" I’ve been a foreign track day addict for years. In fact, when I started UK club racing last year, I panicked as I only knew the continental circuits! Foreign events are completely different to UK track days where everyone’s too focused on their tyre warmers for small talk. They’re like the best ever holiday.

Spanish circuits spend their lives basking under the sun. Almeria for instance is Europe’s driest circuit, nestled deep in Spain’s Spaghetti Western south. So you’re almost guaranteed great riding weather throughout Blighty’s bleakest months. It’s a thrilling circuit too, where manufacturers and British superbike teams flock for winter testing.

Track Sense organises three days on track – usually from Friday to Sunday – there or at the GP circuit Jerez, letting you take your time to learn your way round and improve your riding gradually. It’s the perfect way for novices to get their first taste of track riding, and ideal for track day regulars to progress. The days are split in three groups: novice, intermediate and fast, rotating at 20-minute intervals. Whatever your bike and ability, there’s a group for you. And there are far fewer riders on track than on the crammed UK days.

Former TT and British Superbike champion Ian Simpson, and international road race champion Ian Cobby are on hand throughout for instruction, while top mechanic Andy works his socks off changing tyres and fixing mechanical gripes. Track Sense brings tyres that you can buy at bargain prices. Cans of petrol are also provided at cost.

The holiday atmosphere is exhilarating, yet chilled. Everyone enjoys a beer or ten down the bar in the evening. Of course, the more beers are downed, the greater the stories of slides, knee-downs and top speeds become, until everyone’s a Valentino Rossi in the making!

The camaraderie is unique. I’ve met my greatest friends on these events. Some people (ahem) become so hooked they do every event in the calendar. Some even leave their bike all year round at Track Sense’s Surrey workshop for Andy to clean, service and carry out upgrades, ready for the next event.

Logistics are straightforward. The weekend before the event I drop off bike and kit for Track Sense to transport in crates stored in trucks. A few days later, I fly cheaply to Almeria or Jerez airport where I pick up my hire car and head for the plush four-star hotel. Here the fun begins with socialising over a cold one.

There’s so much track time you could take a morning off to lounge by the sea or pool with your other half and kids – whole families come along for the ride! And still you’d get all the track time you could wish for. By early afternoon of the final day, many have already retired to the hotel bar. Only the die-hard enthusiasts continue to chase the smooth ribbon of Tarmac on the near-empty, sun-kissed Spanish circuit.

 

Sideways through time