It was nice to see Donington Park back on the British Superbike calendar after the circuit had been resurrected post the failed attempt to run the Formula 1 Grand Prix a couple of years ago. The track itself is still one of the best in the country and is absolutely thrilling to ride. I must have done 20,000 miles instructing around this circuit over a period of 7-8 years from when the Ron Haslam Race School use to be based there. So
it is fair to say I know my way around the place.This was also to be the last round of the Harley Davidson XR1200 series so it would be our last chance to race the beast this year and as I was starting to get the hang of these things we were a little optimistic. I say a little optimistic as you never want to get too carried away with these things as they can have a tendency to bite you on the bum!
Free Practice
We kept the bike the same as it had been at Cadwell with rear ride height raised as we figured it would help the bike hold the constantly changing turns of the Donington circuit. Surprisingly and in contradiction to the weather forecast, the sun was shining and the temperature was up around the 25 degrees mark. As we were due out on circuit at 5pm, Rob commented “what a lovely day for a ride round on a Harley”. I am not sure if he quite understood that I was meant to be going as fast as I could to get a good time in or if he thought I was just going for a cruise down Daytona Beach!
Out on the track and the bike felt good from the off, handling was good and predictable, the bike had good speed, so I stayed out on track until a few spots of rain danced off my visor. I pulled into pit lane as I was unsure as to what rain might fall. As soon as I had done this the shower had gone, I think my visor must have caught the only 3 spots of rain that fell. Still the session ended and we found ourselves 7th quickest but confident there was more to come.
Qualifying
Our qualifying session was held at 9:30am on Saturday morning so we had an early start to get the bike ready. With the bike fuelled up and the tyre warmers on, we waited for our session. Out on track and after a couple of laps I fo
und myself circulating behind James Webb and Dijon Compton (first and third in the championship). I held the gap to these guys pretty constant up to over halfway through the session until they eventually pitted to make adjustments. As I had kept these guys in check for most of the session I was confident we had posted a good time and sure enough Rob held out the pit board to indicate we were currently in 5th place with a time of 1m 45s. This is also how the session ended, I was a little disappointed to miss qualifying on the front row again by only one place but still it showed we had good pace for the races.Race 1 – Saturday
For those of you that were paying attention in our last newsletter you will remember that our race from Cadwell Park was rescheduled to take place at Donington, hence the reason we had two races to compete in. The grid positions for the re-run Cadwell race were to be taken from the Cadwell grid and as luck would have it and so as not to confuse me, being a mere simpleton, I was placed 5th on the grid, again just on the second row. As the lights went out I didn’t make the greatest of starts and got boxed in going into Redgate corner for the first time. I emerged in 8th or 9th place so knew I now had my work cut out. I passed a rider into the old hairpin then as we entered Macleans there was a lot of jostling for position and three bikes ran wide, I held the tight line and managed to pass all three of them as we entered Coppice corner. Down the back straight for the first time and Dijon Compton pulled off to the side of the track promoting me up into 4th place. I was now only about one second back from Alex Gault who was in 3rd place as we crossed the start and finish line for the first time. Only 9 more laps to go! I put my head down to try and chase Gault but Dav
e Wood made several attempts to pass me but each time he ran wide and I re-took the position. Rob McNealy was sat right behind the two of us as well, ready to pounce on any mistakes we made. About halfway through the race a few spots of rain appeared on our visors. Gault looked liked he backed off a little for the rain but I kept the throttle pinned and closed the gap back down to one second. Unfortunately I ran out of laps and the chequered flag came out and we crossed the line to take 4th place. Still this was our best result of the year and in a field of some quality riders, as a bonus we had also taken a second off our qualifying time to reduce our best lap to 1m44s.Saturday night the guys and gals from Harley Davidson had organised a BBQ and a few drinks, this was a really good event as through the season the series has developed a real family atmosphere, so thanks to them for feeding and watering us!
Race 2 - Sunday
Our race on the Sunday was scheduled slap bang in the middle of the two British Superbike races so that would ensure we had a good crowd to play to. I lined up on the grid in my ‘usual’ 5th place and waited for the lights to go out. My start this time was a little better than Saturday’s race but still not great. At least this time I wasn’t as far back and settled in to 7th position. I managed to pass Wood and Compton to start the second lap in 5th place. On the second lap I managed to equal my best lap time from the Saturdays race and Torquil Paterson in 4th place was in my sights so things were looking good. It was on the 3rd lap that I started to get twinges in my right forearm. Now for anybody that has raced motorbikes in any form will know what this meant, it was a racers worst nightmare, ‘arm-pump’! Now for those of you that don’t know this basically means that you lose all grip in your hand from the muscles in your forearm pumping up. The reason your arms are reduced to this pathetic state is because of this.. When under extreme pressure, the blood circulating away from your arms cannot leave as quickly as the much-needed, oxygen-rich blood is coming into them, which creates
a build up of lactic acid. Pressure builds up in the forearms compressing the muscles and nerves which in turn loose their ability to function properly. So, there you go! What this actually meant to me was that I was struggling to pull the brakes as hard as usual and it also made turning the bike quite difficult. I have not suffered with any form of arm-pump for years so I don’t know why it chose to raise its ugly head now. Being the little soldier that I am though, I battled on and was still confident of taking 5th place. That was unitl my adversaries from the previous day, Dave Wood and Rob McNealy appeared back on the scene. The next 6 laps were very entertaining to be part of and I am told made for good viewing on Eurosport. But alas I was unable to hold these guys off and I took the chequered flag in 7th place. Not a bad result but I am confident it would have been 5th place or better if my ageing body hadn’t failed me! I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the racing and for this reason I hope the series runs again next year, plus we were just starting to get the hang of it!Congratulations go to James Webb for being crowned the Harley Davidson XR1200 2012 Champion and commiserations to Peter Ward who only just lost out on the championship by 2 points after a long hard season.
We are currently unsure as to what next season may bring but you can keep up with the news as I will be updating our blog on a regular basis as we continue the build of our ‘Kawasaki Versys Supertwin’ race bike and with any additional news that we may have for the 2012 season.Lastly, a big thanks to Warr’s London for the loan of the bike during the year and to Harley Davidson for organising a great championship. Thanks also go to all our sponsors that enable us to be out there competing, thank you.
