Ducati Sporting Club UK > DesmoDue Race Series > DesmoDue - General Questions and Chat > The Otei Report: A mountain to climb.

[Otei]

PART 1 (yes, it's going to be stupidly long!)


"What's that coming over the hill, is it a Monster?"

So sang the automatic pop group type people, and mainly, they were correct, it was a Monster, and sometimes there was an SS as well!

It might not have been that way though. Everyone is aware of the calamity that was Oulton park where the bike packed up in both races with what seemed like a fuel problem, and following that meeting Chris P tried all he could think of to make sure it never happened again (whilst I was away on holiday, ahem..cheers dude!).

This included taking off the fuel pump relay and riding his wife's Monster to Cadwell and back. No problem. He then took my tank off and put it on Cathy's Monster before riding to Mansfield. He laid a small egg in his undercrackers when he realised that he had forgoten the petrol tank key and couldn't fill up again, but somehow, he made it all the way home again. That seemed to rule out the fact that we'd run out of fuel. Either that or a bit of nervous wee had seeped into the tank from Chris' leathers and diluted what was already there.

A cursory examination of the breather pipe revealed that it had been badly crushed, and Dr Pullen summised that it was being squashed when I sat on it (I don't THINK he was calling me fat). Seemed plausible, so he fixed it and we figured that was it.

I rolled up to Cadwell with Chris and my Dad on the 28th (the day after we got back from holiday) and set off on the first of my testing laps. I reached Chris curve and.......Braaaaaggggghhhh!...it died again. I broke the Cadwell record for the most cuss words said between Chris curve and the marshalls post and parked up. I wasn't too far from the paddock, so I decided to ride it back. I struck it up (as I knew it would start again) but when I clunked it into gear, it died. This was good news, as it meant we could start tracing things.

A phonecall to Nelly suggested a couple of things, but we decided to truck back to Lincoln and go to Italia Moto. Whilst there, longhaired colostomy bag model, Lee was running around stressing and squealing that we couldn't do anything about it that day cos they were busy and blah blah blah. Steve ignored him, came outside, suggested we short the neutral light sensor, and hey presto, it was fixed! Back to Cadwell at warp factor Citroen (which is about 55mph) and I made it out in a session before lunch. Madness.

Long story short, good testing session, overtook Simon Andrews who was out testing a Kawasaki (ok, it was a GPZ 900 circa the cretacious period, for a magazine shoot) set some 1:49's and had a good look at a mad bloke on an old Z thou' that he rode like a filthy Mexican drug runner. Left feeling quite confident.

Me and that Nottingham Gunrunner, Andy Sheppard (makes out he deals in alarms..pffft!) had arranged to have a bit of a shindig on the Saturday night in memory of Grib, so there was plenty to arrange, but it all came together very easily, which was something of a shock to the system. No-one was electrocuted, lost a toenail, slipped on a banana or bit their own tongue. It really was a surprise.

I arrived on the Friday and Matt T was blatting around on the lovely looking 748 that he'd been working on for sometime. It then tried to make a dash for the tyres at the end of Park straight in one session, then did a remarkably lifelike impersonation of a petrified squid when it opened a hole in the crankcase and squirted oil at him. As upset as he was, he'd have gone home and smoked crack instead, if he realised what other traumas were set to test his resolve over the rest of the weekend.

I had decided to race on both Saturday and Sunday, so as not to let Shep gain any advantage over me with the extra racing practice, and so it was that we rolled up for qualifying. It was a little damp still, but the fact that we've mostly been late to qualify, late to race and late to get home was a slight advantage this time as it gave the other guys time to dry the track for us.

I went out and was determined to get pole, but my visor was misting up quite badly and everytime I passed Chris P on the pit wall it looked like I was trying to get a stray hornet from inside my lid, opening and closing my visor like a demented zippy puppet. I'd set some decent laps, then I decided to get my head down and go for it, checking over my shoulder to see if I had a gap on Shep. It was fortunate that I did this, as my lid nearly blew off my head, and I realsied that my helmet strap wasn't secured, even though I had checked it a billion times in the holding bay. I had to pull in and ended up 3rd, but still on the front row with the new 3 to a row layout for the grid. Shame.

Race one came round and I got my usual flying Otei start. This time though, I caught Shep doing a gargantuan wheelie out of my peripheral vision and spent the next lap wondering several things at once...did he flip it, was he run over, will they red flag it, can you get a girl pregnant if you make her smell your feet?

As it turned out, Couchie had been advising Shep on wheelies, maintaining that you absolutely should not even think about putting it down until you had the clocks staring you in the kisser. Shep misinterpreted this to mean staring you in the kisser when you're flat on your back, and was very lucky (and thankful) not to be run over. Me being the mercenary little toerag that I am breathed a sigh of relief when I realised they'd got his blue, new clutch havin' carcase off the grid and I could run away from Sam West.

