Ducati Sporting Club UK > DesmoDue Race Series > DesmoDue - General Questions and Chat > Castle Report - from the back :(

[phoenix n max]

Not a good weekend for me result wise but was good to see so many folks turn out for another fantastic day of racing in the Desmo Series.

I have to say the quality of competition in the series is excellent - big up to the guys for making it what it is thus far.

My day didn't start too well and i'm never ever going to change geometry on my bike then go out and try and race it
especially on a bumpy circuit like Castle.

So a few laps into practice and I quickly realise that i've turned Max into something possessed by the devil and despite cranking the steering damper up it made no difference so I came in.
Race 1 start from the back of the grid and by halfway round lap one i'm thinking this really isn't very nice at all. To make matters worse i'm just about to apply the power on a fast right and the bike coughs and splutters then picks up again coupled with the crap handling i'm allover the track - I persevered but it was plain there was something wrong so 2 laps and I pull in.

The crew set to work and off comes the carbs to find more sand in there than Weston beach ( no idea where all that came from) and whilst their all discussing sticky slides and buggered diaphrgams i'm sat thinking thats it for me today.
However lots of dirty hands and cleaner later the bikes back in one piece but not altogether running like it should.

The ride height adjusters are removed and the forks pushed back up through the yolks to put my handling probs right but the bike is now running too fast on idle and then very very slowly dropping the revs back down to normal but no time left so I line up last with the group for Race 2.

I get a good start and there's about 3-4 I could have taken but because I wasn't sure if the handling was ok I backed off for the first bend and lost the ground I made up but by turn 2 I realised i'd got my old Max back, no headshaking, no slapping - Phewww!

However - whilst I didn't have the cutting out problem I also had no power so I quickly lost the back of the pack but decided to continue to finish anyway.

I did a total of 15 laps I think on a circuit I'd never seen but after race 2 apart from being last I felt much better and would certainly go back to Castle to learn the circuit better.

Huge thanks go to Crust who turned up to watch but spent 4 hours stripping my carbs.

Many thanks to my crew for the effort they put in and to Graeme for all the work he put in last week running around getting parts.

Hopefully we will all be fixed by Snett and at least i'll have time to learn the track this time.

Max and me will be back