DONNINGTON PARK

Its sunday the 11th of may. I drive up to Steve`s house in the van as it`s our first track day of the year. My bike is living in his garage at the moment as Sue (aka Mom) does not like the smell of motorbikes near the house. I think she thinks it is a Yamaha fs1e. No no no. Things have changed i keep telling her, they dont smell of petrol or oil anymore. It`s 2 stroke mopeds that smell not real bikes. Anyway back to the point. I arrive at Steve`s house and he is waiting at the gate like a dog knowing he is going for a walk. We go up to the garage to get leathered up. There are a few last minute adjustments and then we are on our way. 45 mins later we arrive at Donnington, park up and sign on. At this point Steve tells me he has a dicky stomach (shits) and he goes off to give it a drain. I wait in line to sign on, as i get to the front Steve is back and we sign on. When we book we asked to be in the novice group as it is much safer to go out in. (so we thought) After the sign on we go to riders briefing and get issued with our yellow wrist bands. So all excited we set off to the bikes and we are the first group out. At this point we dont have the on board camera connected to the bike as we decided to have a little warm up first. So now we go off to the grid and i told Steve i would follow and then he can follow me. At this point i realise we are not allowed to overtake for the first 2 laps. So this is Steves chance to have 2 laps in front of me. (oops, sorry Steve) On the 4th lap we are starting to get some heat in to the tyres and i decide to lead for a while. I then realised the group is slow. We are overtaking bikes everywhere. I look around to see Steve and i realise he has got caught up in a few so i decide to go at my pace. Lap after lap faster and faster until the checkered flag comes out. As i enter the pit lane a man is waving his arms at me. I ignore him and go to our garage number 33. 3 mins later the officials come down and tell me my bike is 99 decibels. The regulation is 98. So he tells me the only option is to have a new silencer tube put in the bike. At this point i dont think my bike is that loud and i think the problem is induction not exhaust. So the man fits a new scorpion item and charges me £28. Nice. I start the bike and look at Steve. We both say "its fuckin louder" I decide to carry on and see what the officials say on the next session.