[WeeJohnyB]

UK Monster Owners Club trackday yesterday at Mallory.

Brilliant day, hot and sunny, great to see loads of old and new faces, took the mandatory and deserved pasting regarding the incident with the S4R of two years ago, did the old Gerrards circuit and we only had one faller all day at the entrance to Edwinas, all the Ducati UK bikes went home as they arrived and Mr Chris Walker turned up to test the 1000, (he already has a Paul Smart).

He looked good in Ducati Dainese leathers with number 9 on the back. I had a good chat with him before we went out and he was looking forward to seeing what it was like. I had to sign him on and put a wrist band on him and obviously gave him the full 20 minute WeeJohnyB No Limits briefing (not). He asked me about Edwinas as he'd never done it before (WJB - instructor to the stars)

He came down very early for the fast group and sat waiting for the novice group to clear the track as the rest of the fast group formed up behind him, most of them totally unaware that the guy at the front of the line was a world class rider and British racing icon.

The green light goes on and we get the nod from the gate marshal and Chris pins it out of the pit lane, bang goes my plan to at least be on the same lap as him. I nail it on my CBR600RR and sit in behind him around Gerrards and into Edwinas, where he takes a perfect line first time ever through the corner. He starts to open it up a bit and I'm still with him until we go through the Bus Stop where it appears nobody has ever told him why it's called the bus stop as he glides through it and is off down the Devels Elbow as I'm still tip-toeing through the left/right. I open it up a bit, but the only thing I can think of is binning the S4R two years ago on this very corner and how ridiculous it would be, but I pin it down the straight and get back up behind him going into Gerarrds. At this stage there are a couple of other No Limits instructors and a few of the quicker guys on Monsters still in toe, but as each lap goes by, they drop off one by one. Three laps in and I'm still tucked in behind him, on my own now and I can see we've got the tail end of the group up ahead. The pace is getting faster all the time and I'm now only just keeping with him. As we go down the straight, I take a weird decision that I totally had not planned and go past him on the way into Gerrards!!! I say 'go past', it was more like half a bike length, cause when he saw me beside him, he sort of looked at me in slow motion and basically didn't let off at all for Gerrards and as I scrubbed off some speed on the entry, as normal people do, he just maintained his speed and threw the bike over into the corner, awesome to watch close up. By the exit of Gerrards he was about 20-30 meters in from of me. Well that was it really, I tried to keep him in sight, but he got further and further away as we caught up with the traffic, any chance of keeping up disappeared.

Someone was taping it (badly), so the visual is not good, but the sound is funny. First off about three laps in, one of the other instructors comes in and off camera says, 'I nearly lost it there, what the feck was I doing trying to keep up with Chris Walker' and a few seconds later, Chris and I come past and you hear someone else saying 'WeeJohnyB is right up his arsse'. You can't quite see the 'overtake' on the screen, but you can see me in front, then as the camera pans around Gerrards, it's comical, you just see Chris pulling away yard after yard.

I came in sweating buckets, pulse banging out of my head. That was great fun. I don't get spooked by celebs, but it was an honour to be on the same bit of tarmac and the story of me overtaking Chris Walker, WSB rider, will get better and better the more I tell it.

The No Limits boys are off to Croft today, but I had to work, but back to Cadwell on Sunday then Brands on Monday (day and evening). I followed Ian McPherson for about 100meters at Cadwell last week, who's next?

Special thanks to all the UKMOC boys and girls, fab people and to Terry (Fatbloke) for organising it and to Ducati UK. One of the best trackdays of the year, if you have a monster, make sure you get there next year.

WeeJohnyB
(Instructor to the stars)