donny wet race? better or worse for you?
 

how do you think you will fair relatively if it is a wet race at donington?

i'm not a fan of the wet, like most i guess, but dont think i ride too agressively (ie i'm usually slow) and am not too ragged so would like to think i would at least hold my place.

im OK in the wet and tbh for this race i would like it to be wet..it will take away some of the advantage the lads have who have just recently done the trackday have.............

at least im honest lol



Phil

I've twice dropped my bikes in the wet on track, so confidence is low.

Paul P and Fil both blitzed me at Cadwell in the wet......my preference is for dry!

Not bothered to much it does make things interesting!

In the wet, I'll put money on Skids shaming a few 'fast bikes'

Track eve tonight, roll on!

Donington is quite slippy when wet. I prefer dry conditions myself given a choice.

Dry. I'd bin it at Coppice if it's wet. New surface + pushing the front hard when there's little weight on it = lowside central....

To be honest I'm pretty sure it'll be carnage regardless of the weather, the possibility of a first corner pile-up is very high thanks to the Redgate's reducing radius, and the temptation to carry too much speed into the old hairpin and punt off some unsuspecting rider (ask Ian) is also going to be a problem. If we all make round the first lap things should calm down a bit, but I'm more concerned about this race than any other so far.

Ali

I love wet races as I usually do quite well if I stay upright (when I don't it's usually because I'm trying to avoid a slower rider who has mucked up). Saying that I would like to see it dry on Saturday, with the nature of Donington in the wet and with no time to bed in some new tyres which would mean going out on well used tyres a dry race is preferable.
I haven't been to Donny since early 2002 so haven't tried the new surface but as a track its a heck of a lot of fun in the dry especially down Craner.

Hope it's dry tbh, else I'll have the same tyre dilema as skids.

It's looking like a wet weekend though, and I think Donny will be ok for me when wet... just hope it's not as slippy as Rocky.

Although I, along with probably most of the field, would probably prefer a dry race, it would be nice to have just one wet race this season to "sort the men from the boys" (sorry Linn). I'm obviously a tad nervous in the wet, as I believe most are, but I do seem to go reasonably well. In the wet practice at Cadwell (I know everyone didn't have their transponders on) I was (an eccstatic) third fastest!!!! Then things dried out and I slid down the pack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So....wet please, just this once!

Andy #99

.

amen to that..is it possible that donny could be a slippery as Rocky.?..that was truly *****........

What tyre dilema Nic.?

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

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 :D

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.

See - told you it were slippy :o

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.

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! :o Their take on it is "Don't worry, it'll be dry"....

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

timetable from the Donington website HERE

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

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 :o

Woteva!!! - as Paul says - its the same for all.

Bring it on!!!

Tim

dont u Woteva us Tim......................:D

AND yes WE will bring it on.....................

"Fortune favours the bold"

Ah, but Rattler-San say;


"he who has relied least on fortune is established the strongest"

:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o:o

Im pretty bloody herculean then...........:P

Anthony, I've no insight as to why they split the grid, but they must have their reasons I suppose. The SOT and CB5's together might be too big a grid or too big a differential in speed, DD will be a lot closer to SOT and the faster boys will mix it mid field I suspect. Instead of splitting by race number, they should have split by championship position, the top half with SOT and the bottom half with the Hairnets and CB5's, might have been safer as less differential in bikes (and rider ability).

Whatever, decision made, and we go with it, sounds like it will be busy and it will be difficult to do a flying lap with a big difference between the fastest and the slowest riders and so much traffic - be prepared to cut up and be cut up. With a couple of laps to dial yourself and your tyres in, you may only have a couple of flying laps, so traffic will be crucial to grid position and for the guys fighting for a championship, they'll treat it like a race. If I was at the front of DD, I'd much rather be in with SOT - is there anyone running at the front of DD at the moment with a high race number?

Glad I'm only there for fun, don't care if I'm first or last to be honest, just want to be out there.

WeeJohnyB

I'm set to be in with CB5's, but need a good grid position to help keep hold of 5th place, so not sure I've drawn the longest straw here.

All adds to my book of excuses tho!

[Edited on 9-8-2005 by NBs996]

so Nick, can I get a tow round from you this time mate?;)

WeeJohnyB

Ha! One of those sentences I never thought I'd hear!

I do look forward to kicking your ass by 5 seconds a lap though WJB :lol:

(I'm gonna regret saying that!)

wet is worse for me, it get bloody cold standing in the wet watching you guys race :)

fun my eye m8...............;)

Right, that's the secret then is it?? I'm off for a Alex Barros pdg

DRY!!!

I don't fancy Donny in the wet, especially on my tyres. I managed to slide the rear today and last week at Donny and didn't get a chance to put the new ones on and scrub them today - GUTTED!

New ones on, maybe some midnight carpark tomfoolery before Sat ;)

Kind of glad I'm in with the SoT boys ... although some of them have poor cornerspeed so I hope we don't get held up too much there.

Looking forward to this now :devil:

BRING IT ON!!!!

You been up there today TP?
Getting a bit serious dude... I reckon you might do ok on Sat, my money's on you for your best result so far. (Virtual money of course!)

Nah, I was at Rocky today ... so not surprising I was sliding!

I've been to Rocky three times now and today is the first day I didn't crash there - YAY!!! Talk about a bogey circuit ..

Now as for my best result ... dunno mate, 5th at Snet is going to be tough to beat. But I'll give it a go :D

Well 5th might be very achievable...

Dom will t-bone someone;
Ali will bin it on lap 2;
Phil needs to stop and ask directions;
Rattler has sacked the butler so will be too tired after ironing his own undies;
Ian will only realise it's race time when he's sitting on pit wall cheering us on...

See, easy points mate!

Ha!!!

Easy pickings ... could be a podium in the offing? Could you arrange for the MCN boys to take Geoff and Clint out so I've got a chance of the top step?

:smug:

:lol:

Race, is there a race this weekend?

Yes, up the M1 turn left. We should be racing at about lunchtime, look for the big strip of tarmac with the numbers/lines on it. If its got planes on it then you've taken a wrong turning..... :lol:

:lol::lol::lol:|

funny .................i dont remember the straight being this long:puzzled::puzzled::puzzled:

and bike 36 Nick???