Ducati Sporting Club UK > Sport > Trackdays & Race Schools > Important - more people to thank for Cadwell

[WeeJohnyB]

What a wonderful couple of days. I echo all the comments of thanks to the usual suspects who helped to organise it.

Thanks also to a number of people behind the scenes who contributed to making it the best DSC day ever.

The instructors Chris Butcher, Tony Perrin (TP), John Lawson (Yeti) and Monty (Monty) who used a lot of fuel, tyres, perspiration and patience to ensure you all had a good time out on track, much of which you shouldn't even notice. If you went home feeling knackered, these guys did at least twice the riding that you did and were well and truly bushed by Tuesday evening. (apologies if we sometimes went past you a tad quick which was mentioned more than a few times…safely of course!!!). I received some excellent feedback on the quality of instructing from many people who took advantage of the experience available…..they also had to deal with the odd ‘situation’ in a diplomatic way….thanks guys, a pleasure to work with you.

Thanks for allowing me to ride the only non-Ducati on Monday….the noise my 600 makes was quite distinctive I understand – I should have a few good shots of me as Guy says he could hear me coming every lap! Thanks for the comments about my ‘old shed’, the trusty CB500, you still can’t believe I take it on track, but Jools now understands the mystery of the CB as he came back in grinning from ear to ear….it’s not for sale mate!

To Guy, (Cope Images), in advance for the fantastic pictures I know you are all going to get. He’ll tell you himself no doubt, but he took around 2,500 shots each day!!! There has to be one good one of you in that lot! We need to insist Guy gets out on circuit next time – he was offered bikes, but was too conscientious wanting to do a good job for the rest of us to take any time off. He took pics at pretty much every corner, he must have walked miles and by the end of Tuesday, he could hardly open his eyes to ride home as he had been squinting through the lens almost non-stop for two days. Guy paid a lot of money to MSV (Cadwell) for the right to take pictures of us, so please buy some pics from him, which he's hoping to start loading up to the site on Wednsesday night.

To Grip & Rip for looking after our tyres…goodness knows how many tyre pressures he changed and the advice he gave to many on new tyres.

To Aidie and his team of marshals and medics….always the best run trackday, in particular for how quickly they cleaned up the oil left behind by a certain Kawasaki (yep, not a Duc!!!) and for not red flagging situations that would have reduced our track time. The way they managed the 3 bikes down in the last inters session was a truly professional job. Aidie asked me to pass on his thanks for the way we behaved and obeyed their instruction….he couldn’t have done what he did without knowing we were going to behave, so well done us. He is looking forward to having us back.

To Janet and Joan and the rest of the staff in the canteen for some lovely home-made meals….I know they have been working very hard over the past year or so on the quality of the food they produce so it’s great to over-hear someone say ‘that’s the best canteen food I’ve ever tasted’. (that’s me sorted for bigger portions now!).

Well done to the trackday virgins who went out in the ‘wobbly session’, it’s worth all the effort just to see the smile on their faces.

To everyone who offered me a go on your lovely bikes and to Ducati UK for not offering me a go on their lovely bikes!!!

And lastly to everyone who went out on track for the respect they showed to their fellow DSC members – near impeccable behaviour as ever.…and to the friends and relations who fixed bikes, made tea, drank beer and watched their mates go round and round for two days who also made a huge contribution to the enjoyment of the event, including Mr Disco for supplying some cool sounds for us and to Sarah for the ‘fire thingy’ display (can’t recall what you said it was called, very impressive though).

I personally had a cracking couple of days and felt good on the bike for the first time in a very long time, but to the person who said he was timing me at 1.38’s…..dream on, I’ve never broken the 1.4’s before, even on Monty’s 250, but whatever it was, I enjoyed it, which after all is what it’s all about.

As many of you know I was at Cadwell with No Limits on Friday and Saturday as well, so I am well and truly fooked now…..have to ‘work’ today, but off to Mallory on Friday….yeehaa!!

