Larry had the misfortune of suffering a broken soldered joint on the BM in first practice and had the Ducati knocked back for its first practice for not having a Shark Fin of a requisite size, that could not be rectified by the time the first sesion was over.

It all looked pretty bleak on Friday night until the Duc made it through for 2nd practice, for its first ever outing on the roads.

Larry having never ridden the bike before took it very easy and only on the 4th and final practice lap did he start to wind it up a bit. The Duc qualified in 22nd out of 29 starters and this was satisfactory to all.

Larry went out in practice on the BM on Saturday afternoon and managed a satisfactory qualification for Sundays race.

The little Duc went out in the First race of the Pre TT and Larry managed to take her up to 17th by the 2nd lap. By the end of the race Larry managed to bring her home in one piece in a very creditable 15th place.

No leaks, no parts dropped off and she looked just as good after the race as she did before it.

All in all I am personally very pleased with the very first outing of the Duc, and Larry has provided some very good feedback to me, for some slight modifications and improvements for implementation prior to its next outing (whenever that may be). He liked the little bike so much, he has booked it for next year and I am only too happy to let Larry ride it for me again, whenever he wants to.

Larry is out today on the BM and hopefully he will manage to get 2 finishes this year at this event.

Larrys Butenuth BMW




The Little Duc