've videod the whole day, both from the trackside and from on the bikes. Hopefully he'll have the video finished in a couple of weeks and I'll put some stuff on. The day was broken into novice and experienced groups with 30 minutes each session and everyone got 6 sessions.

The day went without a hitch and we only had one small crash all day (from which he rode away from), although there may be some video of me riding across the grass....ahem. Oh and I hit a traffic cone with my shoulder at about 90mph. All who came loved it, weather was perfect and I got 169 mph on the main runway (headwind and very slight uphill).

The thing that got me was although I've done loads of track time over the past few years, I'd never organised one before. The thrill I got from everyone else enjoying themselves was awesome and I can't stop smiling.

Riding bikes fast rules...

Lee

[kickingzebra]

Thats awesome!! Ohakea you say you are from... I recall they used to let porsches oout to play there... Maybe you could do something along those lines for us.....

[lee]

Mate, I'm hooked on doing this sort of thing. I can only hope that this sort of thing is allowed, if not, I'll have to see at what else we can get up around the rest of NZ.

[Biohazard]

Long live the RAF

(brings back happy memories)

[Blackbird]

I remember Cottesmore from my teens, flying model aircraft at various RAF bases - cool! Dad was a scientist with the Royal Aircraft Establishment so aircraft have figured large in my life.

You'll find Ohakea a bit quieter but at least you're within shouting distance of the Manfield circuit!

[skelstar]

Thats pretty cool. Yeah Ohakea is quite close to a track already, but having a much faster 'track' on the runways sure would sort the men from the boys.

I sort of think about the track that Top Gear have at their 'airport' facility.

[lee]

DO you mean Top Gear over here in the UK? They use Dunsfold Aerodrome, its got a 2 mile runway. I used to work there as an undergraduate designing parts for the Harrier. Brilliant place, they spent over £1million resurfacing the runway before they closed it down. Top Gear got a good facility when they took it over!

Is the circuit near Ohakea any good then, do they hold many events on it?

[kickingzebra]

www.manfeild.co.nz
Pretty fun track, could have a better surface, but ah, who cares, can still double the legal speed limit on it easy.

Ohakea is all good for racing too, Never raced there, but at airshows etc they often put cars out on the track, and dang, you can hit some pretty wickie speeds!!

[Scorpygirl]

I remember going to a Wings and Wheels event at Whenuapai...that was a really cool day and we have a video of the last one done at Wigram. BRONZ do a lot of Ride Right, Ride Safe days at Whenuapai now.

[kiwifruit]

That looks like alot of fun!