| If you missed Assen - a fan’s perspective
On Thursday evening I joined the Tecmoto Team, Ericthered Racing and Antonye Espindola, Roger and Simon, (DSC members and pit crew/batmen for the weekend) to travel to Assen, by ferry to Dunkirk then 300 miles of very straight, very flat road. One car, one van, two bikes and as many useful bits of kit as they could think of to pack, from digital torque wrench to humbugs and hobnobs.
We arrived at Assen at around 5 a.m. on Friday morning and were marshalled to a parking area where we could grab an hour’s kip. As the sun rose over the earthworks next to the track, various stirrings, coughing, groans and Dutch voices could be heard, along with bird calls (they’re bloody noisy, those Dutch birds) and the first of the Dutch Ducati riders turning up for the start of their club track day. By 7 a.m. we were allowed in to the paddock and soon found an area that had been fenced off for DD racers. Charlotte (CK), emerged from the back of a van, looking a bit confused in her ‘sleepy face’, and gave me a quick tour of the facilities as Eric, Antony and the crew got stuck in to unloading bikes, paddock stands, tools, Gerry cans, collapsible chairs, airbeds, you name it, it came out of Eric’s van.
The paddock is one huge area of block paving, a long row of garages, spotless washrooms and plenty of room for everyone to section off their own space, plus a restaurant and bar, and the usual VIP areas. Donington eat your heart out! I thought the paving would be a problem for erecting tents but no, guy ropes were fastened with screws in cracks between the blocks. Ant’s tool came in handy – cordless drill/screwdriver essential in these circumstances - and Eric’s large box of screws which got shared amongst DD’ers arriving and wanting to put up tents, gazebos and awnings. Eric’s claim that he screwed the whole paddock was a slight exaggeration, though.
By mid morning, it was starting to look like your proper DD Alley. The Second Seasoned boys have got the routine off pat, bikes lined up under awnings, breakfast being cooked for them, bit of fettling, or in Dr AK’s case, a lot of fettling. I’m guessing everyone and his dog will have had a bike fettled by Alan Knight by the end of the season. I’ll be checking all the bikes for the “fettled by DRAK” stickers, obligatory if he gets his hands on your pride and joy.
The plan for the weekend for the DD boys (and girl, Lin, arriving on Saturday), was two 20 minute sessions on Friday, sandwiched in with the Dutch club’s track day, two sessions on Saturday for practice, one untimed and one timed and a combined race for both classes (620’s and 583’s) on Sunday. The first time the boys went out on track you could taste the anticipation in the air. They all got a taste of just how awesome, and fast, this track is. There were some mistakes, unsurprisingly, but it was hot and sunny, the complete opposite of the last round at Brands two weeks ago, tyres got sticky and the riders more confident negotiating the spectacular tarmac as they clocked up the laps. In between sessions, conversation was littered with words like ‘awesome’, ‘scarily fast’, ‘keeping it pinned’, ‘no braking into the bend’, ‘sand like ice’ and all the time voices being raised over the sound of V twins thundering around the track as the Dutch Ducati riders made the most of their track time.
The paddock occupies the area inside the track and there are plenty of good vantage points and grandstand seats that give you a great view of a lot of the track. I spent some time watching proceedings from the grandstand and tried to think how many days I’d have to hear the constant sound of Ducatis on track to get sick of it. I couldn’t come up with an answer. It’s like Christmas when the presents just keep coming, but I hadn’t realised, until we walked the track in the evening, as the sun was setting, that there’s a whole section of top speed bends you can’t see from the main spectator areas. I got a bird’s eye view of what the riders see as they come through the chicane on the start finish straight. The paddock on the right, huge grandstand on the left, the Assen banner, what a superb feeling that must be, riding back into view and knowing you’re on one of the best race tracks in the world.
Sunday, Race Day, and apparently at least 6,000 pre-sold tickets so a big queue of bikes and cars waiting to be allowed in. Lots of blokes in leathers riding Ducatis cutting in front of us in the queue. Did I mind? It’s a complete fallacy that you can get too much of a good thing! I wasn’t just excited, I felt very privileged arriving with the Tecmoto team; Antony showed our paddock passes and we were waived straight in. On the left, near the entrance, was a parking area for bikes, in front of a huge Ducati truck and tent. By mid morning that park was a sea of red, with the odd yellow fleck and one emerald green fleck, which was a Moto Guzzi with a matching side car. (Lin has a picture of it on her thread).
Picture this: hot and sunny, a constant stream of Ducatis arriving for the day, garages full of Ducati kit, the garage occupants having the consideration to park their bikes outside the garages so people wondering by could have a proper look at them. So many things to look at and drool over, hundreds of bikers strolling around in leathers, shorts, clogs (yes, there were a few), pretty girls in very short shorts or skirts and very skimpy tops, flags flapping in the strong wind, every so often a glimpse of a fit bloke stripping out of his leathers, (blokes reading this don’t have to picture that). Does that give you some idea of why I love being a DD fan? For once I didn’t feel like a misfit walking around in a Ducati top. This weekend I’d have felt like a misfit if I wasn’t wearing one. In the DD paddock, there’s a combination of anticipation, nerves, pure unadulterated enjoyment; thrill seekers tense at the prospect of getting out onto that track and grinning as they come back to the paddock after a session, utter disappointment when a bike goes wrong, mad all hands on deck action to get the thing going again, riders totally focussed but knowing they’re part of a shared experience and loving it. It was fantastic for me just to be amongst it, and of course praying everyone gets back safely but knowing that, even if they do have an off, they’re 100% committed to doing this and it’s all part of racing. It’s a magnetic force that I’m making no attempt to resist. And if you think this weekend was only for greasy bikers, think again. We spotted a full size hot tub in the paddock. Now that takes some planning!
And when it was all over we de-camped, had a little trouble with the tent that was trying to make a get away disguised as a hot air balloon, set off back to Dunkirk, with just a short detour via Hugh’s broken down Monster somewhere in Belgium, another problem that the DSC boys turned from a mountain into a molehill by fixing it at the roadside and getting him back on the road, whilst I re-ran the sounds and images of the weekend and thought how glad I am that I joined this club. If I sound a bit in love with DD, I apologise. I’d like to thank everyone who was there this weekend, who by now should be home and gradually get down off their highs. I have had a really fantastic weekend just being part of the experience.
[Edited on 8-5-2006 by Redruth]  |
08-May-2006, 15:26 
- has it sunk in yet?
domski
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