ACU Supermono Championship:
Round 3 - Donington Park - National Circuit - 8th May 2005.

Most race weekends and the time leading up to them are busy affairs and Donington was no exception!! My race mechanic from earlier years, Andy Grimes, is getting married in June and I’m the best man…contradiction in terms that may be. So when I organised the Stag do in Wales on one of the very few free weekends in my calendar (Andy even checked if I was doing the TT before booking the wedding!!) I didn’t expect the race calendar to change, I should‘ve known better!!
The 3rd round at Donington Park had moved from the Bank Holiday weekend to clash with the Stag weekend, which was now fully paid for and sorted!!!!

I’d planned ahead as best as I could; Brian Wyles took the race bike back with him after Brands so that he could take it to Donington, meaning I didn’t need to take my van to Wales. Originally a couple of friends were going to meet me at home and drive me to the track on the Sunday morning, so that I could have a kip but it transpired that they too were at another stag do on the Saturday evening and there was no way on earth they’d be fit to drive…So I had to borrow my mums car last minute and took all my kit for racing with me on the stag do!!

Saturday consisted of white water rafting in definitely the coldest welsh river ever!!! Followed by a cracking meal and pup crawl in the evening, I finally got to bed after 3am but for several reasons could not get to sleep…Mainly someone’s very loud snoring. I gave in at 5am and set off for Donington, forfeiting and afternoon quad trekking in the process!!!!

I arrived at 7am to find Brian already set up. I pushed my race bike through scrutineering, so far it’d been perfectly dry but whilst in the queue it began to rain.

Usually the Supermono’s get a warm up session at the beginning of practice and qualifying is last practice, but the session had been omitted from the program, so our first and only run out would be in qualifying. Throughout the morning the track dried so I decided to stay on the slicks, I had no Intermediates on wheels so my only other option was wets but it was far to dry for them. That was until 3 minutes before our session when it poured down…

I frantically changed to the wets but with no one to help it’s a frustrating job, knowing you’ve not got long. Brian was busy doing the same with his own bike. Then my bike took ages to start on the rollers, which were soaking wet by now, so they wouldn’t grip the tyre to turn the engine over. She eventually started and I made my way to the holding area and promptly stalled!!! I had to run all the way back to the van with the bike and find someone to drive the rollers to re-start me. By the time I made it back to the pit lane the session was on the track and I was knackered…

 I did a really steady first lap knowing the tyres had no heat in them, I love the wet but haven’t raced in the rain for ages, as I approached coppice for the second time I passed a slower rider so I went in a bit tight but I wasn’t going fast at all, the bike just fell from under me and I ended up in a heap in the gravel, with no hope of getting the thing started again. This was the first time I’ve ever fallen off a Supermono in four years of racing them. Consequently I didn’t do a full timed lap and therefore I didn’t qualify either!!

Fortunately there was no major damage to the race bike apart from a few scratches and bent rear brake lever, so much for getting a rest between practice and racing. Talk about making things difficult for myself, not only did I have a load of work to do cleaning, repairing and removing stones I also had to plead with the clerk of the course to let me race and that would have to be from the back of the grid….

I sorted the bike and the weather continued to shower on and off, just allowing the place to dry before throwing it down again…I left the wets on but put tyre warmers on the slicks, just in case.

It was so mixed leading up to the race that it was doing my head in, however gut feeling made me change onto slicks, even though it was spitting in the air and the odd damp patch still lingered on the circuit. I couldn’t leave the decision any longer though. Amazingly though it proved to be the right choice as the sun came out and the temperature picked up.

I took up my place on the back of the grid and set off for the warm up lap just hoping that the set up was going to be alright, having never used the bike here before. We’d guessed at the sprockets albeit an educated one from past experience, but it’s not always an exact science.

I was determined to get a good start, it would make or break the race for me. I made up 14 places by the first corner, however it took me a few laps to settle with the circuit, I was in a gaggle of similar paced riders who eventually began to hold me up. One by one I picked them off and worked my way from 11th place on lap four up to 5th place by lap eight. My lap times dropped immediately and I put my best lap of the race in on lap twelve of thirteen: 1minute, 22 seconds which shows I was still getting faster as the race went on but the bad start position and lack of track time prevented me from getting away with the leaders. The set up was brilliant though, more through luck, and the rear tyre that had caused concern at Brands had worked perfectly.

 I finished the race in a fairly credible 4th in the water-cooled class, which puts my championship standing at joint 9th. Hopefully a good result at the next round at Post TT meeting at Mallory will boost my championship position even more but at least I’m now in the top ten.