TP's Donny Report

**TP#12** · 11 Aug 08, 10:15 PM

I haven’t written a report all year for various reasons but I think I needed to write one this time. It’s a long one so get a cup of tea!

Track Day:

I’d signed up for the test day to get some decent track time because I hadn’t ridden Donington since we raced there in the wet in 2005. I really liked the way the circuit flowed together and rewarded corner speed so I wanted to make sure I worked on my lines and put the bike in the right place. I missed the first wet session because Ali and I were late getting to the circuit. Fortunately Donington defied the weather predictions and was mostly dry all day so I suited up and got out there for the second session. Normal track day stuff in inters, which was frustrating, but I just built up slowly and got on with it. Second session out we had a problem with the oil cooler and it resulted in me heading around Schwantz in 5th with oil spewing all over me and onto the back tyre! The rear stepped out in a big way but fortunately didn’t snap back too hard, in fact it just kept sliding out, so I managed to hang onto it before running onto the grass. It’s the second time this has happened to me, after my woes in Assen in 2006, and I was happy to see that it was ruined and couldn’t go back on! Gilps did a fantastic effort and got it all sorted out and I only missed a few sessions and was back out.

The rest of the track day was pretty uneventful. I couldn’t get a clean lap so I just worked on what corners I could without being able to put a full lap together. I came across my old boss, Andy Ibbot, giving 1:1 instruction out there so once I realise who was in the CSS leathers I passed him and gave him a wave

hahaha .. only to be very quickly repassed and waved back to!

Dom Cann’t had let me borrow his tent, camp bed and sleeping bags to sleep on at the circuit however Franco had kindly allowed me to sleep under his awning so we set about getting that organised. Katie (of Earl and Katie fame) very kindly offered me the chance to set the camp bed up on the floor of their flat. Sweet! You don’t pass those up so off I went. In the end I stayed there on Sat night too and after seeing that the awning had been lifted by the wind and had a small river running through it I was VERY appreciative to not have had to sleep in there!

Race Day - Qualifying:

Out for qually and didn’t quite make it to the front as I’d hoped to get out with the front runners. And very happy to see Matt wasn’t right up my chuff! No towing for you after Assen!

I got away ok but made a couple of mistakes on my clear laps and was soon in traffic. I kept trying to build up and time the overtakes but I came in from the session a little disappointed thinking I’d be on the second row or maybe scraped onto the 1st row in class. Imagine my surprise to be told I grabbed pole position!

Race Day – Class A race:

I’d entered Class A thinking I could get a start and a few race laps under my belt ready for the main event later in the day. My pole position time in Class B got me 7th overall so on the second row for this one. I got an average start and every 620 and his/her dog came past me like I’d left the handbrake on. Damn! Then it was a full on melee in turn 1 and I just thought to myself, it’s not my race. So I pretty much let turn 1 go and concentrated on picking everyone off and moving up. I was making my way forwards when I came across Matt and Lily having a battle. I got past Lily and sat behind Matt for a while thinking there’s no way in hell I’m going past him only to show him everything! So I sat behind and had a good old look

hahahaha After doing this for a few laps I decided to get out of the way and let Lily back through. She got back onto Matt and got through and just when I was deciding to pull in I noticed Matt had the remote reservoir for his shock hanging loose on the chain side of the rear wheel so I pulled in and asked the marshall’s to black flag him.

Race Day – Class B race:

I was a bit nervous heading out for this one, I desperately wanted the win and felt this was my best chance but despite that I felt I was able to run at the front so was more relaxed than I normally am. It’s a good feeling sitting in position 1 on the grid. It’s just a shame I made a TOTAL meal out of the start and got bogged! I remember seeing Earl and Jason Boswell come past but I was buggered if I was going to hang around and watch everyone disappear. I have no idea what position I was in coming out of redgate but I overtook about 4 people between there and the old hairpin and it was GAME ON! I can’t remember exactly making my way through but I remember being quite relaxed about it. I remember my pass on Cleggy because I set it up going into the hairpin carrying more corner speed planning to get him into McCleans and sure enough, I had better drive up the hill and got him on the brakes and the lead was mine! It was the first time I’d led a race and I was thinking I’d get nervous but I didn’t have time for that, I needed to get a gap into Cleggy before he came back past. I just put my head down and went for it, hitting my markers each lap and trying to keep it all simple and smooth. I took a cheeky look behind after about 2 laps of that and couldn’t believe my eyes, I was dropping everyone! Eyes front again and I went back to concentrating but now I was thinking it was a long race and started shaking my legs out down the straight, flapping my arms (CSS level 1 drill #4!) and relaxing.

