Should I race a Ducati?

[G.Irish]

So... do you have any indication, forum posts, chatting with other racers, that others are doing the same thing? I mean, you could show up hoping to win a few races, only to find out half the novice field has the same Duc. :dunno:

Looks like there are a few people thinking about doing it but not a lot. I think the high acquisition cost of the bike is turning off a lot of people. And, even if there are other novices looking to do it, the novice lap times I've seen from last year are pretty unimpressive. Don't know if the contingency will attract some ringers though.

I too would have concerns about NEEDING to win your first few races. If you feel like you could keep yourself cool about that, and put it out of your mind, then.... ok.... sure, go for it! :thumbup:

Yeah I think I would have to go into it with a cool head. Going into a race thinking about the money would probably be a bad thing. And when it comes down to it, the main reason I'd get the Ducati would be the contingency so it'd be hard not to think about the money.

It is going to be frustrating though if you find out you aren't as fast as you hope you are and are stuck mid-pack all year, cursing yourself every race for not sticking with the 600.

I don't think I'll be stuck mid-pack. Mid-pack in novice/amateur is slowwww. But I could conceivably be stuck just off the box all the time. One thing that would be a major road block is that the grid is not determined by qualifying, it's set in order of registration for the race. Which I think is a terrible idea and could be a major hold up.

From some of the race video I've watched some of the other novices could be difficult to pass because their lines are all over the place. Technically they should be much slower because they're taking terrible lines but trying to work around a bunch of guys like that in a 6 lap race could be dicey.