So Sunday the 29th of January, myself (Mike) and Elvis attended a motorcycle event at Escuderia Castelo Branco racetrack.

Organised by the team at Escuderia, the event was totally free and designed to get kids more involved in Flattrack/Supermoto motorcycle racing, by giving them the use of motorcycles, leathers and all the gear and providing some tuition on a “coned off” track.

My friend Miguel, who works at the track, booked us an 11am slot on the circuit, and on a fresh sunday morning we headed out to Castelo Branco. When we got to Escuderia we signed Elvis in, and went to try on his motorcycle gear. He was super-excited as he didn’t realise he would be wearing full leathers, as normally he rides an offroad bike or quad, so totally different clothing.

We got the right sized leathers, helmet, gloves and boots and after about 15 minutes of struggling to get it all on him, with the support of some friendly ladies – he was ready to go.

The supermoto bikes are different to motocross, taller, heavier, slick type tyres, smaller wider wheels etc so Elvis took a few minutes to get used to the changes, then he was off. First of all doing circuits, then doing figure of eights. There was 55 children booked in for the free experience, and about 2 to 4 out on the track at any time, so there was lots of room for each person to learn and get more confident.

Elvis had about 45 minutes out on the track in two sessions, and he absolutely loved it. They have a cafe there, and also a huge go kart track where kids were racing midimoto 125cc machines, so when Elvis was done we had an ice cream (It was warmer by then!) and watched the racing for a while.

It was a really good few hours all in all, and an awesome way for 7~11 year olds to experience motorcycle sport and all fully secure, safe and well mentored too. Literally no experience necessary to have a go.

They hold many events like this through the year, as well as drag racing, rally, race carts, Baja, kartcross and much much more, so if you are a motorsport fan, and thinking of visiting us make sure you tell us and we can look to see if there are any events of interest