Aardvark Racing

Thursday practice

2010-08-26T20:31:00.000+01:00

Another ace practice! Lovely conditions, dry roads, sunny, warm, couldn't ask for better! The bike's going great guns.

I don't see Kyonari washing his own bike! Danny's at Cadwell this weekend, Goooooo Dan!

Lovely motorcycles in the sun..

Jonsey!

Wednesday practice

2010-08-25T20:28:00.000+01:00

Fantastic evening! Lovely sun, no wind, and no incidents that I saw. The bike's working really well, blimey, I seem to have nothing at all to whinge about!

Look at that sea, it's like a mill pond!

You don't half meet some dodgy old chatacters round the MGP paddock. Cargo on his way to a right good scrootin'.

The mountain, with the last few classics thundering up it.

Tuesday practice

2010-08-24T22:22:00.000+01:00

Perfect conditions! Blue skies, dry roads, lots of lovely marshals and away we go! Havent seen any times yet but it was a mile inside qualifying. Hooraw.

It was so nice, even Clacker's smiling! Well, almost... :-)

Some lovely bikes with some unfamiliar blue stuff behind them.

Another happy smiling rider! Dave Sells.

Clacker off the start.

First timed practice

2010-08-23T22:31:00.000+01:00

The misfire is definitely fixed, yay! Alas tonight was streaming wet most of the way round... fingers crossed for some dry roads tomorrow!

Mad axe-cat Bonnie. Obviously trying to live up to her namesake, Ms. Raitt...

This was yesterday.

... and this was this evening. There's me looking at the sunshine and being all optimistic, some moments later that big black cloud behind me joined the fun!

Dyno afternoon

2010-08-22T16:11:00.000+01:00

Happy! A quick run on Slick's dyno showed that the misfire was a plug on the way out. New plugs and the bike screams all the way to 127 bhp once again!

At £221 plus vat per set, it's a good thing this doesn't happen too often!

My Dutch friends Henk and Dirk were vastly amused last year by the expression "Mad as a box of frogs". So they brought Slick a present! The sign in Dutch means "A box of mad frogs".

Slick, the dynomeister!

The thing, y'see, about washable air filters is that you should wash them occasionally.

First practice

2010-08-22T10:19:00.000+01:00

Hum. I've had better... alas the bike would not pull at all at high revs, so I did one lap and pulled in. No big deal, we're off to Uncle Slick's Dyno Emporium at 12 today to sort it out. I doubt if it will be anything sigificant, it was bob on at Jurby South.

The Aardvan!

It's been a few years since we saw conditions like this for first practice!! Of course we got the obligatory rain shower as soon as we parked up in parc ferme, but the roads weren't bad at all once we were out.

A huge chunk of ladies road racing history in one happy smiling photo!! TT rider Hillary Musson, TT rider Maria Costello and TT marshal extraordinaire and sidecar freak Helen Gibson.

Signing on

2010-08-20T17:10:00.000+01:00

Signing on today.. Mostly harmless. The slick new computerised system went straight into castors-up mode and the fall
back system of the MMCC ladies wielding pens and pencils swung into smooth operation. We're all signed on, inspected, and ready to go!

The new MGP Festival logo, on a fence!

This is Deputy Clerk of the Course, Andy MacKay, taking his duties terribly seriously at the rider's briefing.

Trainee mechanic Bonnie catching a few rays in the back yard before the madness begins...

It's yon time again...

2010-08-19T20:24:00.000+01:00

Manx GP 2010. Signing on starts tomorrow at 1... I'm only playing with the Kawasaki this year, I'm number 54 in the Junior (white numbers on blue plates) and Senior (black numbers on yellow plates.

The cut off year for the post classic has changed, so had I entered the poor old Jota it would be up against a mob of '87 GSXR750's. A tell order even for The Mighty Jota, the Beast of Breganze!!

First practice is Saturday evening, roads close at 5pm and dare I say it... the weather forecast is good!

2009-09-01T19:35:00.000+01:00

See this? That's a leaderboard, that is, featuring #78 which is me. I think most everyone else broke down, fell off or got waterlogged. Conditions were less than perfect to put it mildly... I've never seen rain like it in a race. Waved yellows absolutely everywhere, inches deep standing water in places.

Commiserations to the breakdowns, get well soons to the fallers and alas condolences to the family and friends of Richard Bartlett, Newcomer #18. It's hard to lose any fellow racer, but it's especially tough when it's a newcomer.

Still an' all, that's a leaderboard, that is. 600cc Junior race tomorrow, weather permitting. I suggest y'all take a good look at this photo, as I doubt very much whether #57 will feature here!

2009-08-31T21:02:00.000+01:00

Racing rained off today; the announcement was at 7am by the organisers. Again, the right call, it absolutely hosed down all day.

