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Old 06-Oct-2004, 20:51
Felix Felix is offline
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Ducati Meccanica
 
Posts: 2,467
Join Date: Dec 2001
Mood: Is 112 dB loud enough?? What??
Report - DSC Race Day at Donnington Park

Where to begin? Despite a dire weather forecast, the day was at least half dry, and a very successful DSC sponsered event. For those that took the soft option and stayed at home, you missed some good racing and an inside view into the grassroots of club racing.

The day began by frantically looking for garage #13. It turns out that there is no garage #13 but rather 12A. I was the last of the three racing DSC members with Weeksy including his pit crew and Weagi already setting up. The day started fairly mild and overcast with the forecast still looming large on my mind. Wets-on-wheels were ready.

Once sign-up and scrutineering was completed, warmers on, bike fuelled, it was a matter of keeping and eye on the skies while waiting for the practise session. Mine was session #4. Having just spent the Friday previous at a trackday at Donington, I was admiring Weagi's courage, never having put a wheel around this track. As the practise session got finally got under way, the first rain drops came down. These are probably the worst kind of conditions as they make tyre choice a real gamble. As a result, much discussion ensued about which tyres to use. I quietly decided that I was not going to put on wets just for practise. I stipulated that it won't last and if it were to get wetter for my practise session, I would simply sit it out. I felt confident enough having done the Friday track day, although I had a low side at Redgate. My gamble worked. The spitting stopped, my practise session was dry and all was well.

My first race was heat 4 of the allcomers race. Having only ever raced in the 750/twins class, I had some trepidations of running with these guys. This turned out to be the only dry race of the day for me, but after a mediocre start, I put in a new personal best lap at 1:19 on the club circuit. I was pleased with that result and it put me on the forth row of the B final to be held later in the afternoon. More on that later.

My next race was the "Ducati race", the 750/twins class which has the same engine capacity rules as the old Superbike series. Again, conditions were difficult and the right choice was probably intermediate tyres. Not having any, I decided on the safer option and changed to wets. Due to a mix-up by Derby-Phoenix race control, I had to start from the last place on the grid! In addition, at this event only, they decided to have the 250 cc two-stroke machine, which usually share the grid behind us, start in front of us. I was truly last on the grid with a sea of bikes in front. It did not look good.

Again, my start was reasonable but nothing anywhere close to great. I knew, I could go well on wets, as I had previously at Croft. I put my head down and made steady progress. Almost immediately, I came up on lots of slower rider, many of them strokers. I could not keep track of who I passed and had no idea what position I was in during any lap. I knew I was going fairly well because no one came past me, my braking markers were almost identical as in the dry, and the front wheel still came up under the Dunlop bridge stifting into 6th gear. And it was shortly after the Dunlop bridge on the last lap that the infamous red mist got the better of me. I had missed the last lap flag and erroneously thought I might get another place on the next lap. In doing so, I left my braking even later into the final chicane, front wheel locking, rear wheel serving, and tipping it in was too much. I low-sided on the penultimate corner, laying in third place, with no hope of catching second before the checkered flag. Had I not missed the last lap flag, I would have finished a safe third. The only consolation was that I recorded the fastest lap of the race, and fastest lap of the day for the 750/twins class.

Back in the pits, licking my wounds, I only needed to replace the right hand foot peg. Ducatis do crash well. I was easily going to be ready for my next race. Thanks to Louigi for lending me the bits. Of course, I was very anoid at this completely unnecessary crash, which robbed me of a chance to start the second 750/twins race from the front row. You could say, I did a Rossi, coming from last on the grid to crashing out of a podium position, but that would sound to presumptious. Instead, I again started the 750/twins race from the back of the grid.

Again, this race was a wet one, but at least it was proper wet and the tyre choice was obvious. Thankfully, the put the 250s behind us on the grid, which only left half as many riders in front of me. I decided that I was not going to crash in this race and probably rode too conservatively. At least I finished the race. My start, however, was dreadful. By the time, I made it past some of the slower riders, the front group had checked out. It ended up being a fairly lonely race, and I didn't push hard. This was reflected in slower lap times. I still missed a flag, the checkered one this time and thought I got another place on the slow down lap. Oh well. Still I made good progress during the race and ended up 7th overall and second novice.

My last race was going to be the B final in the allcomers class. Due to the various delays during the day and many people packing up early (the weather had deteriorated significantly by then), they combined the B, C, and D finals. I decided not to start this last race. Call it intuition, luck, or whatever, but it turned out to be the right decision. As the red lights went out, a bike stalled on the grid. With all the water spray, people couldn't see very much, and this poor guy was plowed into from behind. It was mayhem. The immediately red flagged the race and several ambulances rushed onto the front straight. Race control cancelled the race and not one lap was completed. I don't know the name or state of the rider who was screaming in pain, but rumour has it he will be OK. I counter myself lucky.

Despite this dreadful end-of-day incident, the day was very enjoyable for me and a fitting end to my first racing season. I particularly enjoyed all the supporting DSC members who braved the elements and the new faces I've met. I want to especially thank Guido for his excellent photography work (much better than the usual trackside photographer), the participating reagional organisers, David Cook and the management team for making this event possible, and to Ducati UK for providing the T-shirts.
I do hope that the DSC can repeat and expand to a similar event next year, maybe with a different racing club at a different circuit.
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