So, Saturday morning and glorious weather. I’d parked about as far away from the pit garages in the totally empty overflow paddock area (much to everyone’s bemusement) and spread all our stuff out. This only started making sense later in the day when all the race transporters came rolling in and we had already marked out our territory! First session on the bike was on the standard Dunlop D207RR road tyres I normally use on it. Partly to give myself a known starting point but mostly to fry the edges of the tyres for increased street cred (did I really say that??!!)! The first thing that struck me was how smooth the new tarmac was; this stuff was billiard table smooth, not a bump, not a ripple and it actually looked pretty slippery. It was so slick that when my knee slider touched down there was hardly any feel from it, no noise, no dragging, nothing; weird! I did another session on the road tyres just to get my head around the sensation of the surface and pushed a little harder this time to convince myself that there really was some grip. Back in the pits and time for the first wheel change of the many throughout the weekend; Chris was on the spanners and was already missing working on the race bike as it’s slight modifications to aid wheel removal were worth their weight in gold! I guess I’d better mention (against my better judgement, in case this report gets renamed to ‘tales of Pete’ or something) that yes, the Crazy member of the team was present too. Sarah was there too; she was riding her GSXR600 and being mentored by Chris in between helping me and trying to ignore Pete’s ‘ride it flat out’ advise’ for the rest of the time! Tracy, exhausted, had by now retired to the car for a nap.
The next session was on my favourite 180/55 rear slick and the road front, the only perceivable difference being the fact that I could now be a lot heavier handed with the throttle as I now has a lot more rear grip. Next time out we fitted the new front slick and it immediately felt different. By immediately I mean that as soon as I started riding up towards the pits it felt as if it was a bit low on pressure as it was noticeably heavier on the steering. I put it down to it not being fully up to temperature even though it had been in a warmer prior to being fitted, and made a mental note to take it steady for a few laps to warm it up fully. Out on the track and with it up to temperature, it still felt slightly heavier on initial change of direction though it tracked well when leant over and really felt like it was gripping well too, but I was surprised to find that as soon as the front wheel touched down after the dip on the back straight it sent the bike into a shimmy that didn’t stop till I hit the brakes for the chicane. It did a similar thing, to a lesser degree, as I changed up through the gears along the start/finish straight too. “Oh great” I thought, “heavier steering and instability”. Giving it the benefit of the doubt we fitted the new 195/70 rear hoping the new tyres were designed to work together. I was right about my ‘balloon tyre’ thought previously; it was so big that we had to remove the rear hugger to get the wheel back in and even the tyre warmer didn’t reach all the way round the circumference of it!
In between sessions, we watched Sarah out on track and Chris was pleased she’d taken his advice on board and was in his opinion ‘a changed rider’! Pete was getting anxious though; I’d told him we’d have the paddock scooter for the race day but due to limited space in the van, the scooter was going to arrive in Paul G’s van when he and Sam arrived later Saturday evening; Pete was worried that it would be forgotten or something! Tracy, in the meantime, grabbed a quick 40 winks. I was a little worried about Sam’s arrival, I have to say; as the three times he came along with me last year I crashed; Thruxton Donington and Pembrey. I wouldn’t say I’m overly superstitious or anything but hey, it does make you wonder if the boy is a jinx or something!
Back out on track, this time on the matched pair of new design tyres. Well, the instability had gone and the grip was excellent but blimey, an oil tanker would change direction quicker! I was really having to heave it hard to make it steer, especially going from full lean right to full lean left as I wound it on down Craner Curves. I spent most of the session working on a rhythm; figuring out how many gears I was going down for each corner and so on and tried to do the same thing consistently lap after lap. Next I had a session on Sarah’s bike for a laugh and thoroughly enjoyed wringing the poor little thing’s neck but it really made me appreciate the laziness of my big V twin! For my final session (which Tracy slept through), Chris had borrowed a ‘sound killer’, which we managed to fit into the muffler of the race bike so I could give that one a shakedown test in readiness for the morning. He also breathed a sigh of relief to be back working on the bike he’s become pretty familiar with! It soon became clear that the race bike was quite a bit different to the road bike; the reduced weight and lack of a steering damper aided steering a little (although it was still a fair bit heavier than it was on the older style tyres) but the better drive, more power (even with the restrictor up the pipe) and better brakes meant that all my braking and turning points had changed as had my gear changes; oh well! It was good to survive the day and get the practice in, though I was disappointed not to have found a better tyre selection after all that work and was still pretty confused as to what combination would be best for the racing. Plus Pete had put a stopwatch on me in the last session and recorded me with a 1.27 lap which was well slow compared to the 1.20s that people were doing there the previous year.
