| Murray Mints first DD report (Brands)
Murray Mints first DD report
Saturday
Was giving second thoughts to staying over on the Saturday night as I only live down the road but seeing Kev had laid on the DD Early Learning gig I thought it only right that I at least make the effort to turn up. There were some very helpful hints and tips being made available from some of the more experienced riders and it turned out to be very useful in the end, in particular the words from Andy Johnson regarding riding in the rain.
Sunday
Not a bad night’s kip on the newly acquired bouncy castle of an airbed in the back of the van. Got up about 7ish only to see loads of people and bikes making their way to the scrutinising bay, OK let’s get ready and get up there. By the time I finally make my way up to get the bike and me checked out the queue is about 50 or so bikes and riders long. Glad to say the man and machine made it through and was given the OK to go race. The rain that had started from what was a very gentle drizzle was now steady flow and I was starting to feel a bit unsure of the outcome of going out on a track filled with a bunch of guys and gals all wanting to go as fast as possible on the very same piece of track at the very same time… hmmmm.
Qualifying
I was like a startled rabbit when I heard the call for Desmodue riders to make their way to the assembly area for the timed practice and found myself at the very front of the queue; we were waved down the pit lane towards a guy holding a red flag, I line up on the front row. I’m now thinking that I should have waited a bit longer before heading down to the holding area and settled in a little bit further down the queue as I’ve absolutely no idea what to expect in a timed qualifying session let alone a wet one. Too late to change my mind now and the marshal is waving us out onto the circuit, Andy Johnson and Andy Roberts move out ahead of me and I decide to try and hang on to them and see what happens, I try but they are just too quick and to be honest the rest of qualifying is all just a blur and I just try as hard as I can/dare, my last experience of riding on a racetrack in the rain ended up in a huge bill. Well I don’t know how I did it but I turned out to be the second fastest in the Desmo B class… go figure, happy is not the word, try ecstatic.
Race 1
If qualifying wasn’t bad enough we’ve now got to go and do it all over again but this time it’s for the glory. Sitting in the assembly area again and I’m thinking what am I meant to do now, do we have a sighting lap and them a warm up lap or what, I decide to follow the others out and watch and see what they do. The start line marshal waves us off again and I remember tearing off going past the likes of Phil and Andy, it wasn’t until I was halfway round that I thought I’d better slowdown a bit in case I fall off on the warm up lap and end up with a fine and worse still not make the start at all. We all take up our positions on the grid, the guy in front of me holds up a red flag he starts to walk off the track to our left and points up to the lights. Nothing, red lights on, red lights off, well that’s lesson one over with as I get well and truly mugged off the start line, I’m down to 9th at this point and I’m feeling pretty crap but not for long. I can’t tell you in any great detail of how the race went apart from the fact that I had a fantastic ding dong scrap with Kevin Palmer (Senna) with Kev Ellis watching all this from a short distance behind. Every time I showed Senna a wheel at paddock hill he would just push that little bit harder and chop the line off, after the forth time of trying I managed to make it stick but only to have Skidlids to come flying past me and knock me down a peg. That’s the way the race 1 ended for me, a 7th place and very happy.
Race 2
Everything was as described in race 1 except I was determined to make a much better job of the start, we line up again and go through the marshal pointing at the lights thing but this time I’m telling myself that I can do it right. The lights go out and Phil leaps out of the start gate like a scolded cat, I give it everything I can and manage to keep level with Andy Roberts. This is where you can start to understand what it’s like up the front and how this type of riding experience is so far removed from any track day that you might have attended. Andy is on the outside into paddock and about a quarter of a bike length in front of me and I’m holding the throttle on the stop. Andy’s getting closer and closer and ever closer to me until I’ve had enough and ease off and he flies through. Going up towards druids I’m in forth place but I get mugged by two riders and I settle into 6th. I just keep trying and I’m promoted to a forth place by the misfortune of other riders and this is how I finish my second race.
Conclusion
Results, far and away better than expected, the whole Desmodue experience…great, Desmodue riders, great, and to everyone that came and showed their support, thanks.  | 
24-Apr-2006, 22:02 
domski
4D
Linear Mode