So we went to Slick's to play on the dyno; we got the Jota's power curve nicely smoothed out. Top end is a rampaging 82 bhp!!

Here's an MGP's worth of tyres!! Rears on the left from the top, Pirelli Supercorsa Pro (dry conditions), old intermediate (wet conditions), new intermediate, old Supercorsa. Middle heap is the new front Supercorsa Pro and the old Supercorsa. Left heap is a front full wet, another old Supercorsa, a new intermediate and an old intermediate.

The Jota's final power curve!

The Mighty Jota on the dyno.

2009-08-30T11:51:00.000+01:00

Last practice done & dusted; had a run round on the Jota and the Kawa in streaming wet conditions. The Jota's running great guns now so hyoowge thanks to Steve, Henk, the Phils and Ralph at Motalia!!

Just a check over and a polish today and then tomorrow... we race!

2009-08-28T23:13:00.000+01:00

Another good day!

The parts sent from Motalia in deepest Norfolk at 1pm yesterday arrived at 11am today, so a biiig up to Parcel Force! The boys (Phil, Steve & Henk) got straight to work fitting them to the Jota. Dyno tomorrow morning, and then a practice tomorrow evening.

I packed the Kawasaki in the van and hooned over to the paddock... of course as soon as we left Ramsey the rain came down in stair rods.

It was pretty much rain on and off for the rest of the day; and once out wet roads everywhere.

We were second session out, the classics and 400's were first off. I snapped a few pics of me mates leaving the start.

Once we got the start I took it fairly easy but the Pirelli inters were working really well so I could get a wee bit of a move on... only a couple of scary moments, I *always* seem to hit a slippy patch at the 11th! And then after a dry run down Sulby Straight I came round the kink at the distillery to find an absolute *cloudburst* in the braking area!! Huge thanks to the marshal there who saved my bacon with some expressive body language on the adhesion flag!

Fozzy on the TS//2C Benelli

Clacker off to get wet!!

The lovely XR69 replica that Ryan Farquar's riding

2009-08-27T19:10:00.000+01:00

To Slick's with the the Jota to try to clear the fluffy upper midrange, after sorting a few minor issues we found that it's electrical; either the pickups, coils or the ignition box. Lovely lovely Ralph Allen at Motalia is sending us a complete Moto Witt digital system by courier, which should be here 1pm tomorrow.

We then loaded the Kawasaki (cleaned by our team masseuse Jane!) and ran over to the paddock but almmost as soon as we arrived it was announced that practice was cancelled. Spot on decision, the weather is foul! Better forecast for tomorrow though.

We spent the late afternoon dropping the motor out of my top mate Emma's Honda 400, which blew up at the last Jurby event. We'll put the spare motor in the next time there's a break in MGP activities.

The Jota on the dyno.

Team TS//2c's Benelli

2009-08-27T08:49:00.002+01:00

I got in one lap in the untimed session on the 600 yesterday; conditions were pretty foul. Wet pretty much everywhere.

Huge thanks to the marshals who turned out and stood around for ages waiting for the conditions to improve enough for us to run; you're superstars, the lot of ya!

2009-08-25T22:48:00.000+01:00

Another good 'un! Henk played a blinder this morning; sorted the gearbox problem that stopped us at Ballig, *and* diagnosed 90% of the Jota's running problems as being down to a duff plug cap. Paul Dedman down the road just happened to have the right cap in stock... how lucky is that?

So; over to the paddock, unload a scroot bikes and then we were away with only a very slight delay. I got 2 uneventful laps in on the 600 at a decent pace, 107 ish, which is fine by me, then in and on to the Jota.

It pulled away nicely, it's still got a lean patch 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 but (look away now, Jota fans) it was fine up beyond that. I really hope my rev counter is over reading! Handling is, um, interesting but the wobbles and weaves seem to even out after a while... brakes are actually right good!

Second lap was about 87 mph which is well inside the qualifying time for the class. It absolutely made my day when I caught me bestest mate Chris "Fozzy" Foster on the mountain (he's on a 250 Benelli, on anything like equivalent bikes I wouldn't see him for a cloud of dust and small pebbles), and gave him a bit of a tow in my slipstream!

I'm slightly circumspect about 4 laps on that orange animal... feel like I've been beaten with steak tenderisers now.

I've now done 9 laps of practice, more than I managed the *whole* of practice week last year!

That slot headed eccentric adjuster in the middle of the pic above is what slipped and stopped us at Ballig yesterday.

Here's Young Woody, polishing his Kawa 400. He's the Manx entry for the 2012 Nicest Bloke in the Paddock Olympics.

The Team! L to R, Ray Knight, TT racer (and winner) extraordinaire and basking in his reflected magnificence, me, Becca and Janice.

2009-08-24T22:50:00.000+01:00

It all started so well! After yesterday's downpour, bright blue sunshine all day! We packed up and rolled over to the paddock, unloaded and gave the bikes a final check over.

