Zimbo
15-08-2006, 06:24 PM
A very short one this time!
We were allocated a 15 minute qualifying session in the morning, and a single 12 lap race in the afternoon.
The morning was wet, and Donington is well known to be slippery in the wet, so most weren't looking forward to it. This would be my first race on Monica, Psychlist's old DD bike, so I was looking forward to seeing how she fared against the competition!
Pumped the tyres up a little to compensate for the cold wet conditions, and we set out, very gingerly. It wasn't actually raining, but it was still very wet. I found myself at the back of a slow group, and little chance to overtake in the conditions, so followed them round for a couple of laps. Grip seemed ok - ish at first, apart from the back end breaking away each time I opened the throttle out of Macleans, so I was being extra careful there. A dry ish line started to appear, so started to work my way through the field, and got to the front of my group a couple of laps later, set off to try and get a decent lap in with a clear track, when suddenly I found myself sliding down the tarmac in Coppice, front just washed out and down we went, bike sliding next to me, I could see bits of rearset sliding too - bugger! Seemed to slide on my back for absolutely ages, then off the end of the tarmac and into the gravel, which stopped me pretty quickly. No damage to me, good.
Spoke too soon though, the rider behind had been using me to pull him along and he followed my lines a little to litterally, consequently a couple of seconds later a 620 monster arrived in a spray of gravel and slid straight into my left side. Ouch, not so good.
Marshals were straight over, nothing broken, helped me hobble to safety and offered me a chair, I took my helmet off, felt really faint, pain in left elbow and knee mostly, and a little on the right hip where I had originally hit the tarmac. Carted off in an ambulance to the medical centre, checked out to make sure nothing was badly damaged, got given elbow and knee support bandages and anti-inflamatries, and turfed out as the next wave of casualties appeared.
It seems we had 11 fallers in our DD session, no one else badly hurt, so they all got out to race, sadly i was unable to walk much and didn't feel up to it so watched a cracking race from the pit wall. Real shame as despite my off I had qualified 7th in class out of 21, my best yet.
Bike not too bad, broken handlebar (mended already) and broken rearset (looking for cheap replacement, if anyone knows of any!) plus bent front brake lever. R&G crash bungs did their job realy well. On the positive side, the bike seems reasonably quick against the competition.
Oh well, on to Snetterton I suppose, Sun 3rd September. I am recovering fast, should be back to normal by the end of the week.
Till next time then . . .
We were allocated a 15 minute qualifying session in the morning, and a single 12 lap race in the afternoon.
The morning was wet, and Donington is well known to be slippery in the wet, so most weren't looking forward to it. This would be my first race on Monica, Psychlist's old DD bike, so I was looking forward to seeing how she fared against the competition!
Pumped the tyres up a little to compensate for the cold wet conditions, and we set out, very gingerly. It wasn't actually raining, but it was still very wet. I found myself at the back of a slow group, and little chance to overtake in the conditions, so followed them round for a couple of laps. Grip seemed ok - ish at first, apart from the back end breaking away each time I opened the throttle out of Macleans, so I was being extra careful there. A dry ish line started to appear, so started to work my way through the field, and got to the front of my group a couple of laps later, set off to try and get a decent lap in with a clear track, when suddenly I found myself sliding down the tarmac in Coppice, front just washed out and down we went, bike sliding next to me, I could see bits of rearset sliding too - bugger! Seemed to slide on my back for absolutely ages, then off the end of the tarmac and into the gravel, which stopped me pretty quickly. No damage to me, good.
Spoke too soon though, the rider behind had been using me to pull him along and he followed my lines a little to litterally, consequently a couple of seconds later a 620 monster arrived in a spray of gravel and slid straight into my left side. Ouch, not so good.
Marshals were straight over, nothing broken, helped me hobble to safety and offered me a chair, I took my helmet off, felt really faint, pain in left elbow and knee mostly, and a little on the right hip where I had originally hit the tarmac. Carted off in an ambulance to the medical centre, checked out to make sure nothing was badly damaged, got given elbow and knee support bandages and anti-inflamatries, and turfed out as the next wave of casualties appeared.
It seems we had 11 fallers in our DD session, no one else badly hurt, so they all got out to race, sadly i was unable to walk much and didn't feel up to it so watched a cracking race from the pit wall. Real shame as despite my off I had qualified 7th in class out of 21, my best yet.
Bike not too bad, broken handlebar (mended already) and broken rearset (looking for cheap replacement, if anyone knows of any!) plus bent front brake lever. R&G crash bungs did their job realy well. On the positive side, the bike seems reasonably quick against the competition.
Oh well, on to Snetterton I suppose, Sun 3rd September. I am recovering fast, should be back to normal by the end of the week.
Till next time then . . .