WeeJohnyB

[Monty]

Thanks mate, for all the thanks that I was going to post up later-but mostly a HUGE thanks to you for being the boss and keeping us all in line.
And you are right-I'm fooked and can hardly walk this morning-but I shall do it all again next year.
In case anyone is wondering Mike and Courtney our American friends who flew over especially to share our trackday had a massive time-they'll be back next year-with a load more of their group I shouldn't wonder.
Highlight of the 2 days for me was seeing and hearing Mr Ducati himself John Hacket giving that wonderful little Supermono the berries around Cadwell. In case you don't know that little beauty is worth over £60,000 and is made of pue unobtainium-you can't get the spares for love nor money!

John

[wilf]

for sure, one of the best orgainised trackdays i've been to.

10 out of 10 to the instructors, excellent! I've instructed at 1 trackday and its exhausting and uses tons of fuel and tyres. You really can't appreciate the effort these guys put in for us to have a safe and fun day out.

Thanks dudes.

[Grib]

Think that about sums it up nicely One of the best trackdays I've ever been on, thoroughly enjoyable.

The only whinge we did have, which was completely out of DSC hands, was being charged £10 to stay the night in our own caravan! Cheeky g!ts!

[Firefly]

Thanks again guys, had awsome fun on the 583, cant wait to get some piccies back :O)

Kel x

[mickey205]

many thanks to all there at cadwell as it was my first trackday and for tony for some good advice.

[butch890]

Originally Posted by Monty

Thanks mate, for all the thanks that I was going to post up later-but mostly a HUGE thanks to you for being the boss and keeping us all in line.
And you are right-I'm fooked and can hardly walk this morning-but I shall do it all again next year.
In case anyone is wondering Mike and Courtney our American friends who flew over especially to share our trackday had a massive time-they'll be back next year-with a load more of their group I shouldn't wonder.
Highlight of the 2 days for me was seeing and hearing Mr Ducati himself John Hacket giving that wonderful little Supermono the berries around Cadwell. In case you don't know that little beauty is worth over £60,000 and is made of pue unobtainium-you can't get the spares for love nor money!

John

Have to echo your words about the supermono-simply AWESOME,and i hear one lucky DSC bar-steward got to have a couple of laps on it!!!!!!
Jammy Git!!!!
Butch

[Dukerob]

Good call John, excellent 2 days, thanks to all of whom you mentioned above and especially to 'Mr Disco' I think Andy Shep's gonna take some time to get used to his his new monicker.......and big flares

[Jools]

Ooooh, where do I start with the Massive Thanks

I've got so many people to thank it could be a long post...but you knew that anyway

The Background

After failing dismally to get my 888 track bodywork and buckled wheel sorted, I decided that the simplest thing to do would be to take the covers off my ST2 (after letting the poor old dear stand idle for 6 months) change the oil and the belts, put the scruffiest set of fairings on it and spank it round Cadwell.

I went out for the first session when it was still wet and had a lovely rear wheel slide that felt totally under control as I gassed it out of the hairpin 2nd lap round - I was well impressed with how grunty the big old 2 valver was after the T8, it was pulling like a train.

Unfortunately as I started to up the pace after the two sighting laps it all started to go Pete Tong. The bike started to splutter and misfire as I tried to drive out of Charlies 2 and along Park Straight - then loads worse as I went round Chris Curve. It felt like fuel starvation and the engine would bog down, then charge hard again - seemed particularly bad on right handers.

As I went round Barn, off camber, under the trees, in the wet, trying to roll on really smooth, the engine went Buuuuuuuuuurrrrrr Bwaaaaaaaaaaaa Buuuuuuuuuuuur Bwaaaaaaaaaaaa as it died then came on full charge again - not ideal for a nice smooth wet riding technique.

So I came back in again early then fiddlied with fuel filters, fuel pumps, plugs, electrics between each session to try and fix it. All to no avail - so by the end of the first session after lunch I'd only done 10 spluttery laps.

Effectively I'd turned up at Cadwell without a bike. So my massive vote of thanks go to.

