Ducati Sporting Club UK > DesmoDue Race Series > DesmoDue - General Questions and Chat > donny wet race? better or worse for you?

[fil2]

Originally posted by WeeJohnyB
Trust me, you want it to be dry. Donington is a complete nightmare in the wet, so much so, that Loris has said he's not coming back unless they resurface it.

The last race meeting I did there was carnage, bikes going down everywhere. I went out on my CB5 with a wet front and road rear as I didn't have a wet rear at the time. The back was sliding at every corner and bikes were going down all around me, so I decided my health was more valuable than some points and retired after a few laps.

I would not like to be racing at Donny in the wet on road tyres. You might recall I said this at the AGM when you were all deciding on the tyre rules - I said wets for safety reasons. I REALLY hope I'm proved wrong and if it is wet, the Diablos work well and you all get round safely.

What will be more dangerous, is qualifying - has anyone considered that SOT and CB5's will all be on full wets? DD will be moving chicanes to the SOT and probably the Hornets and it will even up the CB5's lack of power a bit. Just a thought.

I'm hoping for a dry track, I may not even bother racing if it's wet, I'm going to Mondello Park for a few days straight after the last race.

WeeJohnyB

John

We are all equally disturbed at the prospect of qually with no free practise and qually with SoT or Cb500's..its not our ideal situation in fact it BLOWS

going on the above post's i amend my comment and want it dry....BUT not because im concerned about the "road tyres " i was happy with them at cads.

Phil

[antonye]

Don't understand why the DD class was split to go with SOT and CBs ... surely they should have put SOT and CBs together instead?

I'm not particularly bothered if it's wet as I love the rain - sliding the bike into the hairpin and out of barn was fantastic fun. Twice the fun at half the speed

[dickieducati]

i guess they have bigger grids than us. we only have 30ish so i guess its easier to split us. isnt it a max of 60 for qualifying at donny. so if they had 45 ish entrants each then i guess it was the only way. still not ideal though.

[phoenix n max]

Originally posted by WeeJohnyB
Trust me, you want it to be dry. Donington is a complete nightmare in the wet, so much so, that Loris has said he's not coming back unless they resurface it.

The last race meeting I did there was carnage, bikes going down everywhere. I went out on my CB5 with a wet front and road rear as I didn't have a wet rear at the time. The back was sliding at every corner and bikes were going down all around me, so I decided my health was more valuable than some points and retired after a few laps.

I would not like to be racing at Donny in the wet on road tyres. You might recall I said this at the AGM when you were all deciding on the tyre rules - I said wets for safety reasons. I REALLY hope I'm proved wrong and if it is wet, the Diablos work well and you all get round safely.

What will be more dangerous, is qualifying - has anyone considered that SOT and CB5's will all be on full wets? DD will be moving chicanes to the SOT and probably the Hornets and it will even up the CB5's lack of power a bit. Just a thought.

I'm hoping for a dry track, I may not even bother racing if it's wet, I'm going to Mondello Park for a few days straight after the last race.

WeeJohnyB

See - told you it were slippy

Re the Diablos and how they behaved at Donny in the wet - I was there in March - poured down and my tyres were brand new. I have to say that despite the odds being stacked against them they did handle and stick very very well. My biggest problems were the esses the loop and coming back onto start finish straight. That seems to be where it was slippiest.

However I am not as fast as you guys and we're not doing the loop, but I don't have too many worries on the tyre front regardless of the conditions.

What concerns me is the no practice and as you rightly point out - everyone else being on warmers and maybe wets and only 10 mins to qualify.

[ali]

Just spoken to New Era who confirmed that we're split due to the excess of race entries for SoT/CB500, that there will be circa 60 entries on the grid, and that we could be out there with homocidal maniacs on wets attempting to qualify for SoT! Their take on it is "Don't worry, it'll be dry"....

[phoenix n max]

Originally posted by ali
that there will be circa 60 entries on the grid, and that we could be out there with homocidal maniacs on wets attempting to qualify for SoT! :..

It gets better and better ( anyone wanna ride Max on sat ? )

[Steve M]

timetable from the Donington website HERE

[NBs996]

Originally posted by fil2

amen to that..is it possible that donny could be a slippery as Rocky.?..that was truly <b>censored</b> ........

What tyre dilema Nic.?

Dilema is... my tyres are wasted, so do i fit new ones with sharper tread for the wet but aren't run in properly, or stick with the old ones and hope it's NOT dry?
Will be a decision for friday eve.

Ah sod it, I'll change them!

[fil2]

Originally posted by NBs996

Dilema is... my tyres are wasted, so do i fit new ones with sharper tread for the wet but aren't run in properly, or stick with the old ones and hope it's NOT dry?
Will be a decision for friday eve.

Ah sod it, I'll change them!

its what i would do.......u could take 2 laps to bed em in and still have time to put in 3 or 4 fast laps to qually in.?

its gonna be dry

[paynep]

If its very wet we should be reasonably ok grip-wise from the Diablos, and it will be down to technique/bottle for how fast you can go.
I don't fancy it if it is just damp or drizzly as the first sessions on a damp track last week were a bit hairy. The surface seemed to dry out at different speeds so some corners were ok going in, but then had slippery patches on the way out and the tyres didn't seem too grippy in those conditions.

But hey, why worry, we'll all be in the same boat, maybe literally