I got the Kawa scrutineered first, and got right in the front row in the pit lane! The Jota also sailed through, and we parked that up in the classic parc ferme.

Into me leathers and after a short delay the seeded riders (first 30 numbers in each class) roared off, and then off we go! I went steady through the bottom of Bray as I was trying a different rear sag setting.. but it was bob on! So head down, arse up and gas open. I got in 2 good laps, not rocket fast but 104 and some loose change is fine for Monday.

I pitted after that, got me helmet scrubbed (fnaar) by Janice, quick drink and a power gel thing and off on the Jota. As far as Ballig Bridge that is... there's a little eccentric screw that limits the gearbox travel, and it worked loose, leaving me with a choice of 1st or neutral. It's a 10 minute job in the workshop to sort it, but nowt you can do by the roadside!

Hey ho. Still, I FINALLY GOT TO SEE AND HEAR THE MV!!! Woo! I had a cracking view of the entry to Doran's, ace spot to watch!

The Kawa and the Jota in the paddock

The Jota being collected from Ballig bridge, along with Janice, Becca & Ray.

2009-08-23T17:20:00.002+01:00

Well, what a great first practice! Both bikes rolled through scrutineering with no probles, other than a comment that we have to extend the oil catch tray on the Jota for Monday. No probs there, a bit of glassfibre magic from Henk and we're sorted.

I got out on the Kawa first, after a short delay and it was flying!! We've done the engine in "safe mode" as the pistons don't like the long straights and tend to object by melting! So the compression (and therefore bmep and therefore bhp) are down on last year. However the
bike seems easier to ride fast because of that; although the practice was untimed the team had me at 103 average which is fine for a first run out. 2 good laps in, happy!

I took the Jota out after that, not so brilliant here.. the lean spot at 7500 was hard to ride through and as you can imagine a couple of bits managed to shake loose - primarily the rev counter! However, I found a bigger set of jets (160, it had 150's fitted previously and we put them in today, in addition to tighening and checking the rest of the bike.

It's been hosing down all day today, but the forecast sounds better for tomorrow. Off to the pub now for a lime & soda in company with my pals Sal & Miche who probably won't be drinking lime & soda!!

This is the lads waiting for the technical briefing

The Mighty Jota!

My mate Dave "Clacker" Clarke had a grreat run too... well done Dave!

Signing On

2009-08-21T18:25:00.002+01:00

Over to the paddock today to sign on, the Manx Motorcycle Club as ever ran this as slick as you like, all computer logged and controlled by a bar code on my TT course license.

Here's a bunch of disreputables getting lectured by Deputy Clerk of the Course Andy MacKay.

New for this year we have to put the numbers on the belly pan... easy to read for the lovely lovely TT marshals if the bike's lying on its side!!

As always, big thanks to my hairy pal Slick. The Kawasaki earned itsself the nickname "The Green Grenade" lasy year but (fingers crossed, touch wood) it's been fine this year.

In closing my opening, two bits of sad news... my ol' mate James "Sidecar Mel" Melvin, who was to have spannered for me this fortnight, passed away last week from a heart attack. He was preceded by my big orange buddy and garage assistant, Trotsky the cat. Not the best start to the Manx but here ya go mates, this one's for you.

Bring the noise!

Manx GP 2009... A week to go...

2009-08-14T18:51:00.004+01:00

Woo! First practice is a week tomorrow, as I sit here typing to the tune of rain bashing off the windows.

Been at Slick's, a certain large orange beast is showing 101 bhp on the dyno. This is honestly the first time I've personally seen a Lav into 3 figures on an accurate dyno.

Brrring it on! And bring some decent weather while you're about it...

Good news!

2009-05-29T20:09:00.001+01:00

Just had the word... I've been accepted for the Junior, Senior and Post-Classic races for the '09 Manx Grand Prix.

Gonna be a busy 2 weeks!!

Happy!

2009-03-28T17:33:00.000Z

Here's a couple of pics of my Jota that I took to slide in with my Manx GP entry form.

There's a Post-Classic race this year; word on the street is that Guy Martin has a Suzuki XR69 to play with.
I'll be out with this monster!

New toy!

2008-09-27T16:55:00.000+01:00

Heh! I've done me bit for global warning today all righty. 2 and a half tankfuls!

Coda

2008-09-01T18:07:00.003+01:00

That's the Manx for another year, then.

Random thoughts on this year...

