I'm not Valentino Rossi you know...
The 'race experience' I have doesn't count for very much in my opinion. Even I have found that out and I'm sure Kev (my biggest fan really) would agree - I think the 'modern' addiction of trackdays has led to everyone being fast!
I think I am a victim of a lot of hype and spin prior to this season, and whilst I am not totally innocent of being 'over confident' of my ability, I have been perceived as some top British racer who's been racing non-stop for 8 years.
I have done 25 race meetings EVER before this year (20 of which were in '97, '98 & '99). That's over 6 years ago!!
I finished 14th in the Desmo Due championship this year, and my best result was 10th!! (before the Tango Queen).
Now, nobody has a problem with Skids racing in 583, and he's vastly more experienced than me. Fil2 comprehensively kicked my arse this year and finished 3rd overall, but nobody is worried about that. Paul Payne has raced before (not much I'll agree), and even Phil_h has raced classics for a bit.
All the 'novices' have done 11 DD races this year (more if you did SoT etc) and prior to 2005 I had done 36 actual races (CB500 were only 1 per weekend) at 25 race meetings.
Some people have done more than 36 trackdays, which is massively more tracktime than even I've had!!
I haven't ridden on the road since August 2003 when I had a ZX7R for 2 months, and before that my previous road bike was a 900SS which I sold in 1997 to go racing - so I don't even ride a bike on the road and haven't done for virtually 8 years.
I have a national race licence purely because I wanted to do the TT back in 1998 - which I never did.
Can someone tell me how experienced you have to be before you are too experienced for Desmo Due?
Or if I trundled around at the back - would anyone care less? I don't think they would.
I think we're getting close to becoming elitist rather than keeping focus on the original idea - which was for DSC members to race in their own series - wasn't it?
I'm a DSC member, I'm fairly active on the forum and would be more active within DSC if I could afford a road bike and attend ride-outs and shows etc - but because I don't have plenty of cash to buy a 620, I may be forced to leave the championship I supported all year, and go race elsewhere.