European Motorcycle Diaries had a difficult dilemma this last weekend. Invited to a VIP day with the Castrol Honda World Superbike team for the Silverstone round of the WSBK what did we do? What do you think? We went straight up there. As fast as Mutley’s long legs could take us.
I didn’t have high hopes for the 100 mile trek from Hampshire, but the combination of a glorious summer day, an early morning start and a strange gas that must have crept into all the houses of the English East Midlands overnight made the journey an absolute delight. It was though some supernatural force had kept the locals off the roads as we made rapid and very enjoyable progress through the understated and generally unsung summer lushness of Buckinghamshire & Northamptonshire. Not able to bear the thought of routing via the M25 and M40, we hit the A roads to High Wycombe, Aylesbury and Buckingham – thereby arriving at the circuit from a different direction (in spirit as well as geographically) to the rest of the fans, and also avoiding the queues.
It's a hot air balloon
My last two visits to Silverstone were to a British Touring Car race in the mid-nineties, and in 1977, when ‘er outdoors and I rode my Yamaha RD400 to the British 500cc GP to watch Barry Sheene and Jonny Cecotto et al. I thought Silverstone a very poor venue to my local and much-loved Brands Hatch. Rain and leaky Belstaff clothing didn’t exactly enhance the experience. The race was won Pat Hennnen and my hero Steve Baker was second (Hero because he had admired my RD 400 one afternoon when we skived off school and managed to get into the paddock at Brands where they he was doing some testing.) Check Steve Baker and his Yamaha out.
Formation Dancing at Abbey Curves
Come-back kid John Hopkins - adopted by the UK fans - takes a break from BSB and puts the cat among the WSBK pigeons
Carlos Checa gives everyone - especially Biaggi - a Silverstone Master-class. Check-out the fork dive
Chris finally found something from Honda that he really liked. . .
Lots has been written about the recent changes to Silverstone, suffice to say that it has definitely been brought up to a world class standard proven by an excellent F1 event and ‘in-field’-type layouts created now around Woodcot & Becketts - while retaining a super-fast flowing feel that has had great reviews form drivers and riders.
Track Marbles - but not as we know them
Soft, strong & very long
It really wasn’t Honda’s weekend though. With both main riders – Jonathan Rea and Ruben - ‘More Airside than Trackside - Xaus’ side-lined with injury, the two stand-ins - a scarily-young looking BSB contender Alex Lowes and Fabrizio Lai - only finish one race between them, and that out of the points.
"It's like asking someone else to sleep with the missus" - JR on handing his Castrol Honda over to Alex Lowes
Jonathan Rea proved to be a true gent. Taking really good care of the Honda guests with a proper tour of the pit garage, answering tons of questions and doing an interview over lunch for the hospitality tent. He is charmingly unassuming and down to earth in that Ulster way – it’s difficult to imagine him banging shoulders in the ferocious battles of BSB or that he finished 4th in WSBK last year despite injury, and won at Assen and was third at Monza this year before breaking his arm.
Well despite politely leaving the Ducati T-Shirt at home (but not the MS of course) – given the disappointment of Ducati’s MotoGP dilemma it was great to see Carlos Checa surprising the pundits (not to mention Max and the Aprilia team) by romping home to two double wins at a circuit thought to have too many fast straights to suit the Ducati. After witnessing Rossi first-hand at Mugello on a bike that he rides like it’s about to bite him, and now Checa on a bike that looks so stable that the rest look on pogo sticks, one can’t help make the contrast between the relative positions of the works MotoGP struggle and the WSBK Althea Ducati domination. Crazy.
And thanks to Honda & in particular Jonathan Rea for stalwart efforts in adversity.