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| #1  28-Mar-2006, 04:10 | ||||
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| Domski\'s race report - Cadwell Perk Domski’s amazing Cadwell race report. Chapter One – Introduction In the beginning there were dinosaurs, but soon afterwards the Desmo Due series (Part Due?) was born. I was hoping to buy my own bike for 2006, but the money that I was hoping for never materialised, by which time I had opted out of riding Louigi’s bike for a second season. So I was left in the wilderness a bit (my own fault). Luckily for me, Chass came up trumps and saved my ass big time – thank you thank you thank you!!! So the scene was set, Domski, Chass & a brand new 620 – wooooooo hooooooo!!! Chapter Two – Pre-Season Testing Not much to put in here. I knocked up a new forum – does that count? Chapter Three – Run up to race day Chass had finished the bike off with a couple weeks to go before Cadwell, but the fact I hadn’t worked since December 2nd meant that pennies were tight and we’d just have to wing it at Cadwell. The week before race day I had a very unexpected, but fantastic email with an offer of help for the 2006 season, so big thanks to Intrall Consultancy Ltd for your support, it’s very much appreciated. On Thursday I went up to see Louigi to pick up some sprockets, brake pads and fuel filter – that was gunna put a big dent in my pie budget, so it was a really nice surprise when he offered to supply the parts in return for some stickers on the bike – Result!!! Thanks Rich, you’re a star mate. So, I find myself on the grid thanks to my team of sponsors. How cool is that!! I left home on Friday morning and headed up to Chass’s place. I managed to get lost, even though I lived in his town for 6 months back along, but I did actually arrive bang on time, so it looked good at least. We loaded up all the gear in the motor home, strapped the weapon to the trailer and headed off to Cadders. We arrived at about 10.30pm I think, after a long old drive and much sitting in traffic. The paddock was a quagmire and we slid into position (literally) next to CK & AK, Lin, Rattler, TP, NickB, Psychlist, Butch, Tonio, Bones & Ali. Chass and I said a few hellos to those who were still awake, and called it a day at about 11:59pm (just before it was officially ‘a day’). Chapter Four – Saturday Chass kindly woke me up on Saturday morning by leaving the door open on the motor home so that I would freeze to death. I think it was a ploy to get me out of bed and help him unload the bike and get set-up. Needless to say it worked and I got out of bed at the ridiculous hour of 8am. How rude! TP & Ali were out for Sound of Thunder qualifying and emergency ‘adjustments’ were needed to both bikes. I was even spotted with a spanner in my hand at one point – Imagine the shock!! Actually come to think of it, I’m not sure that I used the spanner myself. I think I ended up passing it to Chass (I can’t appear to be too working class can I). I did inflict further injury to Ali when I helped to tug him off – his leathers that is!! Sorry dude. Chapter Five – Qualifying So, race day arrived and it was time to test my weapon out (the bike). Due to a last minute toilet excursion (NOT to test my other weapon) I missed the first couple of laps of testing, sorry it wasn’t testing, it was practice. No, no, it wasn’t practice was it, it was qualifying, that’s it. Straight in to qualifying. I knew we must have been getting something extra for our money this year. Especially as the entry fees have risen extortionately!! £10 a lap??? Anyway, everything felt surprisingly good. I remembered how to ride a bike and even overtook a couple of people (Novices on 583’s probably). The track was patchy with damp spots, or was it spotty with damp patches? Whatever, I wobbled my way round and was quite happy that I hadn’t broken anything… yet. Back in the motor home I tried to chill out and relax. I knew I wasn’t very fast, but I felt comfortable on the bike and knew that I’d do OK if the weather held up. It was always my aim to finish this meeting without injury and ideally get a couple top 10 finishes. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was 10th on the grid, but started to worry again when I saw Eric was next to me on the third row!!! Chapter Six – Race One This was the moment we’d all been waiting 5 months for. I still wasn’t feeling very racy, even in the holding area. I just wanted to bring it home after the shenanigans of last year. If I could get a decent start I knew I could probably maintain position and get a top 10. The grid is soooooo tight at Cadwell; it feels like you’re touching handlebars with whoever is next to you on the grid. I had Pete Yates to my right, Eric to my left and Andy Johnson directly in front. I did get a good start, but Andy didn’t so I had to back off and try again having swerved to avoid him. It was really tight trying to find a small gap to ride through. I managed to get by OK and was virtually along side TP into turn 1 (he had started on the front row) although he wouldn’t know that as I backed off again to avoid a kafuffle  I was in 6th place behind TP and Ali. I’m not quite sure how that happened, but I’m fairly confident that if I was on row 2, I could have led in to turn 1 such was my good start (that’s