Dan the man back on track
February 23, 2008
Yo guys its been a while since I’ve done one of these columns, had a couple of days out with the ACU Academy about goal setting and we also did a track day at Arncott, the goal setting day was good for me as it made me think how important it was to set goals and how high to set them. Then Arncott was also really good for the wet weather riding it was great fun but hard to ride.
Dan loved brown sauce with his bacon sandwichs
The latest bike training day took place this Tuesday February 19th at Tonymoto, but somehow I don’t know why the training days are either wet or freezing cold, I suppose it must be something to do with this time of year. Ha Ha.
This week has been awesome as being the half term week I had lots to do.
On Monday I was so excited that I had a whole week off school, I got all my kit ready and saved my Dad a job by the doing the bike for Tuesday. Really looking forward to seeing Mark and the Academy, so I went for a bike ride to start my fitness training, got back and got some grub, and then went to get some beauty sleep for the main day of the week - Tuesday.
I woke at about 7:00am Tuesday morning and jumped straight into the van as the temperature was so cold, luckily Mum had put the van on charge and the fire was on. Though this didn’t stop my excitement to get to Tonymoto, as quick as possible.
Dan rips it up at Tonymoto
We then arrived and the track was really, really frosty but we waited for a short time until the sun came up to defrost the track. Meanwhile, while the track was defrosting we had a good look around the track for lines and areas that were still going to be slippery.
We got to the end of walking the track and the whoops appeared, I thought we were going round them as the cones were in the way, but oh no! the cones were moved out of the way, this was when the butterflies in my stomach started, I’ve never been any good in whoops and these were quite gnarly, well at least I thought they were.
We then went out for free practice as we could not do timed as the track was a little slick. We had some bike problems but Dad got it sorted for me, in time for the timed practice. My lap times weren’t very good as I was mucking up the dreaded ‘whoops’.
I stopped by Dad and he told me to watch and learn how other boys in the Academy were doing it. I then attempted to do them and I succeeded, I was over the moon with myself, a triumph thanks to Mark and the other guys.
Also Ray was there from Moto Magazine taking good shots of us as usual. I hope he’s got some good photos.
And also a big thanks to: Unique Plant, MX Zone, T&W Racing, Pirelli, Putoline, Woolfy’s Track & Trail, Hardcore Racing and AMS Motorcycles.
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