Ducati Sporting Club UK > DesmoDue Race Series > DesmoDue - General Questions and Chat > Just for discussion (rain riders ?).

[bally71]

Originally Posted by badgerpilot

Just to lob my 2 penneth in.
Keep the rules as they are and well done to those who don't mind the watery stuff, personally I detest the rain and the idea of forking out £200+ of my own hard-earned to do something I don't like seems silly. Going out on track in the wet isn't racing for me, it's pottering round to maybe grab a couple of championship points. For me, the decision to enter on the day is well worth the extra £20 as I'd rather waste that than the full entry fee hating my track time, but this is purely a personal decision.
To have Hottrax make the call on whether we go out seems logical but as soon as time starts to get tight and the track is slightly moist you can guarantee we'll get scrubbed because to be totally honest I don't feel we are taken particularly seriously. The hope of any refund is somewhere between Bob and no and once they have over 6 grand (30 riders at £200+) in their bank we are just a hinderance to them so scrubbing our race on 'safety' reasons is just easy money.

+1 to that .. didn't know you could enter on the day

[bradders]

So far this year, my experience of Hottrax is they give us as much slack as anyone else. Sure we get the novice group on test days, but that's because a few moaned about being with the axe murders (rightly for a couple as they were punted off!!) so who else can they put us with?

I'm sure it's always been in their gift to pull races for poor conditions, maybe they just don't appreciate the difference between our tyres and wets. From what I hear, it was only the sat race at Anglesey that was the issue, and we had Snetterton last year, so possibly he answer is to help them understand the line between saf and not. And if he decision is made agree we won't chuck dummies

[mat2hew]

Hi chaps,

I have to say I've always liked the Dunlops in wet or dry, and I've always considered myself a pretty good wet weather rider and always enjoyed the challenge of 'weather'.

with regard to my accident,,, did I take the standing/running water too fast?,,,,, Maybe,,,, if I'd have backed off a bit more maybe it wouldn't have happened,, I don't think I did anything particularly wrong, I didn't do anything I hadn't done on every other lap,,, I did feel that I was catching Andy 'Lightning' Challis and was obviously pushing to catch up, not wanting him to get even further ahead in the championship.

Basically,,, My fault,,, an error in judgement,

I'd not had any problems at all up to that moment, and it was just a small slide in exactly the wrong second.

with Hind sight ,,,, If the race was cancelled I wouldn't have been happy, But, Not hurt now.

I thought I could win that race and would have said "yep lets race" if I was asked before hand.

I dunno what the answer to all these questions is,,, sorry chaps.

Matt.

[Spjallen]

The rain is a lot worse here at Oulton than our last race the wind is forecast to get up too. Hopefully the lessons from anglesey have been hoisted on board. I love the wet but not sure if this race weekend will be on - for any riders, wets or no wets.

[badgerpilot]

Originally Posted by bally71

+1 to that .. didn't know you could enter on the day

Yeh, for an extra £20 'admin' fee and providing there is space on the grid.
Worth it IMHO.

[Spjallen]

I might change my mind now, maybe wets is a good idea!!??!!

[Si1208]

Yes - I'm having second thoughts on that particular subject too!

[dunlop0_1]

I have raced with most if not all of you in the past 3 years and like many people moaned when it was wet. However, all of my DD crashes (6 of them) as I said earlier where in the dry. I agree with the fact that whatever tyre is available you have to find it's limit wet/dry whatever.
I think a big part of the problem is the test days being mixed with people on faster bikes and using wets. Now given the income DD generates for Hottrax I would have thought some pressure/leverage could be applied to allocate DD it's own test day sessions?
Another thing to consider is that the weather is not just wet or dry. So making the tyre call 15 minutes before you race isn't excactly enjoyable. At Oulton on Saturday I made 6 wheel changes and 2 tyres changes and still got it wrong for MG qualy and MG race one so had to miss race one and start at the back of the grid for race 2. Then in Supercup race one started as a full wet race dried out almost straight away leading to a completley destroyed rear tyre (which costs more than a pair of DD Dunlops).
I assure a cooked wet rear in the dry is worse than using a slick in the wet.
So given the fact I had all the kit it still comes down to making the right or wrong decision sometimes at the last minute.

Not an issue for DD at the mo.

[mat2hew]

I remember back to when I had my 999, I did a track day at Mallory Park, I missed the first session because it was wet and I had Slicks on,,, then I did 1 lap of session 2 in the dry with wets on, then it was lovely and sunny so I put my slicks back on, and you guessed it in the queue at the pit lane it rained so the wets went back on and it dried up at lunch time so I did 1 more lap in the dry with wets on, the whole day went like that and I was really miserable by the time I went home having travelled 3 hours each way spent £100 on the track day taken time off work and did about 6 laps on the wrong tyres and changing wheels all day long.

At the other end of the scale the 'team' in the tent next to me were able to change both wheels in about 3 mins and didn't miss a session all day.

[bally71]

What if the club decided when it was ok to use them?

I mean like call a wet race .. but only when it's really wet.

If the original suggestion was to call races if the conditions are too bad for the dunlops .. why not just make the call for all riders to change to wets.

half an hour before the race start if it's chucking down on a cold day with little or no chance of drying out .. quick text / tannoy announcement

Would save all the hassle of should I or shouldn't I

Decision would depend on a lot of factors other than just the rain of course

On the friday it was chucking it down and the track was drying in about 20 mins .. no need for wets

but on the sat the temp had dropped, the drizzle was constant and the wind was cold .. race 2 was always going to be wet.

The track plays a part too .. Anglesey is suprisingly grippy in the wet .. Oulton is a nightmare around druids and Brittens and not that great elsewhere

Oulton subtantiated my original opinion that the majority of riders appear to be circulating hoping not to fall off rather than racing