Round two of the NG series has us at Donington Park after the successful season opener at Brands Hatch. We use the 1.96 mile National circuit (...the one without the Melbourne Loop). It is steeped in history and a tough circuit to get the perfect lap on. You need to get each and every one of the linked corners from Redgate to Coppice right (...and there is eight of them!) to post your best lap time.
So after the first meeting at Brands Hatch, lots of questions hav been answered after a year off due to the covid situation…..mainly that the fast riders are still fast, and that the experienced riders are still bang on lap record pace.
Dan Cooper gave us a stand out performance on his 600, that again he uses in the 600 and Open. He may find things a little tougher in the open here as the bigger superbikes as ridden by Max Symonds, Sean Montgomery, Michael Blank and Chris Pope will be much more suited to Donington.
Keep an eye out too for fast newcomer Vitas Razvadauskas on his R6, he impressed last time out with a race win in the Newcomers, backing up his talent with a podium in the 600 open.
As at every NG Road Racing meeting we have timed qualifying on Saturday morning with the first of the weekends three championship points scoring races in the afternoon. Two more championship races for each class will take us through Sunday straight after the riders have had the regular morning warm-up sessions.
Each championship class carries twenty-five points for a win, going down the scale to one for fifteenth place and there are a total of sixteen rounds this year spread over the six meetings. The range of classes take in the full gamut of machines, from Formula 125 modified road bikes, all the way up to the tricked out 1000cc superbikes, with everthing catered for in between from 600cc to Mini-Twins and Streetstocks to Suzuki Bandits.
The Donington Park 1.96 mile National circuit is race track is fast and flowing with a series of high speed sweeping corners opening out onto the fast and undulating Dunlop straight. Donington is all about high corner speed and smooth riding. You will see a lot of high speed overtaking as well as bravery in the braking areas at Roberts, Redgate and the Old Hairpin.....but be warned if you get one corner wrong, your lap has gone. Racing at Donington dates back to 1931, but after WW2 racing was halted, and it was not until Tom Wheatcroft got hold of it in 1971 things got back on track (...literally !). Donington has hosted every type of bike racing from Moto GP, Endurance, BSB... and was of course the venue for the first ever World Superbike round in 1988.
Josh Day holds the outright NG lap record here, set in May 2019, circulating in 1 min 08.39sec on his R1 Yamaha, which equates to an average of exactly 103mph.
Adding extra interest to the weekend NG Road Racing are again running the British National series for 125cc and 250cc GP machinery. This is the only place in the UK that you will see these ex-GP machines racing for a full British Championship title backed by the ACU (The sports governing body). We also have the Ducati Desmo Due Series, Formula Prostocks runners and that’s not all as there are also the ACU FSRA British F2 Sidecars for fans of three-wheeled action…… what a weekend we are in for.