ROUND 13
Donington Park
Donington Park is great for so many reasons. It’s a damn good race track, has been recently resurfaced, the canteen food is edible, Valentino Rossi loves the place and the late Ronnie Smith scored Team PB/BSD’s first ever British Superbike championship point here in the last round of 2002 with a 15th place in race 1. It’s Gus’s sixth round on the bike and he’s really got his head round the job now. Between him and the rest of the team they have got the bike developed to a point that it’s down to Gus to do the business. On current form we are hoping for at least two trips to the rostrum here at the last round.
DAY 1
Friday September 17
It’s raining. Not really a problem as Gus is awesome in tricky conditions. If it rains on Sunday we stand the chance of a better result. But Gus doesn’t want it that way. “I don’t want to pick up another result like we did at Cadwell (3rd place) because of the track being damp. I want us to earn a proper result in the dry.”
The new track surface is superbly grippy in the dry but proves unpredictable in the wet. It’s not as porous as previous so there is standing water in places, making things extra tricky. Tossing the bike down the road now would cause all sorts of problems as there’s no spare bike, or parts for that matter.
“Once I learnt where the grippy and slippy places were, it were alright.” Says Gus getting his Johnny rainsuit pulled off after first practice. “I followed Kagayama and he had a massive out-of-the-seat moment exiting Redgate, I thought ‘that doesn’t look like fun’ and next lap it was me doing the same.”
At the end of the second practice session Gus is touring back to the pits off-line to let other riders past when he loses the front exiting Coppice. “It were totally unexpected. I was suddenly sliding along the floor. I held on to the bars to stop it flipping and causing any more damage.” Says a pissed-off Gus.
The bike managed to dig itself quite far into the gravel trap but the concern is that the bike had been left running for too long on it’s side, starving the crank of oil and possibly damaging the big end bearing. This happened second time round at Brands Hatch and wrecked an engine.
DAY 2
Saturday September 18
The sun is out and another good thing is that yesterday the bike wasn’t wearing its’ Sunday bests but practice bodywork instead. There’s no shortage of white duct tape in the spares box to fix the fairing.
Ten minutes into first qualifying and the red flags are out after Suzuki rider Jon Kirkham crashes at Craner Curves. While all the riders are in pit lane it rains again.
“There’s no point in going out in the wet and doing something silly, we haven’t got the parts.” Declares BSD boss Mark Brewin.
With 15 minutes left Gus heads out for 10 minutes and comes back in. In some sort of breakdown of communication or not being able to tell the time, the team take the bike to parc ferme before the qualifying session finishes. Riders are still out banging the laps in and we move down the pecking order.
During the second qualifying session Privateer leader James Ellison manages to plough into pit lane reporter Larry Carter while exiting his garage, knocking them both to the floor. While all this is going on Gus is blocked from getting out on track by people watching the commotion, letting our qualifying tyres get cold.
Gus doesn’t manage to improve on our existing time and we place 17th on the grid, 3rd Privateer.
DAY 3
Sunday September 19
Big crowds and hospitality area of the awning is full of friends and sponsors. Ronnie’s widow Jane and his children Fred and Harry have joined the team to watch today.There are no dramas in the warm-up session; we’re 19th fastest on a time almost identical to Gus’s best qualifying time.
The grid is cleared and during the warm-up Rizla Suzuki’s Yukio Kagayama has to enter the pit lane and will start the race from there, moving us up a place.
On the first lap Kieren Clarke highsides his Yamaha down Craner Curves, sending a few riders on to the grass with him which brings out the pace car. Gus is sitting in 15th place but drops down to 18th after the pace car goes back in. The old man soon gets back into it and makes some places up. After several grass track excursions Kagayama passes us and Stephen Mertens on the Phase One R1 is catching rapidly.
The rest of the race sees Gus and Mertens trading places, the R1 distractingly spitting flames in his face on the overrun. On the last lap Mertens stuffs Gus into the Melbourne Loop knocking us down to 17th and 5th privateer.
“I’m a bit disappointed with that, I just weren’t that comfortable on the bike.” Explains Gus, sausage roll in gob.
Race 2 gets underway without any dramas and Gus slots into 4th privateer place easily while Factory Honda rider Ryuichi Kiyonari does another disappearing act at the front. Jon Kirkham in 3rd place is getting away from Gus while Tommy Hill on the Virgin Mobile Yamaha is breathing down his neck.
Gus’s lap times have dramatically improved. He’s going 1.5 seconds faster than he did in qualifying. “Riders hate change but I sit at the back of the truck looking through data knowing what changes we can make.” Explains 2D’s Bob Gray. “Usually we make little changes, but after the first race we’ve made a lot to the front suspension which seems to be working. Gus doesn’t even know we did it.”
Gus runs really wide at the Melbourne loop giving Kirkham some breathing space. Fortunately for us Kirkham repays the favour and Gus flies past to grab 3rd and sets his sights on catching 2nd placed Chris Martin way ahead on his Suzuki. By the final lap Gus is all over Martin like a rash. Not risking a bottle of champers and a couple of quid with a win it or bin it manoeuvre, Gus brings it home for the last time in 3rd place.
The team are overjoyed; it’s as good a finish to the season as we could have hoped for. Well, actually a win would have been nice, but we’re smiling anyway as we all crowd round the old man as he gets off the bike.
Deep down I think everybody is pleased that the season is over. All the ups and downs, late nights, arguments and budget troubles don’t matter anymore; Gus is on the podium lifting up another decorative silver ashtray.
We may not have won anything, but we were there.
DONINGTON RESULTS
RACE 1
1 Ryuichi Kiyonari HM Plant Honda
2 Michael Rutter HM Plant Honda
3 John Reynolds Rizla Suzuki
4 Scott Smart Hawk Kawasaki
17 Gus Scott Team PB/BSD
RACE 2
1 Ryuichi Kiyonari HM Plant Honda
2 Michael Rutter HM Plant Honda
3 Sean Emmett Monstermob Ducati
4 Scott Smart Hawk Kawasaki
17 Gus Scott Team PB/BSD
BRITISH SUPERBIKE CUP FINAL STANDINGS
1 James Ellison Yamaha 528
2 Jon Kirkham Suzuki 395
3 Dennis Hobbs Suzuki 330
4 James Buckingham Suzuki 320
5 Sam Corke Suzuki 241
7 Gus Scott 101 Suzuki (6 rounds only)
Words Luke BrackenburyPictures Paul Brookes, Luke Brackenbury