Saturday evening was fun, Paul G and Sam arrived with the barbeque (which was fired up immediately!), some beers, some mountain bikes for paddock transport and Pete was off happily cruising the paddock on the scooter under strict instructions to keep it sensible and not to upset anyone. And sensible he was, until Paul uttered the words “wheelie it Pete” that is! It wasn’t long before a sheepish Pete returned to say the rear mudguard and numberplate had somehow fallen off; been snapped off more like! Banned from riding the ‘ped for the rest of the weekend, he and Sam went off for a few laps of the circuit on the mountain bikes which gave us some peace and quiet! Tracy, by this time has gone off for an early night.
Sunday morning, Race day! We were sent out with the 600s again for practice and it was a nightmare; people everywhere, all sorts of lines and I think I may have got a little complacent with the ease of overtaking people on the track day because now everyone was going a whole lot quicker! Anyway, I was very relieved to survive the practice session so I was at least one up on last year, phew! First race was the Open. I had a pretty bad grid position and in the warm up lap I saw enough carnage to make me decide to join at the back of the grid and follow the pack around for a lap to stay out of trouble. I soon picked up my pace and started moving through the field and it was good to get back up to speed in readiness for the first Sound of Thunder race. Third on the grid for the SoT race was much better! Donington always attracts a full entry and there are always a good few wildcard entries and circuit specialists attending but a good start would make the next five laps a lot easier! I took off on the warm up lap like a thing possessed to show I meant business and we all re-formed up on the grid. The lights went red and…..everyone went early! Everyone except me, that is. I couldn’t believe it; I got totally boxed in through the first corner and spent the first lap having flashbacks of being taken out last year. I eventually gathered myself and got my head down but I’d lost a lot of time and loads of places. I managed to get back up to 8th and with a clear track, trying to catch people ahead, my fastest lap was a respectable 1.18.00 (on the new shape tyres). I still wasn’t happy with the way the bike was steering so we decided to put the 180 back in the rear for the next Open race. This went without incident though my fastest laptime was only a 1.22 and the bike was definitely unstable at speed.
The paddock scene was good between races, some more people we knew arrived, Scottish Steve volunteered to take charge of the bbq and everyone was making the most of the sunshine. Chris was using the ‘ped as his personal transport and the mountain bikes were a godsend as it meant we could watch a lot of the action in between my races. Sam was showing off his skateboard skills and Pete impressed us all by riding a BMX backwards around the paddock! Tracy, now officially signed up as ‘Team Sleeper’ er, slept.
Finally, on to our important race. The only points-scoring SoT race and I needed to do well, particularly in relation to the other regular riders there. I’d convinced Chris I wanted to use my old and familiar tyre set up for this one. Eighth on the grid wasn’t too bad but I desperately didn’t want to get boxed in again. A good start helped but I lost a couple of places when someone fell off just ahead of me, showering me with stones as his rear wheel went into the gravel trap, ouch! Second lap and again I had to take some avoiding action as Damien on the SP1 ran onto the grass exiting the old hairpin and then pulled back across the circuit in front of me! I ran too deep into Redgate a lap later using the rumble strips on the exit and one of the three BMW Boxer Cup bikes present at the meeting came past me. I was pleased with the way the bike steered but I definitely had less front grip than I’d had with the slick earlier. My pit board reassuringly let me know I didn’t have anyone catching me from behind and the rest of the race was a battle against the BMW (never thought I’d have to say that!!); I was able to draft past him down the back straight but he was so, so late on the brakes and it was amazing watching him throw the strange-shaped bike about, cornering with dust coming from his carbon cylinder head covers! We made up a few places between us, but a last gasp drafting move on him failed as I out-braked myself going into the chicane for the last time, letting him back through. I finished 8th but I was the 4th North Glos regular home but most importantly I’d beaten Lance Macall who was a place ahead of me in the championship, moving me up to joint 2nd overall, so a great result! My fastest lap was a 1.18.5 proving that the new shape tyres, though harder work, were worth half a second a lap; Damn, guess I’m going to have to spend the next four weeks down the gym building some muscle for Pembrey!
PS. I have it on good authority that Tracy nodded off in the car on the way home!!!