E2E Racing News

After such bad weather at Snetterton, the team were hoping for a nice weekend at Cadwell Park, it was not to be (at least not until Monday afternoon)..

"We'd got Dave Allenby (Ducati Specialist) coming to help us on the Saturday with bike setup and was hoping for good weather, but it wasn't to be and after 2 dampish sessions the weather turned bad and it rained all day" says Lee.

"So Dave basically set the bikes up how he thought they should be and I got out on the wet bike in the pouring rain to see how it felt. It's no secret that I've really struggled with the Ducati in the wet and after some big crashes in wet conditions my confidence in the wet has been completly shot!"

"The bike felt a lot different and it took me a while to get used to it, then Les Liney came past and I was determined to stay with him, the more I pushed the bike the better it felt and I actually started to enjoy riding round in the wet again!"

"When it came to our qualifying session it was really wet and despite getting held up for a couple of laps, and the session ending early due to a red flag, I managed to qualify top Supertwin and 7th overall in GP1 - I was really pleased with the progress we'd made in the wet."

"On the Sunday we had another qualifying session and unfortunately my visor was steaming up and I could hardly see at all, I really struggled and because the track was a lot less wet than the saturday session I slipped down the qualifying sheet."

"All day Sunday it was wet one minute, then dry, then hail, then dry etc etc, an absolute nightmare!.. When it came to our Superpole race the track was drying and the only option was Slicks (even though the track was soaking wet through the Woodland section)."

"I made a decision to bide my time in the race, and hope that the track dried out a bit more before pushing too hard as it was a 14 lap race. I started steady and Les & Scot both pulled away from me, then by about lap 4 or 5 I started to winde up the pace and soon caught them and took the lead and finished 8th in the GP1 race."

"On Monday warm up was damp so I didn't bother going out. Then our troubles began!...."

"When we went to change the wheels on the dry bike, Stuart noticed a crack in the right hand fork leg bottom. With no spare and only an hour before our first race the only option was to use the wet bike for the first race."

"When I went off on the warm up lap I thought I could smell burning clutch plates, when the race started I realised I was right! I was lucky that I was half way down the grid as the bike barely pulled off the line."

"When ever I tried to open the throttle the clutch just slipped, to the point where I was probably only doing 50mph down the straights! But with the Supertwin numbers being low I decided to carry on and scrape as many points as I could, and just tried to carry as much corner speed as I could."

"The race seemed to last a life-time and when I got back was really suprised to find I'd finished 3rd overall!"

"So now we'd got our work cut out.. I wanted to run the fast bike for the final race, but the forks are different on the bikes, so it meant swapping the whole front ends on both bikes, without the facilities to do it!"

"It was all hands to deck, Dad, Les, Lou, Stuart and myself worked on the bikes and finally got the No.1 bike sorted. I now had a bike I could ride, although the forks were going to be too soft and I was convinced we'd not got them far enough through the yokes, at least we could race!"

"The race started and I was a bit sluggish off the line (after loosing the clutch in the race before I didn't want to burn another one out!), I think I passed Scot into Park Corner and was up behind Les, who took me a lap or so to pass (the wily fox that he is!).. I then caught a group of 3 GP1 bikes who were dicing, including my pal Angelo De Rosa."

"I was getting held up and despite one of the GP1 Riders making it hard work for me I knew I had to get pass them, heading into Park one lap Angelo made a move on the guy in front of him and I decided to pass the pair of them, I just made it round and was on the tail of the rider leading the group, I then passed him on the brakes into Mansfield and got my head down.."

"I then had clear track and set about trying to put a good lap time in, when I saw 35's come up on the dash I knew I must have broken the guys behind me and settle down to finish the race."

"I knew when I came into Parc Ferme I'd won the Supertwins race, but was amazed when an excited Dad said to me "You were 3rd in the GP1 race, you might even be 2nd as Peter Baker might be disqualified!" .. I couldn't believe it.."

"Sure enough there had been a couple of fallers in the GP1 race and Peter Baker was disqualified so I'd finished 2nd overall - my best result in the GP1 race!"

"I'd just managed to beat my own PB time, despite really struggling passing people and the bike not wanting to turn due to I think the front of the bike being to tall!"

"So a mental weekend, but all turned out good in the end! BIG BIG THANKS to Dave Allenby for his amazing wisdom, Mum & Dad, Stuart of www.silksandshoes.com, Lou, Darren @ DP Signs for getting the new fairings ready and of course Jackie for holding the fort at home!"

"Lots of work to do now before Oulton Park, but we'll be there and expect a fight, Paul Noble is dusting down his SP1, Duncan Gibson will be back, and Les is now right on the pace!"