No Limits Donington Park 6hr Endurance

Saturday morning and the team of MisFits; Martin Thrower, Andy Booth and new additions Ieva Baublyte and Alan Sainsbury get set up ready for Qualifying to determine the line-up for the afternoon's 6hr Endurance race. No Limits are the hosts and the Iconic Donington Park is the venue. Andy and the ATS Hire Ducati led the way into the dark clouds with a fast lap on his mind. The 10 minute session rewarded Andy with a personal best of 1.48 Not a bad effort for the first roll. Ieva was up next but as the key to her Ducati was “in transit” from Romford, she threw her leg over the Atlas Hire 959 and braved the looming clouds before a downpour cut the session short. With a quick team decision she went back out on wets only to face a Red Flag. Alan and his Yamaha R6 were up next on a damp track and it was more a case of be safe as the tally of fallers was rising on the slippy tarmac. Another Red flag interrupted Alan’s session before the chequered flag came down. Last to perform was Martin on his Ducati 959 and with the track still slippy all we wanted was Martin to be steady and keep upright. As the flag dropped we qualified 29th out of 41. Not bad at all considering the slippy conditions.

ARB Racing MisFits: Andy Booth, Ieva Baublyte, Martin Thrower, Alan Sainsbury.

Saturday’s race came and the team decided that Ieva would sprint the start with Andy holding the bike. With rain in the air and a drying track Ieva went out on the safer option of wet front and dry rear. Warm up lap over, bikes lined up one side of the track with the riders set on the other. The Union Jack drops and 41 riders sprint to their bikes. Ieva and her long legs are straight over the bike and away she goes. A great start! Followed by some solid laps as her session hands over to Andy.

At 1 hr The Misfits are 29th out of 41 and holding place. Andy comes in as the skies darken on Martin’s stint and several laps in, the heavens open. Martin battles on not knowing if we have a wet bike ready but the red flag billows a halt to the session with standing water on the track. Race is suspended for nearly an hour whilst the flood subsides. With a Safe track again Martin lines up in order behind the safety car for the race start. Due to the rules, you cannot swap rider or bike/tyres under a red flag so the team plan was for Martin to come in after the safety car pits. Handing to Alan on full wets.

At the 3 hr point we had moved up to 26th and Alan was still out gaining places. The changing conditions left an all but dry track as Alan tagged Ieva for her run and another place was gained in tricky conditions. The clouds were again starting to darken so we readied Alan’s and Andy’s bikes for a potential deluge. Dodging the showers on dry tyres, Ieva nipped in to hand to Alan and a wet front, inter rear setup. This paid off as the track, although wet in places was drying well and at 4 hrs we had jumped to 24th. Crew Chief Sam Blackmore’s good calls and watchful eye, as ever made the right decisions. Trusty Stopwatch in hand. Martin took Alan’s place as the times fell on the drying track. Decisions rewarded, now 21st.

Now the sun was shining and Martin was head down for some good laps. Andy took on extra fuel for the final 40 mins and The chequered flag waved final classification of 21st out of 41. Awesome result for a proud team.

Thanks to Sam for keeping the team in check, Amy Thrower, Lina Diamond, Elaine Brown and Smixxy Hobden (superb brownies). Massive thanks to our sponsors and to No Limits for another excellent event and finally huge thanks to the Orange and Red Army of Marshalls and Medics. There would be no racing without them.

Next outing is the No Limits Angelsey 500k for the Misfits #3 team of Andy Booth and Alan Sainsbury and team Misfitted #33 of Martin Watts, James Chapman and Gerry Simpson on the 10th of June.

Donington Park. 6 hours of Stormy Endurance.