Donnington and the World Suzuki 750 Cup
Added on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
Cornering at Donnington
Hi all,
Its not been long since I last spoke to you but lots has happened. It was the World Superbikes at Donnington last weekend and I was there. I was also riding in the World Suzuki 750 Cup.
On the Thursday when we got there I couldn’t believe how laid back everyone is compared to the British scene and how the hospitalities looked. They were amazing, so much different to our paddock, everything is made to look like it is there all the time. To think it was a truck on Saturday morning is unreal.
Anyway, back to the racing. On the Friday we had lots of time to learn about the new bike, we were able to change the suspension setting to suit me. It was wet as well, so we needed to change the rear spring for a softer one making it easier to ride in the wet. The Adreani ohlins were really helpful and knew the bike well. The Suzuki crew were really good as well. They made us feel very welcome and we were well looked after.
At the end of the day it was our time to ride and it was wet, not just wet but flooded! I had new wets on, not the same as we use in our championship, so they took a little bit of getting used to, but after seven laps it was fine. The wets didn’t grip as well as our ones but were ok after lots of laps. The track was mega slippy and everyone was coming off. My mechanic, Twiggy, told me to take it steady and if I get giddy to pull in and have a re-think instead of going too quick and coming off like everyone else. It paid off as I got up to second on the grid.
With five minutes to go they pulled me in and I sat in the pits for the remainder of the session. I ended up in fifth place. It was a very safe ride and we learned a little bit about the bike without any heroics.
The bike was geared for the Nürburgring, where Jeremy McWilliams rides the bike, so the gearing was way off. We made some changes to the bike for Saturday, but overnight it still hadn’t stopped raining and it carried on through the day. It got to our session at the end of the day and the rain had finally stopped and it was drying out, but still very wet, too wet for dry tyres.
I went out and did 3 to 5 laps at a time and had to keep coming in for a setup change. It was getting near the end of the session and they were still working on my bike, I had seven minutes to go to put a good time in, we kept going faster and faster but just not enough for the front row. The session ended and I was on the third row, but I wasn’t worried because I knew I had good pace.
Sunday arrived and the sun was out, hurray! We were suppose to be having our race at 2:30pm, but the Superbikes got delayed so we were the last race of the day again, and guess what…it rained again! It stopped just in time for our race and was drying slowly. It was going to be a greasy track.
The race got underway and I started well. Straight into the 1st corner in 3rd place, then down through Craner Curves into 1st. I just kept going for it and then 2 laps, in the Austrian rider came past, he was riding well and had a good pace. I tagged onto him and was hanging on. It got to 4 laps in and my team said I had a ride through penalty because I jumped the start. I know I didn’t but the officials said I did, so I had to do a ride through the pits at 60kmh which is slow after 150mph around a track. It put me in 14th place so I had to do all that hard work again in the space of 5 laps, and we did it, I finished in 6th place which was still a good ride in The World Championship. We knew it could have been a 2nd place easily as we were 3 seconds in front of 3rd place before pulling in for the ride through. Everyone thought I had done well.
To top the weekend off we had met loads of people and made some new friends including Hollyoaks star Stuart Manning. He is one cool geezer and loves bikes, so we had a real good chat. He came over to congratulate me at the end of the race. Thanks for your support mate! All in all what a good weekend.
Now I am looking forward to this weekend at Croft. We had some bad luck there last time, the gear box seized up in the bike at the 2nd corner and I smashed my hand, so I’m a little bit nervous going back there, but should be ok.
Speak to you all soon.
Best wishes
HOWIE #43
