By Every TT brings new challenges for riders, in Michal Dokoupil’s case, he’s going back to the future, riding for the first time at the TT Races since 2010 with AIR Kawasaki, 1000cc machinery.
Riding for Team Meca Prestige, ‘Indi’ revealed how the deal with the French outfit arose:
“The team asked me over Facebook, which is the usual thing in these days, social media strong, they asked me if I would I be willing to ride their bike, I said of course.
But it was all after entries close, so I asked the organisers if they would let me in, the reply was quite fast, ten minutes later, all classes no problem.
Then I start to prepare, because fourteen years not on a big bike, that’s a big challenge, to do it eight races in a week, another challenge and to do eight races in a week, is another challenge.
It’s going to be difficult physically wise so I hope I can manage all the races, all the laps, six laps again.”
‘Indi’ went onto add:
“I’ve never rode the bike before (1000cc races steed ZX-10R Kawasaki), it’s a very interesting co-operation because there is a little bit of a language barrier, if I may say.
But we all are working fine and having a good time, yesterday we went out on the Superbike, it was unstable, all over the place, big issue with suspension set-up, but after talking to suspension guy we’ve completely re set the bike to different set-up.”
My chat with the always amiable Czech rider on Thursday afternoon, concluded by discussing the latest 300 Curves of Gustav Havel at Horice, where Dokoupil took an early lead in a drama filled Super Twins race.
Discussing in detail, the twists, turns of the encounter in mixed conditions, he said:
“Horice was cool but there was a very big mixture of conditions, half of the track was dry, half of the track was wet.
So, when we went to the Super Twins race, I was on wet tyres and the bits in the town were apparently dry, but I managed after first lap from fourteenth place, I was first.
Because the roads were still wet and I some advantage there but then unfortunately Marek Cerveny took me, but he immediately crashed as we got to the woods, so I thought he should have been more patient and unfortunately this brought out the red flag, which delayed the race for forty minutes.
We were still on the wet tyres, I managed to finish sixth so for me it was a good result, good experience, I’m happy with the results.”
Yesterday’s Monster Energy Supersport race saw Dokoupil take a respectable 34th place finish, earning him another priceless bronze replica trophy.
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
