What a weekend Imola turned out to be! The atmosphere in the garage was pretty electric right from the start, and it was also fantastic to see such a big crowd of Ducati fans in the grandstand right in front of where we were working in the garage. My guys Davide and Chaz were kept very busy over the weekend, and I don’t just mean on the track… There was also signing sessions, appearances at the Ducati Village and in the Ducati Hospitality, a charity football game, as well as many, many photo opps with the fans of course.
Although it was an incredibly tiring weekend for everyone, I think the boys working in the Ducati Hospitality unit deserve a special round of applause as they were able to feed upwards of 300 people each lunchtime – in a hospitality designed for 100 guests – offering an unbelievable spread of hot and cold dishes and all prepared in a ‘kitchen’ fitted inside one of the trucks. I did not envy their task and they did an amazing job!
It felt great to be back up on the podium (or in my case behind the podium) in both of yesterday’s races – a wonderful result for Chaz and the team and a sure sign that Ducati is on the up and up. Of course we were all disappointed that we weren’t able to see Davide up there too, but he’s already looking ahead to Donington, which could be another favourable track for us, weather depending of course! It was also wonderful to see the STK1000 Ducati riders take a clean sweep in their race – Barni Racing’s Ondrej Jezek and Tati Mercado finished 1st and 3rd, with EAB Racing’s Fabio Massei in 2nd – haven’t seen a Ducati 1, 2, 3 finish in a while I don’t think.
Today we’re still here in Imola for official testing. Everyone’s feeling the after-effects of such a busy weekend (my legs are telling me that I’ve walked something close to marathon distance!), but there’s a lot to get done on track today. On both sides of the garage the boys are working to resolve some small ‘niggles’, also taking the opportunity to test some electronic updates and the like…
I’ll be heading home this afternoon and then have a few days in which I have to get a lot done, as I’m travelling to the UK this Friday and am hoping to be able to enjoy some downtime there before the Donington race weekend on 23-25 May.
Anyway, I’ll leave you with a few pics from the Imola weekend – a great, albeit tiring, weekend!
DUCATIGIRL 