becoming a trademark eh!)Glenn Graham came around the outside of me at the Gooseneck and vanished rapidly – which was impressive, as he’d started off the back of the grid. Then I passed TP and Ali down the start/finish straight on lap 2. As I was turning in to the new chicane after Mansfield I heard a horrible scraping of bike on tarmac as TP went down behind me. My arse grabbed the seat as I knew he was close and I was waiting for the BANG. Luckily for me, I didn’t get tagged. I think this bought me a fair bit of time as the other guys got held up(?) After just 3 laps I was starting to feel the pace. Apart from being unfit, I think my back protector was too tight and this was making it hard to breathe (coz it wraps around my middle) when I was hunched up behind the screen (another one for my book!). Looking at my lap times though it would appear that I went faster on lap 4 and faster again on lap 5 – weird, coz I was ****ed!! I knew I had some company as I could see 2 bikes every time I went thought the Old Hairpin. I wasn’t sure if it was Ali or Pete Yates (as the bikes were red and I’d passed both of them earlier). On lap 5(?) I saw NickB scrabbling out from the tyre wall up at the Hairpin, I think he had been ‘rubbed’ by Andy Johnson as he went through for 4th spot. That promoted me to 5th. I was really knackered by the last lap and was expecting whoever was behind me to come sailing past. On the approach to Mansfield on the last lap, Ali did indeed come past. The same place and lap that Chris Butcher passed me in October. Maybe I should learn something from that. Anyway, Ali didn’t run wide or make any mistakes and to be honest he could have parked up and had a cup of tea and I still wouldn’t have had the energy to pass him back I took a look behind and saw a big gap, so just rolled it right off and finished 6th – bugger me, that was much better than I was hoping for. My fastest lap was a 1:53.11 (3 seconds slower than last October). Result! Chapter Seven – Race Two Race 2 was due off at about 4pm and by that time the wind had really picked up and the sky was dark grey. After race one had gone pretty well (the result at least) I was now worried that it would all go tits up and I didn’t want that to happen. However, once the lights went out, I was OK again. I got another blinder, but this time I had to shut off completely to avoid Andy J, and consequently lost a few places. I’ll have to give Andy some lessons in how to launch a 620 or maybe not  Anywho, I was about 8th or 9th in to turn 1.I can’t remember much about race 2, I think it was pretty uneventful. No TP (hozzy) or Glenn Graham (SoT incident) this time. I did have a battle with Antony for a couple laps, which although Ant was flying (a flying ant, ha ha) this did hold me up a bit, but fair play to Ant we’re out there to race, not to let me go past easily. When I did finally get away from the pesky Essex rude boi, I managed to close the gap down to the 3-way tussle between NickB (4th) Ali (5th) and Couchcommando (6th), I set a quick lap of 1:51.56 a full second up on those 3 in front of me, but I just ran out of time – I had closed the 4 second gap down and although I wasn’t worn out after 3 laps this time, I was getting tired by the last lap, and Couch was too good on the brakes in to Park, so I kind of gave up and just rode the bike home. It started to drizzle a bit as we wound down on the chequered flag lap – phew!! Result – 7th. Chapter Eight – The End I went in to this first round having not sat on a bike since last October, and neither Chass nor myself knew how the bike would go. It’s running totally standard suspension, and has just a K&N air filter and a pair of Termi cans – that’s it! I think to come to Cadwell and get within a second of what I did last year after 18 laps was pretty good really. The gearing wasn’t great, I’m too fat and my head isn’t in full race mode. Unbelievably I’m joint 5th in the championship, and from what I saw at Cadders, I think I should be able to battle at the sharp end all season – if I get myself fitter and have some track time. It’s no good riding 18 laps once a month is it. It was great to see everyone again. A quick name check of the fine folk I met but haven’t mentioned in the report… Fil2 (my main biatch), Kelly and 4D, Stuart and Kieran from Spare Shack, Murray Mint, Chris Wood, Franco Nisco, Dom Clegg, The Flying Pasty, Kyle Bennett, Paul Payne and Kirsty, Couchie and Lucie, Antony and Mark(?), Mike & Jed Atack, Eric the psycho, Redroofy, The Old Man, Geoff (the one that wins the races), David Pratt, Captain Bushell and last and least, Dickieducati… No PJ or Monty though?!?!?!?! It wouldn’t be the same without the camaraderie. I probably would have finished racing if it weren’t for that. I hope that everyone that had problems is OK and all sorted, and well done to the winners. What a brilliant group of racers we are, yay! One recurring theme was people saying how much they like the new forum. I didn’t realise how much you all like it, so that was nice to know that all the hours I’ve put in to fiddling with it, have been worth it. So thanks. See you at Brands. Dom [Edited on 28-3-2006 by domski]  |
| #3 28-Mar-2006, 09:55 | |||
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domski
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