Chass and Alex: For lending me all the fuel related bits and taking over spannering duties for me between sessions while I farted around being generally useless.

Glyn: For the spark plugs

The whole paddock: For putting up with 'that tosser' gunning the ST up and down the entrance road time and time again after each frantic fettling session to see if we'd fixed it

Everyone in the fast group: For putting up with having to avoid 'that tosser' on the spluttery, misfiring mobile chicane for the first 3-4 laps of each morning session

Monty: For just chucking me the keys of his ST4S and letting me get the two final sessions of the day on a bike that actually went faster when you crack the throttle instead of dying (although those brakes had me in all sorts of bother at the hairpin on one lap)

Redruth: For lending me her 996 for the first two sessions on Tuesday and waiting patiently for me to bring her bike back safely so she could go out in the inters straight afterwards - and for the first session out after lunch when (naughty naughty) I'd adjusted my leathers so that they didn't cut off the blood supply to my neck. Fantastic session, let me pick up the pace enough to actually overtake 4 or 5 people - thanks to those people as well for some good fair riding

AK and CK: For being generally brilliant. Letting me take out the 583 DD bike for a couple of sessions in the morning and the 620 for the final session - felt pretty good and I put in a moderately respectable lap time for the first time out on the bike. Can't say enough good things about you guys - CK even said, just take the mirrors of the monster and use that. Sorry I couldn't do your beautifully prepared bikes justice - that rearset position had me wincing in pain after 4 or 5 laps, so much so that I couldn't move my legs to change gear after a bit.

WeeJonnyB: For letting me crack round on the CB500 - the biggest grin of the day - couldn't believe that the smallest bike out there was keeping up with the big bikes all the way from park to the start finish. Until we came to the straights of course when they would just feck off never to be seen again. Thanks to John for the riding tips as well - I will practise on my own bike.

Rattler: For putting up with me whingeing about my own bike, making bullsh... excuses about not being able to go fast enough on other peoples bikes because they didn't fit me, wasn't used to the brakes blah, blah, blah. Being generally encouraging and giving me some good advice about proper racing lines.

The Whole Fordie Gang: Fordie himself, Kelly, Phil, Rob for being all round good folks, putting up with the same whining as Rattler did, sharing their food, the Fordie tent, putting up with me snoring and farting and mostly for their infinite patience in loading up my bike for me and effectively transporting 215 kilos of dead bike to and from Cadwell. Diamond people.

Thanks to Sarah for the fire swinging (amazing seeing it close up) and Mike for sharing the front seat of the transit with a fat bloke.

I'll echo everything that's been said about Monty, Lizzie, WJB, the instructors, the marshalls - as a member of the MT for the first time this years I do know a bit about what it took to organise. It was the best couple of days on bikes I've ever had despite all the bike woes.

Thanks to the generosity of everyone who had the trust in me to hoon their pride and joy bikes about, I rode a bigger variety of bikes in a couple of days than I've ever done before. I'm glad I kept them the right side up

[Ray]

Big thanks to Lizzie, Monty and all the hard working crew who helped put the 2 dayer on.

The track soon dried out on day one. Courteous riding by all.

Lessons from Paul Smart Rep "Number 16" on how to go round corners.

Thanks to Butch for sorting out the Hog Roast.

Nice tunes from “Club Conerspeed” at the top of the paddock, shame the pole dancer wasn’t up to doing her act after the off earlier in the day

The fire twirling looked good in the distance and deadly close up.

Breakie in the café was a treat watching the sun beaming down on cadwell’s mountain. More lessons in how to go round corners from the DDers, was fairly hopefull of at least keeping AK in sight for a while ‘til the elastic broke.

Thanks to DUK for bringing some bikes to ride, had a go on the S4RS Monster, what a Hoot, was just as quick as the 998 in a straight line and so much more leverage on the bars for going round the corners, a great bike for the twisty stuff.

More lessons, in how to ride round corners, this time from Tonio? on DUK’s 749.


Then the fun was over, ‘Til next time.

Ray.