[WeeJohnyB]

What a wonderful couple of days. I echo all the comments of thanks to the usual suspects who helped to organise it.

Thanks also to a number of people behind the scenes who contributed to making it the best DSC day ever.

The instructors Chris Butcher, Tony Perrin (TP), John Lawson (Yeti) and Monty (Monty) who used a lot of fuel, tyres, perspiration and patience to ensure you all had a good time out on track, much of which you shouldn't even notice. If you went home feeling knackered, these guys did at least twice the riding that you did and were well and truly bushed by Tuesday evening. (apologies if we sometimes went past you a tad quick which was mentioned more than a few times…safely of course!!!). I received some excellent feedback on the quality of instructing from many people who took advantage of the experience available…..they also had to deal with the odd ‘situation’ in a diplomatic way….thanks guys, a pleasure to work with you.

Thanks for allowing me to ride the only non-Ducati on Monday….the noise my 600 makes was quite distinctive I understand – I should have a few good shots of me as Guy says he could hear me coming every lap! Thanks for the comments about my ‘old shed’, the trusty CB500, you still can’t believe I take it on track, but Jools now understands the mystery of the CB as he came back in grinning from ear to ear….it’s not for sale mate!

To Guy, (Cope Images), in advance for the fantastic pictures I know you are all going to get. He’ll tell you himself no doubt, but he took around 2,500 shots each day!!! There has to be one good one of you in that lot! We need to insist Guy gets out on circuit next time – he was offered bikes, but was too conscientious wanting to do a good job for the rest of us to take any time off. He took pics at pretty much every corner, he must have walked miles and by the end of Tuesday, he could hardly open his eyes to ride home as he had been squinting through the lens almost non-stop for two days. Guy paid a lot of money to MSV (Cadwell) for the right to take pictures of us, so please buy some pics from him, which he's hoping to start loading up to the site on Wednsesday night.

To Grip & Rip for looking after our tyres…goodness knows how many tyre pressures he changed and the advice he gave to many on new tyres.

To Aidie and his team of marshals and medics….always the best run trackday, in particular for how quickly they cleaned up the oil left behind by a certain Kawasaki (yep, not a Duc!!!) and for not red flagging situations that would have reduced our track time. The way they managed the 3 bikes down in the last inters session was a truly professional job. Aidie asked me to pass on his thanks for the way we behaved and obeyed their instruction….he couldn’t have done what he did without knowing we were going to behave, so well done us. He is looking forward to having us back.

To Janet and Joan and the rest of the staff in the canteen for some lovely home-made meals….I know they have been working very hard over the past year or so on the quality of the food they produce so it’s great to over-hear someone say ‘that’s the best canteen food I’ve ever tasted’. (that’s me sorted for bigger portions now!).

Well done to the trackday virgins who went out in the ‘wobbly session’, it’s worth all the effort just to see the smile on their faces.

To everyone who offered me a go on your lovely bikes and to Ducati UK for not offering me a go on their lovely bikes!!!

And lastly to everyone who went out on track for the respect they showed to their fellow DSC members – near impeccable behaviour as ever.…and to the friends and relations who fixed bikes, made tea, drank beer and watched their mates go round and round for two days who also made a huge contribution to the enjoyment of the event, including Mr Disco for supplying some cool sounds for us and to Sarah for the ‘fire thingy’ display (can’t recall what you said it was called, very impressive though).

I personally had a cracking couple of days and felt good on the bike for the first time in a very long time, but to the person who said he was timing me at 1.38’s…..dream on, I’ve never broken the 1.4’s before, even on Monty’s 250, but whatever it was, I enjoyed it, which after all is what it’s all about.

As many of you know I was at Cadwell with No Limits on Friday and Saturday as well, so I am well and truly fooked now…..have to ‘work’ today, but off to Mallory on Friday….yeehaa!!

WeeJohnyB