Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Donington MotoGP part 2

[KeefyB]

Wow!What can I say,......awsome!!!!
A great day at the GP despite the rain.Great to meet up with all the DSC peeps and a big thanks to the Norfolk crew who dragged themselves out of bed to save us a prime spot.
Highlights for me,
The morning warm ups and the practice starts right in front of us.As Guido said,it was worth the admission price alone.The bikes were spinning up on the wet track.
Bmw Boxer Cup,The last lap,last corner.
Stephane Mertens,still bonkers after all those years racing,was never gonna make that move work!
The 125'sBit boring.
The 250's,A great ride from Aoyama.Bog last on lap 2 after crashing at Goddards,fought his way through to ninth.The ride of the day.
MotoGP,
Great rides from Hodgy and Shakey.How we cheered when Shakey got past Tamada.Another lap or two and he would have taken Biaggi.Great to see Colin Edwards first GP podium.And as for Vale,............amazing,is there anything this guy cant do!?Nice burnout in front of us too.
The Bikes,
The sheer speed,noise and exitement these bikes generate cannot be measured.The guys that ride them are gods.
All this and a great ride home.

[David Cook]

Did you see the SS race?

What happened to the 2 JHP riders?

[KeefyB]

I believe both crashed.The weather was appalling for the race.Lafferty finished,but way off the winner Karl Harris.

[Ian]

what a day!!!!!!

Meet up at 6am!!! Little detour to avoid the M1 being closed between junction 1 and 2, easy ride up there having a few stops first being to meet Redruth. Then we illustrated our faith in mankind by following the only guy with us of non- British birth to the track, Philipe well it made me smile, thanks Philipe, - he then finds us a great parking spot right by the gate we park up, - I take forever to get all my locks sorted out but still We get in the gate, webby goes to the helmet park, we go in the tee shirt tent next door looking out for him, we come out and can't see any familiar faces, and no mobile signal Such is life. Wander over to the track and somehow end up inside a Honda hospitality area with a great view over the Old Hairpin.

MotoGP warm up in the rain, - Rossi follows Shakey to learn the lines in the wet!!! Shakey bins it.

Boxer Cup, well I thought it would be exiting, - but we had to wait for the last lap, last bend.

125's. They illusttated what a awful extension the bit from esses onn is, as it splits up the action, Jorge Lorenzo, he is a future star.

250's. Again too split up for great racing.

MotoGP OMG!!!!!! What a noise, far better than last year. The new Desmosedicci is amazing. The sound of Edwards and Setes Hondas between the Old Hairpin and Starkeys bridge, - awsome. Quickest 45 mins I can remember.

Supersport. Stuart Easton was doing well until he went down.

R6 Cup, - way to wet for good racing.

Journey home. Not good left at 7pm, better than last year getting out of car park but still not great. M1 South was filter all the way, stopped for food, got home at midnight. Cream crakered today.

[antonye]

He he. Me and Desmondo had it cracked this year.

We left the circuit at 5pm and were in the car at 5.20pm, then I was sitting at home in Essex with a cuppa by 8pm!

Cracking day out, but a shame we didn't meet up with more DSC'ers in the Ducati area.

Just need to get my 3 rolls of film developed to see if I managed to take any decent pics!

[MJS]

Cracking day out... and whilst I'd heard they were loud.. nothing prepares for how raucous they are...

Got the parking bit too a tee - arrived in time for the boxer cup, saw people parking on the grass right outside the main entrance so did a quick U-turn, much to the annoyance of the guy directing traffic, who tried to tell people the Police would be towing away this row of 30-odd bikes.. haha.. Left straight after the GP, and was safely tucked up at home by 5:30 with not a drop of rain... Fan-bl**dy-tastic!!

[Mark]

Great day, sorry never gotto say hi to all, although did catch up with a few.

[fatduke11111]

Great racing....

Spent me day at the esses with the Norveners as couldn't keep up with the Survern b*ggers (only jesting - chain probs) ... 'me laddo enjoyed it as well, looking forward to getting his bike soon. Ian that MS doesn't have Italian GPS does it? lol

Well I had Edwards & Bayliss, and one of them came close - but Rossi is still the master. Shakey had a good ride as well. couple of more laps and he would have had Biaggi . As KeefyB said in the 250's one of the biggest cheers was for Aoyama as he clawed his way back up the field after binning it - great ride. Some of the temper tantrums were extremely funny as well.

