Cadwell Park Ducati Cup Rd6
The Lincolnshire circuit with its undulations and mix of corners is one of my favourites. The conditions also suited me. A damp free practice and less than ideal conditions in qualifying meant I was where I needed to be straight away.
I have been putting the miles in this season and it appears to be paying dividends. Confidence in the bike is high and I feel like I can push that little bit harder knowing I can trust the set-up and tyres. I had a little tumble at a club meeting test day a few weeks back but if I am honest that’s exactly what I needed. I pushed a front tyre to the limit of wear and beyond, down I went. I now have a good idea of how hard I can really go with the front before it lets go. It also meant that I could show the current technicians how to replace a Giamoto rearset and a full set of R&G crash protection on the right hand side of the bike. Positives from Negatives and all that!
Free practice was exactly as it suggests so no pressure to perform. Thankfully I had a set of well worn wet tyres on some rims so chose to use those. The track was pretty wet but a dry line was increasing as the session progressed. I went as hard as I felt was appropriate but with everything to lose and nothing to gain I saw no point in crashing just to be up there on the time sheets. P11 with plenty more left if conditions were similar for qualifying or a race.
As it turned out the weather played a part in proceedings on Friday and our qualifying session got moved to Saturday morning in place of our warm-up. The right decision to make as the surface water for the Superbikes was terrible and clearly riding in those conditions was unsafe. This meant we finished fairly early on Friday and I had chance to fit a new Lighttech adjustable brake lever and give the bike a good once over. Decisions on gearing, fuel load and suspension all made. All we could do was wait and hope the weather improved by morning.
The rain continued into the early hours and with our qualifying being the second session on Saturday it was always going to be a tough decision on tyres. I had a walk to look at the track and it was still very wet in places but I knew it would dry fast. My instinct was telling me to put wet tyres in the bike but from experience I knew that the right call was otherwise. Brand new Pirelli Supercorsa dry tyres went in but I stuck with my wet gearing. Conditions were difficult so I took a while to get going, as did most of the other riders. As the track started to dry the lap times came down. My fastest lap came on my penultimate circulation and had it not been for another rider backing out of his lap at an awkward place right in front of me I think my fastest would’ve been my last. P11 yet again and I knew I had more left at race pace on a dry track.
Race one and I got a reasonable start and managed to draw up level with my teammate by turn one but it wasn’t quite enough to get by. I made up one place off the start but it didn’t last and at the end of Park straight I got passed by both Cheetham and Couzens in one go. It unsettled me a little and I lost a bit of ground to them both which meant I had a lot of work to do catching them. I could see by my board the gap to the bike behind was growing so I concentrated on catching Dan Couzens. The gap to Dan stabilised to around three seconds in the early laps and it seemed like a huge undertaking to reel him in. By lap ten I was within half a second and I could see back markers coming to us. I knew that I could capitalise if it went wrong for Dan so tried to get as close as I could. We caught Andy Booth through Halls Bends and we both got by between the Hairpin and Barn. By now I was on Dan but couldn’t quite work out where to pass. As it happened he made a mistake exiting the bottom chicane before the Mountain. Wrong gear for him meant a split second for me to get by. I made it stick and and got my head down to get clear.
I tried to ride defensively onto Park straight to force him to ride around the outside at the end. Even so, he squeezed in on the right in the braking zone but I knew he would have to work hard to haul it up and not run too deep. I waited a little then cut back on the inside before Chris curve. I knew he wouldn’t get another chance before the end of the race so concentrated on hitting all my marks to keep him at bay. P10 after a lot of hard work was rewarding and to get it after catching and scrapping with Dan made it an enjoyable race.
Sunday was a long day. Our race was the last race of the day so we had been given a warm up. I wanted to try a few things and warm-up was the ideal chance. I had a fairly new (to me) technician so a full gearing change meant he got to see how to change a front sprocket and measure swing arm length. My dry gearing was 14/42 but I wanted to run a slightly shorter swing arm to help with direction changes so a change to 15/45 was required. Same ratio and shift pattern but hopefully slightly more responsive on changes of direction.
No issues in warm-up except I was unsure of gearing. I still felt like I wasn’t quite riding quick enough to make 14/42 or 15/45 work. It felt a little lazy in places. I had all day to make a call so left it until about an hour before the race.
Last race of the day is always tricky. Mindset changes slightly over the course of the day. As a team we try and pack up as much as possible prior to the race so the sense that it is all over before we even race often comes through. That said I made the call on gearing and went to 14/43 so was keen to try it and see if I could put in a better lap time.
We spent a fair while in pitlane prior to our race due to the formalities after the Superbike race. Podiums and winners parade laps in the car all have to take place before we are allowed out.
Away for the green flag lap and I got the sense my teammate had a bike issue. That was confirmed when he pulled up at the bottom chicane to look down at his bike. Further tinkering on the grid from him had me worried and I could only hope it was nothing too serious.
Away well again and I held 12th from 12th on the grid. What was promising was keeping the leaders in sight. Middlemas went down on the opening lap at the bottom of the mountain so I crossed the line in 11th and more importantly, in front of Couzens. I could already sense it was going to be a long hard race so I did my best to not make any mistakes. I could see my teammate a little way in front of me so I was relieved his bike issues weren’t too significant.
My board was telling me Dan was closing me down. Half a second as we crossed the line to start lap five. Exiting Charlies two I made a mistake and got on the throttle a little too early, pushing me wide and heading for the grass, I had to roll the throttle for a split second. That was enough and I knew Dan would pass me. The gap increased to just over a second but again I knew back markers were coming to us so I grafted to get back on his wheel. We caught Booth between Mansfield and the Chicane. Dan committed to going under him into the Chicane but backed out at the last second. This meant both he and Booth were slow on exit whereas I had run in to the Chicane fairly quickly. I went for it and squeezed between them before the bottom of the Mountain. I knew Booth was on my right and getting ready to tip into the corner. Turns out Booth did tip in behind me and almost had Dan off as he followed me through.
Dan fought back of course and I think it was the end of that lap he tried to pull the same move into Park Corner on the brakes. Again I anticipated he would run a bit deep so cut back under him. I think he was expecting it on that occasion and he tried to pull it back to block me. Very close racing but great fun. Next challenge was another back marker into Mansfield. This time it was me being indecisive. I went to go under Thrower into Mansfield but felt it was just a little too late to go for it so backed out. Hard on the brakes and down an extra gear to get the drive out of the corner to pass him before the Chicane. I kind of hoped Dan wouldn’t get through so I had a little breathing space but he made it too. He then proceeded to chase me for the whole of the last lap and true to form he dived under me on the brakes into Park. He made it stick and although I thought about pulling a move at the Hairpin after he made a mistake over the Mountain I decided that a top ten for both of us was better than ending up in a heap at the second to last corner. Discretion the better part of valour, as they say.
A good weekend of racing with Dan and another two top ten finishes to my tally. Tangible progress and to be within 35 seconds of the winner is a big thing for me. I didn’t quite get into the 1:33 lap times but a PB with a low 1:34 was still good. Chipping away getting closer to the front with a bike that is sorted makes a difference. The two technicians that worked on the bike this weekend left nothing to chance and that showed with the results. One hundred percent confidence in the bike means I can focus on what I need to do out on track.
Assen next and another circuit I like, hopefully keep the momentum and try and get into the top ten in the main championship.
Images Barry Clay.