There were a few drops of rain falling but not enough to worry about so I didn’t back off. I know now it was lap 7 I had another long look behind and was startled to be the only bugger on the start finish straight. I genuinely thought that Matt and Dom had come together and were off. Then the safety car flag came out and I had a sinking feeling knowing my lead was now gone. I came around Coppice to see the aftermath and after initially seeing Franco on his feet but Kev on the deck with some attendee’s I’m glad that both riders were ok, if a little beaten. Then came the safety car shenanigans! I slowed down on the start finish straight expecting the car to go out in front of me but he didn’t so I thought I had to keep going round and join at the back of the pack. I was playing all sorts of scenarios around but even gesturing to the marshalls for them to tell me what to do wasn’t working. So I nailed it around and was trying to push poor old Alessandro up when I saw everyone on the pitlane, including a marshall finally, telling me to slow. So I crawled along waiting for the safety car and all was well in the world again. Whilst rolling around behind the safety car the rain came down harder and enough to wet the circuit a bit I thought, mainly around coppice. Great! :eek: Acouple of laps later the lights went out and we were about to let fly. I slowed a little and sat pretty much side saddle and turned around to everyone behind me, looking at the pack of riders behind with quite a few looking at me wondering what the hell I was doing. I was savouring the moment I guess so I waved to everybody!

then I looked over at Cleggy next to me. His race face was well and truly on (he had a clear visor on) and it just struck me as funny so I couldn’t help myself but take the pish a little so I did the whole two fingers in my eyes one finger pointed at him “I’m watching you”

! Sorry about that

I took off for Goddards and we were away. I didn’t want to be leading into coppice and lose the front and the race after the rain fall so I took it a bit easy going through there and McCleans. The next two laps saw Matt and Dom get past me, Dom after a comical outbreaking himself manoeuvre into Goddards on one lap allowing me straight back. I stayed on them and lined them both up for the old hairpin and McCleans were I thought I could get past because it seemed I was carrying more speed down craner and through both the old hairpin and McCleans. So that was the plan and I was closing in when Dom tried a dive up the inside of Matt on the brakes into the old hairpin and they touched! Matt ran wide on the entry and Cleggy basically went in too hot so I sailed past both of them with my nose buried in the tank and thought to myself I need to do the same as at the start, just hit my markers and keep the corner speed up and I’d be fine. As it turns out the next time round got the last lap flag and I knew Cleggy would be close so I pushed a little harder on the last lap to make sure he stayed behind and managed to break the lap record on the last lap! Coming out of Goddards onto the start finish straight I had a quick look to see a 1.7 second gap back to Cleggy and I allowed myself a bit of a fist pump for my first win! You RIPPER!

I know I’ve mentioned this before but please bear with me. I wouldn’t be racing this year if it wasn’t for quite a few people who have helped me out. I said after Brands that if I could get a test day at the circuit prior to racing, fresh tyres and a bit of setup on the bike that there wouldn’t be any reason that I couldn’t run at the front. Huge thanks to Yeti for the track day on the Friday, imagine if we didn’t get to test and the oil cooler spewed oil in the race .... anyway, there’s no way I would have won without the testing so thank you. Thanks to Ali for the lift, beer and general pish taking. Oh and the Bounty! Thanks Earl and Katie for the sofa and banter over the weekend. I dread to think how much sleep I would have had in Franco’s awning after the storms etc and a nice relaxing Sat morning with a great cooked breakie! Thanks also to Mike and Ant for the setup of the bike. On the track day I couldn’t turn it down Craner without rolling out of the gas and I knew that wouldn’t be fast enough so Ant to the rescue and a few fiddles on the shock later I’m pinned from Redgate to the old hairpin! Woohoo, that makes you feel like a real racer, especially when the rear starts moving around!

But there’s two main people who make it all happen for me this season. Rich at Louigi Moto has done so many hours work on the bike it’s not funny, especially after I broke one engine and Rich got lumped with building a new one from bits! :eek: Thank you Rich, you’re an absolute star. And of course Gilps. Who not only owns the bike and lets me wring it’s little neck, he takes it everywhere for me running around getting it setup, taking it to the circuit, does all the organisation, fiddling at the track and so on. All while he has a number of other priorities in his life but he still manages to make sure it all runs smoothly and all I need to concentrate on is riding. Between Rich and Gilps they’ve given me the chance to race and the bike I needed to be able to take my first win. The win is for both of you and you both richly deserve it – I honestly can’t thank you both enough. I hope the ‘triple’ of pole, race win and lap record shows that the work and effort you’ve both put in is worthwhile.

Well done to all the riders, it was an interesting race and our first safety car! And I hope all the fallers are well and are able to be out at Snet.

See you there!

**Tush67** · 11 Aug 08, 10:28 PM

Nice one TP! I wondered what you were doing on the pit straight (waiting for the safety car), but it's all clear now.

**Ghost** · 11 Aug 08, 10:34 PM

Good read Tony, but its down to you to pedal the thing that quickly, I could be on it and only do the times I do on mine, so fair play for a good ride and walking the walk.