Race Report - Donington 22nd April 2006 (NGRRC)
I hadn’t raced with NG since last October at Thruxton, so it was good to see all the old crowd again. NG is a very friendly paddock and they’re a good bunch of guys, so we missed them last year and looking at this year’s calendar, it seems we might not see so much of them again in 2006.
I’d booked a track day on the Thursday some time back, but the forecast was pretty poor and having just spent the previous Bank Holiday Monday at Mallory in very wet conditions, I didn’t fancy the prospect of a whole day unnecessarily getting wet again, even if I did need the wet practice! So this was cancelled and re-booked for the Friday just ahead of the New Era meeting in August when it will hopefully be better weather! Thankfully, the weather for the NG races on Saturday was actually fine and dry, with even a bit of hazy sunshine from time to time.
Qualifiers
The first event of the day was the NG Open Qualifier, which is an open capacity race and therefore is usually a grid pretty much full of 1,000cc bikes. I was gridded on the 5th row in 18th place (by date of entry) so a good start was essential against the bigger bikes and when the lights went out I got away very well and was up amongst the top 10 by the time we went down Craner Curves for the first time. A couple of laps later and I was up to 8th and then by the 4th lap I'd got myself up to 5th, but by the time I'd made way up to there the guy in 4th was well away and the gap was way too much for me to close. Nonetheless, 5th in the Open Heat was a great result and this would put me in the top 10 of the grid for the final later in the day.
For the Formula 600 Qualifier I was 14th on the grid, again by date of entry. I got a good start for this race too and was up into the top 8 by the first corner and then managed to pick off a couple more places down Craner and up through the back section of the track. I was lying 4th after the second lap and was chasing down hard the two riders in front of me to go 3rd and then into 2nd place by the end of lap three. I could see the leader (Adam Tempest, Triumph 675 Daytona) was about 3-4 seconds in front of me so I put my head down and gave chase, getting within half a second or so of him in the last lap. However, he was too far gone and I had to settle for 2nd place and being the qualifying race, this meant a front row start for the final later.
Finals
My result in the Formula 600 Qualifier put me 4th on the grid for the final and although the front runners in the NG 600's are pretty quick, I was fired up for this race. However, I got a dreadful start and missed two gears away from the line, ending up 14th into the first corner! I'd left myself a bit of work to do to say the least, but I got on with it and passed three riders during the first lap to go 11th and then picked another couple or so off the next lap and so on, until I got myself up to 6th and chasing down Richard Dobson, James Cox and Darren Neal. I can't remember how I got past Richard, but I passed James and Darren at the same place (on separate laps) going into McLeans to go third. It was a bit tight on both occasions, but it stuck and I gave chase to Adam Tempest, seemingly bringing Darren Neal along with me, although I wasn't aware until after that he only finished just over a second behind. Unfortunately, despite virtually catching Adam and even contemplating a move on him into McLeans, it wasn't to be and there weren't enough laps left to mount another serious challenge, so I had to settle for 3rd. Shame really as I'm sure I could have won if I'd have had a good start.
For the Open Final, I was placed 10th on the grid and again didn't get the best of starts, but a bit of aggressive riding into the first corner put me in 10th place for the first lap. However, I found myself caught up in amongst a bunch of 1,000cc bikes, who were slow in the corners and blasting past me down the straights. Inevitably, I found myself at the back of this pack of 5 riders and only being a four lap race and needing time to work through and gap them in the twistier parts of the circuit (Craner, Old Hairpin, Schwantz Curve, etc), there was very little I could do. As it was, I only managed to pass Richard Dobson as the other 600cc rider in the pack and had to come in behind the remainder of them to finish 10th. Not bad, but could have been better if I could have broken free.
Big thanks to Lesley for all her help and a shout out to Adrian from Jardine Lloyd Thompson for coming along to watch, although shame you had to get away and miss the last race! All in all a good weekend and I really felt on the pace with the bike, so I came away very happy.