A tough home round for Oxford Products Racing Ducati at Thruxton
Ian ‘Hammy’ Darbyshire reports back from Thruxton, Round 7 of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, located just half an hour away from the team's Ducati dealership base in Winchester.
As most will know we went into one of the toughest weekends on the calendar for us without our team owner and Crew Chief Wilf. It certainly made a tricky task tougher, but the team were fully up for it and wanted to prove to the boss we could step up.
It’s historically a hard track for the Ducatis and we weren’t expecting 2024 to be any different.
We approached Friday like any other race weekend. We drafted in extra help from one of our previous staff members Cat and some remote support from Wilf where possible. The aim going into the round was trying to give the boys bikes that were stable enough to push on and so as to obtain as many points as possible.
Superbike
Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #21)
"We went into the weekend knowing it was going to be difficult. We’d lost our boss, owner, and crew chief in Wilf due to illness. As hard as this was for us it’s worth mentioning it must have been 10 times harder from him being on the sideline in hospital. Everyone knows how difficult the track is for us but actually I went into it really optimistic because I’ve been riding really well and the team's been working really well. I’ve scored good points there in the past on a Ducati so I saw no reason why we couldn’t stick it to them.
Friday showed that we had some pace. We worked our way through the schedule, and we were happy, even with it difficult to validate changes with a tricky schedule.
Saturday rolled round and qualifying was difficult, meaning we didn’t have the best grid place. I set off in Race 1 on the unpreferred tyre for our bike and felt really good on the Ducati. I was able to pick up grip, turn the bike and put it where I wanted without feeling like I was doing too much damage to the tyre. I managed to pull myself from 15th to first. By getting to the front my thought was I could save more tyre there instead of fighting and battling for positions mid pack but I must of burnt too many matches on reflection after watching it back and we finished P9. I felt pretty good for Sunday but I knew the pace was going to be a lot faster based on how much we were down on lap times on Saturday.
Roll on Sunday we just lost everything. I had no grip, struggled to turn the bike, and it was hard to know what changes there were other than the much higher temperatures. The sprint race was a short dash due to the red flag but again with the higher pace it was very difficult. On the last corner of the last lap I made a mistake which I was really disappointed I made but P6 was our finishing position.
From very early on I knew the last race was going to be a battle. As the race went on it just got harder and harder and there was nothing I could do other than hold on for as many positions as possible.
As weekends go we didn’t lose a huge amount to the rivals we came into this weekend with, but we did open the door to three other title contenders making the championship now wide open with us not as close to the top as we'd hoped."
Supersport
Ben Currie (Oxford Products Racing Ducati #1)
"That was a tough weekend for both myself and the Oxford Products Racing Ducati team. But we came away with a fourth, and a third in the Supersport feature race, a brilliant way to end a hard weekend.
We dug in for that result. Everyone in the team played a huge role this weekend, especially in the absence of our team boss and Crew Chief Wilf who was unfortunately missing due to illness.
We’re currently just four points off the championship lead, so we just need to keep working in this direction and attack the last half of this season, which should bode well for us.
Now it's back to work for Cadwell Park, where hopefully we come into the weekend prepared and ready to fight."