Easter Sunday 2009 at Brands Hatch

On Sunday April 12th Naomi and her carers Carol and Zsofia as well as David and myself had a date down at Brands Hatch to watch the Britsh Super Bike Championship races curtesy of PR company Capitalize.

When we got there we were greeted with the fog that we'd woken up to in Surrey and Sussex - would we be able to see any of the races as we couldn't even see the track!

Brands  Hatch at 9.30AM

To keep ourselves entertained we all visited the 'Think' Motorbike Academy and had great fun trying out all the different bikes.

Vicky, Naomi and David

Lunch time came upon us quickly and by that time the fog had cleared enough for the first of the qualifying rounds of the day to go ahead. We were bang opposite the pits and the start and could see the riders lining up to go out onto the race track - it all felt very exciting.

After lunch we went back to the 'Think' tent and met John Reynolds - 3 times British Champion. He was fantastic with Naomi and didn't hesitate for one moment in speaking with Naomi and immediately put her at ease and very generously spent enough time to have his photo taken with her.

Naomi with John Reynolds

After that we went back to the track and saw our first proper race - the teenagers! They sat at the start buzzing like a swarm of bees in flight and then they took off after their target - 10 laps for the juniors. It was incredible to see the speeds these young people got up to - and no crashes! I was impressed!

Naomi watching a race very intently.

Naomi loved it all and sat very relaxed crossed legged the whole time with a little smile on her face not saying word. Sometimes she can be very vocal in unusual situations but having grown up with David riding a bike she seemed very much at ease and at home allowing her carers to thoroughly enjoyed themselves as well.

The race that stole all of our hearts wasn't the superbike races but the massive deep throated KTMs which roared and pawed the ground like a herd of buffalo about to gallop of into the distance. The sound was stupendpous and not only vibrated the ground but us with it - we all on mass went WOW! This brought about the biggest mile from Naomi and totally made our day. Naomi really didn't want to go home - this was far too much fun!

It was a wonderful day and Capitalize who were running the 'Think' Motorbike Academy tent were fantastic in their acceptance of her autism.

Naomi and her carers Carol and Zsofia

I feel that this is something we will do again with Naomi as she was thoroughly fascinated by everything but we couldn't have done it without her carers from the Disabilities Trust.