Ducati Sporting Club UK - Cadwell report

Well all the hype surrounding the final round of the season wasn't just vicious rumour, it's as true as I went on my arse.

Arriving late Friday in the dark wasn't a problem, I had beer! The melle surrounding scrutineering and noise testing was, after waiting for 15 mins for my turn at scrutineering the noise testing began therefore I had to queue up again. The testing guys were in a proper strop as everyone fired up and was revving the nuts off their machine meaning they couldn't get true results, the background noise was enough to nearly fail.

One suggestion for next year, can people who are there in good time get scrutineered/noise tested in the order they are out? A couple of 80-600 allcomers were only just out on time because of the huge number of classics ahead of them in the queue.

Anyway, I was done and one of the first out on track but not for long. After 3 laps I was feeling good and took coppice at full welly, knocked it down one at the top, tipped in and fell off! Nobody behind me with a sneaky camera though. The marshalls were very sympathetic (honest they were!) saying there was oil in the week and the light drizzle could've brought it out, good excuse and I'll stay with it. Only damage was a snapped bar but with a couple of spares with me I felt slightly miffed but not disheartened.

DD qually and allcomers race were utter kack, my head was in the wrong place and my sphincter resembled Dot Cotton sucking a lemon, the demond were in my head. I asked Cobby to cast a quick eye over the badger and he said all was ok, as Mr Cox had told me "stop being soft, it's all in your head". How very true he was, the 2 DD races were brilliant, me and Coxy must've swapped places 10 times. He took both off me due to very opportunistic moves after a missed gear and a trip on the green stuff, 0.25s in the 1st and 0.50s in the 2nd. Huge grins and back slapping followed in the paddock.

The Saturday night was as good as you'll get at any race meet and if you missed it? Well, what goes on tour stays on tour, top night but maybe 1.30 was a little too late when the track awaits in the morning, or maybe I should've stayed up?

Sunday and the fun continued but this time with Shane and Dave joining in, the allcomers was the pick for us with a different leader in almost each lap. Shane had his usual flyer of a start but we reeled him in for a good dice, yours truly taking the bragging rights this time. DD 1 was a bit different, a decent start left Coxy behind and late braking at Park took me past Shane to put me behind Nog. Nog pulled away and I managed to stay with him for a few laps, even being cheeky enough to get past him for half a lap untill another missed gear let him bugger off. This was the race were Shep didn't lap me and I was well chuffed at that although I did finish over 2 mins behind but that didn't matter as I completed the full 8 laps in a race at Cadwell, woo hoo.

Fortunes changed in the final race of the season, sat waiting for the sighting lap I looked round to Shane who wasn't a happy bunny, head towards the sky and eyes full of dread at the wet stuff on his visor. Round the track for the start and we were 2 riders down already, Hall bends and the pit lane consuming 1 each, another glance to Shane and he gave the signal he wasn't gonna risk it, thank the lord because I wasn't up for this either. True to form I got my best ever start and made up at least 6 places into coppice, round Charlies and down park with my arse in the air. I looked up and saw a red and yellow being waved, memories of the previous day came back and I must admit my bottle went, I sat up and continued at a decent pace but nothing like race speed, Coxy passed and disappeared, the loon.

Frequent checks behind made sure I wasn't being a pest, I just wanted to finish. By time the drizzle had stopped it was too late and I was back to being lapped again, I moved over and hung out a leg to let Shep and 2 other through just after Mansfield's on my last lap. A minute later I'd took the chequered flag and my 1st racing season was over and I was still alive, result! My first victory came in a very splendid raffle, where I picked up a Foggy signed T-shirt, just after a presentation all of the other classes must have wished they had.

Well done to Shep and Sam, thanks to Trudi, Gordon, Chris and all of my fellow DDers for a truly amazing introduction to racing. Check out my end of season report to see how I got here and what it means to me to be part of it.

Till next March, adios and keep your bowels open.