And strangely enough, run away was what I did, pulling about a second a lap until Sam was struck in the side of the head by some Chavs throwing Burberry caps and breast pumps at him through Hall bends. Not one to turn down a free bit of headwear and a midday snack, he bailed out.

Will Charters had a fall coming into the mountain and cemented his dislike of Cadwell with a big hole in his elbow and the arm of his leathers soaked in claret. Lovely.

It was nice to win comfortably, and I'd put in a decent 1:46 lap, so I knew I was running a good pace. Bring on race 2.

Race 2 it rained, I'm a fag in the wet (although I'll do it if I need to, got 2nd at Cadders in the wet last year) and decided to concentrate on that nights party and the next days championship race showdown.

It was great to watch the second race though, as Matt T put on a great riding display, only to be thwarted by Shep and Sam, riding really well in the changable conditions. If it had stayed wet, I'd have put my money on ol slipper for the win.

Part 2 to follow.

[Otei]

PART 2

Sorry about that, I had to have a tom tit.

Having spent a rather long time in the humid and embarrassing conditions of the New Era prize giving (which wasn't their fault, but the fault of the riders that didn't turn up to collect them!) I strolled back, worried that Kate had been left on her own to start cooking the food for the party.

I needn't have been concerned, Kate had been joined by Chris (OWTBAR) and John from the Valentino fan club and was busying herself by giving them all the flak and banter back that she was recieving from them. It's a firm feature of the gilled wonders race reports that he always makes a big deal about the support he recieves from his crew, and twitters on about what a great bunch they are. Well, as it goes, he's right...they're awesome. I'm gonna say they're worth a second....no, a second and a half a lap. In alot of respects, he owes his success to them, not to his riding ability!

As the weather detreriorated, I stressed that no-one would brave the conditions and we'd all wake up in the morning looking like Pavarotti cos of the mountain of food that needed to be consumed.

Not a problem, the wetter it got, the more sheepish people turned up at the edge of the party tent looking like half drowned, very hungry meercats. I pranced about like a kneecapped Basil Fawlty, offering beer and burgers and trying not to fall head first into the BBQ in my slightly embarrassing attempt to please eveyone at once.

"You revel in this don't ya" Said Ghost

"I love to entertain" I gushed, like one of those turds off that program where they all have dinner at each others house then slate one another! Hehe.....

Shep and crew set up another gazeebo to accomodate the frogspawn of people that had amassed further, and then capped it off with a wicked twisty light tube and some bangin' tunes.

Erin and Graeme Blakey's little dude, Ruben boogied outside in the rain and everyone had a fabulous time. We were very pleased, and quite proud of what we'd done for Lucie. Gribfest rocked!!

A little lie in for the next morning was ample reward for the previous days efforts, and we Suzukied up to Cadwell feeling far more awake than the day before...it wouldn't last, it was gonna be a tough day.

It was still a little cool for qualifying, and we decided to reduce the tyre pressures to see if it would make a positive difference. Wrong.

I once again got into the 49's for qually and claimed second on the grid, but to be honest, I'd hoped to do a 47 at least, considering the previous days easy pace. I had a look at the tyres when I got back in, and they had started to wear rather unusually. I didn't know if this was due to the previous days pace, or the change in tyre pressures, but I knew one thing...as much as I'd be happy to ride a track day on them, I didn't much fancy trying to beat Shep on them. Trouble was, I couldn't afford a new set, as these were virtually new anyway!

Cue Cliff Meakin, one of our sponsors from Rossendales in Lincoln. He turned up and made absolutely nothing of buying me a new set of tyres. Well, he wouldn't have done if Holbeach had any for sale. Cue another hero...or 2. Steve Mason had bought a brand new set of tyres and Andy Pike was going to have them for Castle Combe, but they both kindly agreed to let me buy them and replace them at Combe. Cheers Cliff, Steve...and Andy.

Andy Pike commented that the conditions weren't the same as the day before, it wasn't as fast and that I wouldn't go as quick as the day before, so I shouldn't fall off trying. He didn't mean it nastily, and quite frankly, when a bloke with his experience and knowledge says something like that, you tend to listen. Fortunately, I have the memory of a ******* goldfish, so I'd forgotten that little gem of advice as we rolled onto the grid for the first race.

There was absolutely no way I was losing this race, even though I had a brand new set of tyres to scrub in on the warm up lap. I followed Shep on the warmy lap and tested the tyre to see how much grip it had...answer?...plenty!...sweeeet!

They say that the better race craft you have, the better your race recollection is, and that you're able to break it down into sections and replay minute parts, moves and episodes that went off.

I can't remember a soddin' thing about this race, mainly because it was stopped 3 times. The only real recall I have is that each time, I tussled with Shep and struggled to outbrake him into Park, but was stronger or equal pretty much everywhere else and once I'd broken free managed to gap him easy enough. Each time the race was red flagged as some catastrophe kicked off, I'd glare at Phil the starter and find it impossible to be annoyed with that wonderful, toothy grin he's got. In the end they binned the race due to fuel concerns, and this turned out to be a massive stroke of luck for Shep.

