Imagine a trackday offering free BSB rider instruction, free photography a huge amount of track time and limited numbers of riders. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well such a dream setup does exist and it’s called the James Whitham Track Training school.

WORDS: PRETTY BOY IMAGES: ASHAM PHOTOS

Dangerous and Pretty Boy in detention for lack of throttle…

’I’ll give you a hand, but just the one’.

Without splashing twenty grand to hire a track and a few top level racers while you’re at it, there’s no other way to experience a track-themed phenomenon like this. Naturally, when Bruce said that we were heading up to Croft in North Yorkshire for a day with the ex-BSB champ Whitham and his gaggle of riding god tutors, it didn’t take much arm twisting to get me tagging along. Given that I’m still new to racing litre bikes, I thought it’d be a good idea to take advantage of the track event’s top tuition, and learn the circuit the smart way while I was at it. As for Dangerous, well, he was just there to make up the numbers, as usual… and to improve on his poor form at the tough and technical track.

I guess we both needed a bit of riding help, and it started flowing our way the second we reached the track and signed on for our day within a relatively small group of fellow track riders. You can struggle to breathe for bodies during sign-on at some trackdays, but that certainly wasn’t how this one was going down. I took advantage of the free tea and biccies while listening to the legend Whitham introduce us to the day. Swearing, joking and telling some piss funny stories as he went on, we were all feeling pretty chilled and chirpy by the time he’d ticked off the necessary safety briefing. There were just over 40 riders among us, and we were to be broken into three groups by ability (16 rider limit per group), as chosen by us.

Whit asked who didn’t feel confident on track, or who was on their first trackday.

With a healthy showing of hands, he assigned those guys to the first group. Then he asked who felt confident on track and usually goes in the fast group, as they’d be group three. This meant the remaining bunch were the middle paced group. Simples!