This post started as a quick Facebook update but there's too much to write, so I've moved it here.
What a great 24 hours!
Preparing for the Ducati Donington trackday, I spent a few hours on Monday packing the red 749RS into the trailer. It felt very strange to be putting wets on a bike under blue skies, but the forecast was not good and had not been for some time. I was very proud to be working on the bike with my oldest son - fantastic feeling.
My buddy Rob and I left London at 5pm and headed North to the track. We had to use three sat navs to find the hotel: the car dumped us on an industrial estate, Robs TomTom left us at an old people's home and finally good old google maps got us to the hotel. Many beers with the good guys from Snells, Ducati Alton, we missed dinner and passed on the hotel's offer of microwaved pizza.
Tuesday morning started dry but soon turned wet. We got to the track in pouring rain and it didn't stop all day. 8mm of rain was forecast in the morning and it didn't disappoint. Donington is next to an International airport and jet fuel is blamed for a slippery surface when it's wet. The track was completely sodden when we arrived. Many riders had pulled out of the event at the weekend and many others came to the event just to meet up.
Ducati UK were hosting the event and and Focussed Events ran the day. That made a very long briefing session/welcome from Ducati, but all good and very relaxed. Free breakfast and coffee helped lots! Donington is run as a quiet track with noise monitors directly linked to the local council, which makes for strictly enforced limits: the track is fined for every transgression. The day was run as a full noise day - a 105db trackside limit. No bikes were pulled, even the very brave Desmo rider.
John Hackett loves riding Donington and had told me that I would too. He wasn't wrong. Even in the awful conditions with spray enveloping the bike, water blasting through the vents in my leathers and fog clouding my visor so much that I couldn't read the dash, I loved it.
With the crashes from last weekends BSB round in the front of my mind, the warnings that even accomplished racers who would race in monsoon conditions, snow, ice, whatever, at other tracks refuse Donington in the wet, I set off for my first session. Down the pit straight into Redgate, the track is wide, so much so that at higher speeds corner seems to flow straight into the first of the Craner Curves. From the start of those famous corners you can see the track fall away downhill through the park. It's a beautiful sight. In the dry. In the wet, it's less so, particularly when there's an ambulance parked in peripheral vision as you approach a fast left. That's not good for your confidence. Coppice is a great corner: it's quick and leads onto a short uphill straight before a blind long right corner that must be very fast in the dry. In the wet, you're heading across the track towards the slippery curb and the gravel so quickly that it can make you roll off and take a less aggressive line. It's one of those corners that you think you can probably go faster around every lap.
The next straight is long and with a good exit from Coppice is quick. You head slightly uphill so the next left into the Esses is blind. With the spray and fogging visor, I was thanking the guys on road bikes for their brakes lights every lap. Another short straight, again uphill leads to the Melbourne loop. In the dry, that must be a fantastic corner. With standing water, it's nasty. The track surface looks patchy and you don't want to carry a lot of lean. Another short uphill leads you to the only other slow corner, Goddards, which gets you to the start of the pit straight.
I had wets, but no waterproofs and I got soaked in the first session. The speed on the straights was blasting water through the vents and stretch panels. Even with two base layers on, I was getting cold in the pits so I changed into my spare leathers for the third session, but they don't feel so comfortable on the bike so when I was able to borrow some waterproofs from DD racer and Ducati legend Mike Winter I was able to enjoy the rest of the day a little better. Gaffer tape covered the rest of the vented areas! My first time at Donington. Fantastic track, but wet... Man it was sodden. So was I.
Some random thoughts from the day here... Technical: listening to a conversation about the way the Pirelli super bike tyres deform at maximum lean is giving teams the opportunity to experiment with different linkages - flat, rising rate and reducing rate - fascinating. Rob at ProTwins explaining why you reduce compression by a couple of clicks in the wet: apart from the obvious that you're going more slowly and don't need it so firm, the suspension can compress a little more and not compress the tyre so much, which reduces stress on the tyre, increasing grip.
Personal: don't have the pizza at a Premiere Inn. Meeting so many friends that I haven't seen for so long and have missed - all the Northern guys, my buddies Andy with the Riders 749 and The Garage Queen, AndyB (who didn't ride because he'd brought slicks to a wet track), Dibble, Charlotte and Alan. Daz, Ian who lives 200 meters from me but I only see hundreds of miles away at the track... So many good people. Talking to Dave Hailwood about bikes in general and seeing him in the pit lane as I was going out on track. Talking to MotoRapido's rider and Ducati Superbike test pilot Matteo Baiocco, thinking that he's going home to sunny Italy, then he's got Knockhill next week. Get some Goretex boots Matteo! Listening to Ernesto Martinelli being interviewed and hearing his views on racing Superbikes and Supersports (the v-twin and the 849 is the optimal engine configuration for the road in that market; they would love to race it but the Supersports rules don't allow).
Bikes: race tracks, summer tyres and lots of water aren't a good combination, even with traction control. But Multistradas can be bloody fast. With wet tyres, you can brake really hard at the end of a straight.
Dealers: seeing the support they all gave their riders was impressive. All provided free support to their customers and would have followed Rick Hackett's impressive support to a customer who broke his arm after planting his Panigale (getting his car and bike to a secure location after making sure he was ok in hospital).
And Mark's Stuart Easton 749 was at the track fresh from a nut and bolt restoration by John and Rick at JHP. That is probably the nicest bike I have ever seen. The preparation is incredible. I must get a lot of pictures of it soon.
I missed the last couple of sessions. I'd experienced the track, got to see where it went and added it to one of the places I have to return to. Any more laps wouldn't have added to my enjoyment of the day and any more track time in those conditions was only increasing risk. As Dave pointed out, his father used to say 'if you don't feel it, don't do it'. Good advice.
Great to catch up with so many friends from so many places - the guys at Snells, JHP, MotoRapido and Rob from ProTwins.
Completely overgeared at Melbourne and Goddards, the red 749 was excellent, no problems.
Thanks to Ducati UK for organising the event and to FE for running the track. The food and coffee was very welcome. Thanks to Snells for hosting us and for booking garages so close to the free food and coffee!
I've got to post this before my battery runs out. I didn't get to take any pictures, but I will be asking people for some of theirs. Thanks for reading, have a safe day.
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