Race Report - Donington Park 25th April 2004 (NGRRC)
Fabulous Donington! What a fantastic weekend!
The race day was a Sunday and the weather forecast was looking good for the whole weekend, with what turned out to be glorious sunshine and warm temperatures. Glen and I had spoken in the week about trying to get a garage and he was travelling up from Weston-Super-Mare to arrive at the circuit around 4pm to see what space he could get. Him and Nick Pusey (races an R1 with NGRRC, but also does British Superstock.....damn fast!) had grabbed some space in garage 10 and 11, so I decided to go up on the Saturday afternoon to get the bike off the van and ready for the next morning. I also wanted to change the rear tyre for a medium compound Rennsport as the soft compound I'd changed to for a trackday there the Tuesday before was cutting up badly and I was in some doubt it would last the whole day.
Having had to wait well over an hour in a huge queue to get the tyre changed (thanks to Rich Halford for letting me jump ahead of him), we went back home to get some well needed sleep. I'd left the van at the circuit, so next morning we drove up in the car and pushed the bike off to what didn't look like a huge queue for scrutineering, but it turned out that way. Having got through without problem, I blagged a couple of practice sessions to scrub the new rear tyre in and was looking forward to the race.
First up is the Open 400 Qualifier and I was gridded 12th. A reasonably good start and I was doing very well in 7th place (remember this is a class which allows 250GP bikes on slicks), but an incident at Coppice saw the red flags being shown and the race was stopped. Ten minutes sitting on the grid and we were off on the warm up lap and lined up again for the shortened 3 lap race. Not such a good start this time and I was about tenth after the first lap and dropped another place before the flag to qualify 11th. As for the Formula 400 qualifier, I was gridded 10th and managed to get a decent start again (not something I'm used to as my starts were crap last year!). A couple of battles with Alan Russell (who did get the better of me) and desperately trying to get past Dave Ashman to no avail and I finished 10th. However, the good news was that I was hanging on to the leaders and mixing it with some good company. Now onto the races proper.....
Now, having a garage at Donington means you can watch the race before you're due on finish before you go down to the holding area, meaning your tyres can stay with the warmers on for longer and you don't have sit around waiting as they cool down. However, timing is critical to this as I found out the harsh way along with John Rees and about four other riders as we turned up and the holding area was closed. No amount of pleading was going to get me through, so I had to join the warm up lap from pit lane and was told that I must start from the back of the grid. I was furious over this and when it came to lining up, all that I could think about was how was I going to get up with the leaders from back there. Well this frustration turned itself into a good start and I scathed my way through what seemed to be dozens of bikes before Redgate and set about working my way up into the points. When I got back I had absolutely no idea where I had finished and thought I was well outside the points, so when Lesley told me I was 15th I was quite pleased, but still very angry. Still, 15th on circuit equates to 9th in the 251-400cc race (remember this is a two class race) and 5 points, so not all bad.
The Formula 400 points race was a cracker! I was starting 10th on the grid and again thought about nothing other than a good start to get into Redgate as far up the field as possible. I was actually a bit too hesitant and jumped forward slightly whilst the lights were still on, so had to clutch in again, but when they went out I got away well and managed to pick up a place from Dave Ashman, which was a good thing as he had held me up a little in the qualifier and was so fast down the straights I couldn't reel him in. So I was lying 9th and about to do battle with Gary Curtis in 8th and Rich Bearcroft in front of him. I was quicker in some areas and Gary was quicker in others, but I was struggling to find a way past other than perhaps through the Old Hairpin, Schwantz and ultimately McLeans where I could get right up behind him. Another lap in and Rich Bearcroft made a mistake coming out of Redgate and Gary took him, but I couldn't squeeze through and had to follow the pair of them again down Craner (albeit in different order this time!). I was still very much on their case and was pushing hard up through Schwantz and ready to have a look into McLeans, when all of a sudden Gary sat up and braked hard with Rich following him. At first I thought there was a problem on the circuit or a red flag, but I checked and nothing, so just nipped up the inside and took them both as they went off line. I then fully expected one or both to come back at me for the remaining lap and a half, but I held them off and finished nicely for 7th. Excellent!!
So a fantastic weekend and some good results under my belt at last. Most importantly, I'm now feeling a lot more comfortable on the bike and I'm getting some confidence in the front end, not quite to the point of braking deep into apexes like I was last year, but much better than after the Oulton and Pembrey disasters. Things are looking up!
I believe this is going into Redgate or possibly through Goddards, not sure! The picture was taken by a friend of Miles Tripp (rides a ZX7R in Powerbikes and Open).