BikeStormer

The Ron Haslam racing school is at Donington, a world famous racing track and where proper motorcycle races take place – it is one of the tracks that the Bennetts British Superbike racing uses. We would be unleashed on Honda’s 600cc racing bike. These bikes don't any of the pointless fripperies of road bikes like lights, mirrors, or even a dial to tell you how fast you are going. They are completely stripped down and perfectly designed for racing.

You don’t even have to have a license to join in the fun, or even any previous bike experience. If you are a complete novice you just take part in an extra session of training where they teach you the basics of riding before letting you on the track.

Our racing experience began when we were summoned to a desk and given our racing gear. Everything is provided and I felt rather dapper wearing my new costume. I might not have a clue what I was doing but at least I looked the part. I've never been encased in leather before but it did make me feel a bit happier about going out on the bikes in the rain. Because everyone was racing in identical leathers it was rather hard to identify people once they were suited up, it was like being a penguin, a special racing sort.

We had short briefing from an expert about the track and what the different flags were for before we went out. This bit was excellent fun because it was just like being in that scene at the end of Return of the Jedi where the general briefs all the fighter pilots. Our costumes were more red and black than orange and sadly we weren't being instructed by a talking fish but it was still jolly exciting.

After the briefing we were allocated an instructor (A lovely chap called Derek who had been riding bikes since he was 5 and had 19 years of racing experience) and a motorcycle and then sent out. These Honda racing motorcycles are extremely light and ferociously fast, with the sort of acceleration that would make most super cars blush and give excuses about how they were having a fat day. So I found my bike to be a bit of a handful when I first got on it, which I’d like to pretend was down to the awful weather but was mostly due to my inexperience.

The first few laps were taken slowly, or at least not as fast as the other people on the track while I got a feel for what the bike could do. The instructor was ahead of us (you pair up with another person for the training) and was watching us carefully in his mirrors while demonstrating the racing line. The bike felt so light that even just shifting my weight around a little bit to try and get more comfortable made it wobble alarmingly.

After a while we were starting to get the hang of the bikes and the course so the next stage of the training began. We were shown into one of the rooms on the pit lane and another instructor talked us through how to shift your body on the bike to change the centre of gravity. We then took it in turns to try this out on a bike that was safely on a stand to get what it feels like.

The next set of laps began and we went out to try out this new, entirely alien skill. At first it felt very strange and the wet track didn’t do a much to boost my confidence but it started to make sense. The shifting of weight made the bike feel much more stable around corners.

The third and final set of laps was preceded by another talk about the track. They talked about apexes and smooth application of power and how it was important to flow from one corner to the other. While this was happening the track dried out so we got to take off the rather un-cool wet weather overalls and race in just the leathers.

This was the point at which it all started to click, the motorcycle which had seemed so unstable earlier became brilliantly responsive and on the corners I was happily climbing all over it like a hyperactive spider monkey. Each swooping curve was a delight and on the straights I went so fast it felt like my head was about to fall off.

Sadly after a while it was time to stop and so with great regret we rode back into the pit lane and got off the bikes. I’d survived my first racing experience and the closest thing to an injury is that my face hurt a bit from smiling so much.

We had to hand over our racing gear and get changed back into our dull normal clothes but the experience wasn’t quite over yet. We went into a special room to be given an assessment of our riding and a certificate. I’ve never been so proud of a piece of paper since I got a ‘highly commended’ in a sack-race aged 8, and I think I only got that because I had a nose bleed.

I can’t wait to go back for another race day; it was so much fun that by the end of was giving high-fives to strangers. Also I think I may have fallen in love a little bit with my bike, I wonder if I can buy one and use it to commute to work in 30 seconds.

(Eurosport paid for Sam to do this - he isn't entirely sure why - but to do it yourself would cost £269 and would be worth every penny. for more details go to http://www.haslamraceschool.com)