It turned out that his bike was on the fritz, due to a hole in the tank that was leaking fuel. If the race had run its course, he may not have finished. Flipping in the previous days race, being gifted a chance to fix his bike the next. I don't believe in bad luck and good luck, but sometimes you have to wonder!

That race was due to be re-run at the end of the day, time permitting, but in the meantime, we had race 2 to run, and it came around quickly. Shep had changed his gearing and fixed the tank. He'd also had planty of chance to see where I was stronger, and to his credit, he used it very well in the first 4 laps of the next race.

I got a great start as Shep tried to wheelie again and got a good drive down park straight, but christ that blue bike is fast, and with his revised gearing managed to squeeze by into Park once more (next trackday I'll spend braking as late as poss into that damn corner!) and played a brilliant game of pole putting (copyright Kenny Roberts junior) to keep me at bay in the places he knew I could pass. Eventually I managed to get past on the run out of Park and got my head down to drop from consistent 1:48's to 1:46's and a 1:45 at the end. It was a shame we'd had the aborted races as Chris had timed me within a few tenths of the lap record set by Hawkman in 2007. Strangely enough, despite this, my 6 lap race time compared with Hawks was only about 7 tenths slower in total.

It was an amazing race, and frankly, I've never spent such an extended period of time in such close proximity to another bike without actually being worried about crashing. As Shep mentioned in his report, we have huge respect for each other, lairy guys in the aborted race, please learn that lesson!

So then, with the final race reduced to a 4 lap sprint, I was worried. Shep had done an amazing job of watching and learning and employing skilled tactics to hold me off for 4 laps, even though I was on a complete mission. If he managed the same in the next race, it could be a problem.

I once again got away well, but it didn't matter, I was passed into Park AGAIN!!.AAARRGGGHH!

I followed in close pursuit, then passed again, but christ knows where, cos we were both knackered from the earlier adreniline charged re-starts and efforts. I pulled a gap and figured I had it won.

Now his crew call him Valentino, but I think he should be called Troy, cos his mental make up is more like the Aussie hardman.

If you had a pretty good gap on me in the championship, knew I was prepared to get into the 45's to beat you and were a second down with 2 laps to go, you would be forgiven for settling for that and not risking a bin, but the WSB champ once famously said that he'd rather stick it in the hedge than finish second, and despite me having some lurid slides on the penultimate lap, Shep pulled out a shocking lap that was about 7 tenths quicker than he'd gone all weekend to gain on me and pass me into guess where??

I wasn't too concerned, because, I'd been getting awesome drive out of barn all weekend and had even managed to get enough over him to pass on power going into Coppice in one of the earlier races.

Sadly, we came upon Ross Anderson as we hurtled into the Old Hairpin, and we both nipped inside before Barn, but this ruined my plan of holding back slightly and getting the drive on Shep over the line. He won a well deserved race by 0.16 of a second.

It was quite frankly, THE best race weekend of my life. I don't think I've ever ridden that well and everything else that happened just solidified that.

Huge thanks to friends, family, sponsors and all the great people that surrounded us all weekend.

The amount of people that want to join DD is staggering, and it is mainly because of the people.

Big respect to Shep for matching me when I was on great form, Will for doing a haga and getting 2x 4th 's despite the pain, and Matt T for riding the ass off that 583, despite his smoky antics!

Give youselves the clap

Otei #85









Great photos by Glyn richardson.

[Ghost]

What a superb read Tim, I would have liked to have watched that last race being that close. You must have a dictaphone that types as you speak, or a very tame secretary.

[andys 900ss]

Awesome read fella, you certainly have a way with words and was on 110% form this weekend. You deserved the win.

Now were onto Castle Combe, so make sure your fillings are secure, mine are being fixed tommorrow and im not scared of the dentist.................

Andy

[Gbyte666]

Blimey.. I read the lot. Even waited impatiently for part 2.

Very witty and nice result despite the death threat from you over my camera.

See ya at Castle

Craig

[Chris Wood]

Top work all round well played.

Gentlemenly conduct requires, The Golf clap!

[trouty]

we didnt hang around for the re-run, seem's a shame to have been pipped like that after having the advantage in each of the red flagged sessions, but thats racing!

[skidlids]

Great race weekend report Tim, I need a better spectators seat, I can't see any of whats going on at the front from where I am.

[OWTBAR]

Hi tim cracking report matey, as i said in pm ,it was a pleasure to help out saturday night .we watched some great racing all weekend from all the lads and lasses and the battle between you and Valentino was superb.We won't be at castle or pemb but will be at the last one at cadwell . stay safe and we look forward to hearing about the race results from Andy.

Chris