Left just after the Main event and home by 8.20 even after a stop for pies...

Great day... (apart form the weaving ********s on the M1)....

Cheers

Paul

[Jools]

Aye, another superb day out. Even the rain didn't dampen the enthusiasm and it makes it all the better with far more knowledgeable people around to explain the finer points.

Aoyama's ride in the 250's was awesome, his bike sounded really crisp, and much louder than anyone elses, until some of the eagle eyed amongst us noticed that his silencer had fallen off. Still didn't stop him outbraking people into Goddard's despite having taken a tumble there.

The MotoGP bikes were just incredible. So much more so than last year.

Highlights for me...well, I'm not a big Rossi fan - I've never really liked it when anybody or any team works their way into a totally dominant position. Schumacher is the absolute epitome of this at the moment but there are other examples from recent years...Manchester United, Pete Sampras, Tiger Woods...you get the picture.

Having said all that, Rossi was just superb. Totally dominant.

I never thought I would be a Ducati fan cheering myself hoarse willing an Aprilia on either, but Shakey closing down and taking Tamada was brilliant to watch.

Hodgson and Xaus must be chuffed to bits to have finished ahead of Biaggi, who just didn't seem to have any answers, and there was an extra cheer when Hodgson went ahead of Xaus.

Bayliss had a solid race, and looked pretty spectacular firing it out of the esses, but little Loris must've been a bit dissapointed to have found himself going backwards from first place down to seventh. Both of them must've been cheered by the improvement in form though.

The twin pulse engine sounds terrific. What amazed me was how totally different it sounded from the scream of Hodgson and Xaus' bikes, just from a different firing order (all right I know it's more complex than that).

Had a good run home, really enjoyed it, although we got all strung out in traffic. Not difficult squirting past most cars, but harder getting through the little knots of bikes we kept coming across. Some were easily overtaken, like the bloke who was still wearing his polythene mac streaming out behind him like batman...others were a pain, like the guy on a superscoot who gave fil2 some grief about 'cutting him up' in Melton, and another guy on a GPZ who came past me up the inside going through Melton, bazzed through the town ignoring all the speed limits and zipped off out of sight. I came up behind him about two minutes later as he virtually parked his bike on every damp corner...

I would just like to give Jools 'middle finger' award of the day to the **** in the BMW 5 series out in the countryside between Melton and Oakham who was second in a queue of 40mph traffic. I had just zipped by two or three cars in this queue on the way down into a dip, and was just coming up the other side with about 50 metres to go until a solid white line on my side before a blind crest. I was level with the beemer, and already off the throttle, just ready to cruise past him and pull into the 15 yard gap between him and the leading car (with plenty of time before the solid white and the crest). As I pulled level, he glanced at me, shoved it down a cog and accelerated hard to close the gap to less than a bike length - leaving me with no option but to try some kamikaze braking on slippery roads or open the taps again. If in doubt gas it!

[Fordie]

But it didn't stop the BHC and Norfolk members having a good laugh at the GP. Dispite the rather damp conditions, whether riding up at 0530 in the morning or on trackside. We all got a good position on the exit to the Esses thanks to the Norfok boys, Sparkin,Tart, The Greek.KeffyB and Marko spared no horses in getting there in the morning, which ment Jools,Kelly ,Phil,Myself and Rob with Butch and two other riders meeting up with a lonely Red Seb at Oakham on the dot at 0630 (On the dot Ill have you no Mr Barnard) Thankfully, because Red Seb took us in a quick way that I would have not known about. It was a long day but well worth a soaking for, lasting memory's of grown men tryng to get into a carrier bag out of the rain
I being one who all these years having carried waterproofs everwhere was hoping for better weather which didnt materialize. Live and learn. Good to have WJB , Jennifer Fatduke and Son sharing the BHC DSC hospitality suite with Special guest star Guido and Pop joining us to .Heading of homewould bound at about 1900 we had a more dry than wet ride back. Thanks to Marko who lead us on some entertaining roads with little traffic after splitting of at Oakham.





Not exactly Singing in the Rain but at least still smilling