Now as all the Hornets run on
Bridgestone tyres perhaps it is a bit poor of me to thank
Dunlop, but I did have a simply fantastic day on Monday at
Rockingham Motor Speedway
courtesy of the
Brummie tyre manufactures.
Giffords motorcycles will soon become a
Dunlop 'Race to Road' dealer and to promote their new tyres,
Dunlop arranged a
trackday and stuff for the dealers. Well, nobody from
Giffords was able to attend and so I was offered the place.
It was an early start to the day as I departed for
Rockingham at 6am but at least there were some bacon sarnies available when I arrived at 8.30. We were to get out on track 3 times over the course of the day to assess 3 different tyres - the Qualifier, Qualifier RR and the GP Racer.
I started off learning this tricky track on a
GSXR600 on the Qualifier tyres and had 20 very enjoyable minutes thrashing somebody e
lse's bike! Then I had a go on an
Aprilia Tuano Factory on the RR tyres. Awesome bike and very good tyres too. Finally I finished the track riding with a go on a
Ducati 1098S on the GP Racer tyres. Well, quite simply - WOW - what a bike and what great tyres. The bike lays on it side so easily and goes through corners better than any bike I have ever
ridden, lean angles were staggering. I really didn't want the session to finish as I got to grips with he best suspension and mind blowing brakes, let alone an engine that just pulls out of corners with the front wheel gently picking it self up as the throttle is wound on.
If anyone wants to donate a
Ducati 1098 to me I will be very, very grateful! :-)
Then, to round off the day perfectly, I had really good conversations with Leon
Haslam (limping after his 175mph crash at
Silverstone that weekend), Gregorio
Lavilla, John Reynolds, Steve Parish and Barry
Nuttly. Fan - bloody -
tastic!
Even better,
Dunlop may run the event again next year and I really hope I can get invited to that one too.
All that was shortly after we had returned from racing a one day meeting at
Oulton Park. I'll try to get a race report up on the website very soon but for those of you who need to know the results....
Qualifying.
I managed to get pole position from Sean
Hardwicke and the times were close enough to realize that this was going to be a closely fought race.
Erol, however, had a trickier time and only managed 6
th fastest Hornet and was placed 8
th on the grid with 2 F400 bikes in there too.
Race 1.
I led for most of the race and then started to swap first place with Sean in the last couple of laps. On the last lap I met up with a
backmarker in the
middle of
Foulstons chicane, choose to go the wrong way to get around him and ended up on the grass. Sean took full advantage and pulled a good gap that I tried to claw back but lost by 6 tenths of a second at the line.
Erol had a good start and managed to get a 3rd place, but he did go off track at
Hizzys chicane which was judged as gaining an advantage so he was docked 10 seconds and he ended up in 6
th place.
Race 2.
Pretty similar (except just a bit quicker) to race 1 with Sean and I up at the front swapping the lead after I led for the first 3 laps. This time we caught the
backmarker at a much easier place and he was not a problem for Sean who was leading at the time. I worked out that I would need a better line through Druids for the last time to get a run on Sean into Lodge corner. It kinda worked as I came up alongside him into the last corner and
outbraked him. But I couldn't hold the line and he came underneath me mid corner and got a better exit to finish just 2 tenths of a seconds ahead. Real close and exciting racing for the crowd to enjoy.
Erol also had a very close race with Graham and Ashley and all 3 crossed the line with only 4 tenths covering the 3 of them,
Erol getting 3rd place with Graham and Ash following in close
pursuit.
It's all go at the moment, we are off to
Snetterton this coming Bank Holiday for another double day of racing where we hope to repeat the successes of rounds 1 & 2.
