Desmodue round 3 - Oulton Park on Saturday

[harriebird]

my bike has had an oil change and I'm having a go at fitting a K6 GSXR seat unit to it. This will mean that I can just have a little bit of foam to sit on, so can raise the rear of the bike a bit to help with my grinding habits :rolleyes:

it's going well so far :grin2 looks like it will fit quite nicely once i've attacked it with my Dremel.

general consensus is that I will love Oulton, and it has the best lefthander in the country.

so i'm really looking forward to it. I've got a trackday there on Friday (upgraded to a whole day now thanks to my very kind friend Bob who donated his day after he broke his collarbone at Assen) so this should give me some time to learn which way it goes a bit.

it'll also be a good chance to catch up with my best mate and some of my family who live up that way.

i'm not hopeful of any fantastic results - if i don't finish last and/or crash then i will consider it a good weekend!

a few of the people that were running at the back at brands at the start of the season have now quit! so looks like i will be firmly bringing up the rear the rest of the season. never mind, as long as i beat gilps again at some point i'll be happy!

my race reports for mallory and assen are long overdue - i wasn't going to bother but my family enjoy reading them so i'll catch up at some point :grin2

[becky]

wahoo, i bet ur looking forward to it. (i cant wait to get out there :motorbike)

[Perilous]

Best track in the country IMHO Oulton. You'll love it.

You're racing with the wrong club. If you raced with Bemsee and entered our Old Farts vs the Spots competiton you'd get points for last.:)

[harriebird]

i got quite nice points for last at mallory :grin2

i was 17th after all the crashes, and we get points all the way down to 25th :grin2

at least 3 people who started the season in Class B are now out with injuries :(

i can't remember how many a full grid consists of, or how many are signed up for this weekend, but if it's 25 or less then i'm in with a chance of points hehehe :laugh1

[Perilous]

I raced in the GP250 class as well as SS400 one year on my Aprilia 250.

I got 8th in the championship on a road bike in the GP class sounds really good as long as I never mention the fact there were only 8 bikes in it and I only go above last to 2nd from last twice. :grin2

[harriebird]

17th will proably be by far my best result of the season, and i won't be telling the grandkids there were only 17 finishers that day :clap

[Perilous]

17th will proably be by far my best result of the season, and i won't be telling the grandkids there were only 17 finishers that day :clap

Actually some of the races at the back have been the best I've had. That result sheet I sent you where i was 27th was a blinding weekend.

the best race ever to date was when John Gorman (Irish road racer now) and I were battling not to be last in the Aprila Challenge at Brands on our first year on the 250s. 16 laps of swapping place nearly every corner. It was brilliant. Sod the pots. :)

If you've never been at the front racing at the back is great fun, until you get more determined not to be there any more.
All you have to think about running seventeeth is beating 16th. No points nothing its great. Just get out there and have a laugh. You're in the glorious position of "I can only get better":)

If you think you get critisism at the back wait until you get near the front it's ten times worse. You can have one of the best races of you weekend come in 5th grinning from ear to ear and be instantly deflated by the people who thought you should have been higher up. The phrase "what happened" starts to really grate after the umpteenth time. :grin2
All this aside though the worse person is yourself. Once you've won a race everything else to a certain extent is a disapointment.

I've been running around the paddock like a demented chicken after a 15th place in early years but also been bitterly disapointed with third out of a grid of 38 in more recent ones.

jeez the first time I did a Lydden meet in SS400 without Tony MacBride lapping me I was strutting around like I'd just won the moto GP. :grin2

Everybody starts somewhere Harrie.

There is a very small minority of naturally talented riders but the other 99% of us just get there by stubborn persistence and practice. :)

[Tark]

Points down to 25th. Cool...

DP only give points down to 9th!!

[gixer400]

good luck. i bet youll have a blast and a half!!!

[troutslayer]

i'm an oulton virgin as well Harrie :D will see you on friday morning... bright and early! leaving here at about 3am (although at present i think i'd rather leave straight after work and camp in a layby) so should be there by about 7am :)

if you like left handers, ya gotta go to pembrey!

[harriebird]

jeez the first time I did a Lydden meet in SS400 without Tony MacBride lapping me I was strutting around like I'd just won the moto GP. :grin2

that will be a tough call this weekend - we have a guest rider on Harriet Ridley's bike, one Ian Cobby who appears to have quite a pedigree ;)

so i shall be very chuffed indeed if i don't get lapped...... :laugh1

fortunately i can do stubborn and persistent. i have to keep reminding myself that lots of people i race with have been on bikes since they were small or have raced before (at various levels) and i am in my first season.

it's easy to beat yourself up about it, but the support and inspiration i've had from the other racers i've met (and my fabulous friends and my family)has been what's kept me going.

and when i saw chris pfeiffer at goodwood, and said oh i'd be rubbish at that, i was reminded by my chauffeur for the day "yes but harrie eveyrone is rubbish when they start, that's why you practice"

[Perilous]

yes but harrie eveyrone is rubbish when they start, that's why you practice"

Exactly.;)

You spend ages frustrated at how the rider coming by can be on the same bike, same line , same lean angle etc etc (in reality they're not) then all of a sudden one day your doing the same and can't understand why you found it so difficult.


Or one day your wife (not in your case obviously:grin2) turns round and says in avery annoyed voice, "When the hell are you going to stop asking advice from people slower than you and realise you are one of the f'ing quick ones". (I still do it mind)

Then it gets really hard. One tenth is like two seconds from when you start. Did I mention being 17 hundreths off 43 at Lydden. :grin2:grin2:grin2:grin2:grin2 Aaaaagh.:grin2:grin2

Always plenty of people faster though, which is another good thing about it, you never stop learning. Mind thats like most thing I suppose.

[harriebird]

finished in 24th (out of 25 :() in both races.

a great first race for me, knocked a massive 7 seconds off my qualifying time but couldnt catch up with the others who were a teeny bit ahead. i kept coming out of cascades in too high a gear (the bit from cascades to hizzys is my fastest bit and where i was making the most time up) towards the end of the race and as a result i just ended up going round on my own again. i was knackered, the circuit is so full on, i have never been so pleased to get lapped!!!


second race was only 4 laps after chaos in the GSXR cup race. crash central, 3 ambulances and a helicopter. we had to wait a while before we could get started (the helicopter was on the grid so getting in the way a bit :grin2) and then it was really late in the day so got less laps so everyone got a race in. I passed andy on the first corner (old hall???) of lap 4 i think but ran a bit wide and panicked so past he came going down the hill into cascades....!

my starts still weren't great but i was catching people at the first corner. annoyingly i just didnt have the sodding balls to get in the pack to get out of the first corner, so just hung back and played safe.

i'm so glad i did the trackday on the friday. mind you i found out why they're called rumble strips, on Lodge, at the end of the first session. youuuuuuuch my shoulder hurt!

i LOVED cascades and island though (wonder why!) and shell oils was mad, it feels like you're going to end up upside down, as you are on a banked hairpin and looking up the track for the exit of the bend :grin2

more to follow

[troutslayer]

ah, harrie! there was a crowd of us watching from Lodge, and we watched you go by, and watched you make a move at Old Hall, and gave a cheer, and all watched you come back round and confirmed you'd made the pass stick :) nice one chick!

the trout report is available online at www.curzonweb.co.uk