Postie
27th June 2007, 10:51
True to British summer (see the news about flooded Sheffield) it hacked down for the British AquaGP.
But being true fans (having already bought tickets) Cibby and I were up at 4.30am and out by 5.30 to get up to Donnington Castle in time for the first morning practice. 109 miles covered in little under 90 minutes and we were at the track. It was wet, cold and muddy, but as soon as the first bike came howling past, it was worth it. The first purchase would have been a Rossi cap, had they not been £20 each. As soon as we set up our little chairs at our vantage point, it started to bucket down. My seat filled with rain water as it rolled off the worlds smallest umbrella and down my back. We were both trying to keep dry under a cocktail umbrella, so we made an executive decision to buy a larger shelter stick. Best £5 I ever spent. So now we had a large umbrella and Cibby had a little one for her legs, to protect them from the horizontal rain drops. So enough about the weather report, if you saw the first race (the 250's) you could see the little river that they were racing round.
The smaller bikes are great to watch, I must say that I took great delight in seeing Lorenzo ride past me on the back of the recovery bike back to his stable. This is no Lorenzo Land biatch.
We stationed ourselves at Coppice corner, a bastard of a corner in the dry, so a total mofo in the wet, it is quite a steep climb to the crest and the apex is blind till just past the half way mark of the bend. I filmed about 6 or 7 offs and quite a few overtakes at that corner, so plenty of action.
The big fellas came out and it had stopped raining, mostly. The noise was incredible and the TV just doesn't do it justice. You can feel the noise through you every time they went past. The exit of Coppice onto the Dunlop straight was wicked as all the bikes were spinning up the rear and sliding about, more then most was King Casey, he seemed to be struggling for grip in the practice, but not so bad in the race.
So we saw the world champion have probably his best start of the year only to loose it at Coppice. I filmed it and what the TV didn't show was a bit shitty. The marshall helped him get it on the track and started to push Hayden, only he was the fattest marshal I have ever seen, so after 1 or 2 meters the tubby bastard was out of breath leaving Nicky to jump start his own bike. He tried to do it whilst still on the bike but it wasn't gonna happen, so he got off the bike, ran along side it and jumped back on and jumped it back in to life, then took off. He deserves some points for that alone, not many other riders would be able to get the bike started on their own like that.
We saw Anthony West have an outstanding race, only to ditch it in front of us after some off roading and Rossi take to the grass after his awesome Shitchlins started to fall apart like a pair of Warehouse gumboots.
You probably saw the race so you know what happened. Below are a few pics.
Overall it was awesome, the weather sucked and the 5 hour stop start drive home sucked some pleasure out of it, but that serves us right for not having bikes to ride there on. It took an hour just to get out of the car park, then heavy rain and an accident closing a lane on the motorway didn't help either.
But being true fans (having already bought tickets) Cibby and I were up at 4.30am and out by 5.30 to get up to Donnington Castle in time for the first morning practice. 109 miles covered in little under 90 minutes and we were at the track. It was wet, cold and muddy, but as soon as the first bike came howling past, it was worth it. The first purchase would have been a Rossi cap, had they not been £20 each. As soon as we set up our little chairs at our vantage point, it started to bucket down. My seat filled with rain water as it rolled off the worlds smallest umbrella and down my back. We were both trying to keep dry under a cocktail umbrella, so we made an executive decision to buy a larger shelter stick. Best £5 I ever spent. So now we had a large umbrella and Cibby had a little one for her legs, to protect them from the horizontal rain drops. So enough about the weather report, if you saw the first race (the 250's) you could see the little river that they were racing round.
The smaller bikes are great to watch, I must say that I took great delight in seeing Lorenzo ride past me on the back of the recovery bike back to his stable. This is no Lorenzo Land biatch.
We stationed ourselves at Coppice corner, a bastard of a corner in the dry, so a total mofo in the wet, it is quite a steep climb to the crest and the apex is blind till just past the half way mark of the bend. I filmed about 6 or 7 offs and quite a few overtakes at that corner, so plenty of action.
The big fellas came out and it had stopped raining, mostly. The noise was incredible and the TV just doesn't do it justice. You can feel the noise through you every time they went past. The exit of Coppice onto the Dunlop straight was wicked as all the bikes were spinning up the rear and sliding about, more then most was King Casey, he seemed to be struggling for grip in the practice, but not so bad in the race.
So we saw the world champion have probably his best start of the year only to loose it at Coppice. I filmed it and what the TV didn't show was a bit shitty. The marshall helped him get it on the track and started to push Hayden, only he was the fattest marshal I have ever seen, so after 1 or 2 meters the tubby bastard was out of breath leaving Nicky to jump start his own bike. He tried to do it whilst still on the bike but it wasn't gonna happen, so he got off the bike, ran along side it and jumped back on and jumped it back in to life, then took off. He deserves some points for that alone, not many other riders would be able to get the bike started on their own like that.
We saw Anthony West have an outstanding race, only to ditch it in front of us after some off roading and Rossi take to the grass after his awesome Shitchlins started to fall apart like a pair of Warehouse gumboots.
You probably saw the race so you know what happened. Below are a few pics.
Overall it was awesome, the weather sucked and the 5 hour stop start drive home sucked some pleasure out of it, but that serves us right for not having bikes to ride there on. It took an hour just to get out of the car park, then heavy rain and an accident closing a lane on the motorway didn't help either.