Sending riders out in numbered groups for practice is great. Really great. You're in traffic of a similar speed, and there's NO scramble through scrutineering. Applause.
The paddock is a disgrace! Sure the weather was awful, but you just can't operate a top spec racing motorcycle out of, let's be frank, a swamp. Had this happened at the TT, you'd have had 200 tons of gravel chippings in there toot sweet.
The lack of practice was tough on everybody. I'd encourage the organisers and the TTMA to look at returning the Thursday afternoon, and/or one or two morning practices. We lost these some years ago due to lack of marshals, but the support from the TTMA this year as been incredible... they signed on over *300* new marshals on Friday! With this level of support we might get some of the missing practices back.
There was a lot of talk about new classes at the Manx. Forgotten Era, Formula 750 or TT Formula One?? I say, combined grid, F750 and TTF1. Oh yes. I'll be there, oh yes, Harris Laverda or similar and I *will* deafen the entire island. Close the roads on the middle Saturday as they do for the TT Superbike day; run a long practice session and the Big Hairy Old Bikes race. Oh yeah, Superstock 1000's for the Senior too, please!!
Yesterday, I cleaned my helmet (HJC "Braveheart") by soaking it in a warm bath and scrubbing the inside with shampoo. It was truly rank; turned the bath water into a grey soup with a slurry of dead insects. Bleurgh. Leathers next, they smell like a goat's died in 'em.
Next year, back again on the Kawa. Due to all the missed practice it we only got the set up there or thereabouts on Senior race day... still, I've got copious notes so we'll be out of the blocks with a bang in 09! Still one thing left to try; I want to run Supercorsa Pro tyres which quicken the steering I hear. It was hard to get the bike to turn at high speed this year. In addition, there's the TTF1 possibility, I have half an SV650 in the garage waiting to be turned into a Formula 400 bike and there's a sniff of a Drixon Honda for the classics.
Thanks to... Sidecar Mel, Becca and Ginny for crewing. Extra thanks to Becca for going out marshaling on Senior race day, I know you really wanted to be in the pits mate! Mike for marshaling, Henk and Dirk for marshaling and lots of garage fettling! Bedankt, jongens! Jane for massages! Mega thanks to Slick for immaculate race engineering as ever and of course giga thanks to Janice for crewing, marshaling, cooking, cleaning, driving and generally being the superstar that she is.
And of course HUGE thanks and appreciation to the Manx Motorcycle Club and the TTMA for running such a fantastic event - with a new Clerk of the Course and the worst MGP weather in memory, this must have pushed past "challenge" into "nightmare" territory. You all did an amazing job under the most difficult of circumstances... THANKS GUYS!

Senior race... NOT! again, and then Senior race!

2008-08-31T15:01:00.000+01:00

Once again, over to the paddock and through scrutineering. I've never been scrutineered three times for the same race before! Actually, if you count the rained off Senior from last year, that's four times!

There were several delays for the weather but finally it cleared up and the tannoy announced that we'd be going for a three lap race. Conditions were great and I was really psyched up for this.. the bike was perfect, on new tyres (Rennsport SC1 inter front, SC2 dry rear) and I had Sidecar Mel and Young Woody in the pits... a crew with a LOT of years of experience between them! Janice and Becca were out marshalling as the Orange Army was a bit thin on the ground.

So we lined up for the start on the Glencrutchery Road, and the flag dropped and le leading pair were away. The next pair 10 seconds later and so on... until someone managed to blow their engine big time off the start. Big bang, huge cloud of smoke, oil everywhere... his bike kept running though and the rider kept going, spreading a nice thick trail of engine oil all the way down Bray Hill. Unbelievably, a few more pairs were given a start and to a man they all slipped and slithered sideways off the start... then reason prevailed and thye race was red flagged. We were all marshaled back into parc ferme and the bikes on the circuit were led back behind a TM.

After a long delay while a road sweeper ran back and forth over the oil spill we were off again, on a race reduced to 2 laps.

Bray was still slippy, but not bad so thanks to the sweepers!!

Other than that it was great fun, the Kawasaki ran like a storm and handled and gripped really well. Set up wise I think we were where we should have been about Wednesday of practice week!!

Finished 48th at about 106.

Rider's eye view! This is from the inside of my helmet, starring several dead Manx bugs. I've just cleaned it out by giving it a good soak in the bath... it was truly rank after soaking up 2 week's worth of sweat and grime.

Here's Sidecar Mel retrieving the bike from scrutineering!

John McGuiness did the prize presentation.

Senior Race.. NOT!

2008-08-29T18:58:00.002+01:00

Ach!

After a day at Slick's changing to the big motor, a sighting lap in the car and new tyres at Paul Dedman's I rolled over to the paddock to kip in the van so that the lads in the house could get out for a beer without distubing me.

Got a good night's sleep and woke to a fine but misty morning. I got the bike scrutineered, up on stands, fitetd the tyre warmers and put the bike cover on. Then I got my leathers and other gear checked, blew into the obligatory breathalyser(0.00) and then had a bacon & egg bap in the paddock caff.

The mist didn't clear, so the announcement went out that racing for the day was cancelled. I retrieved my bike, rolled it into the van and then (after the obligatiry cupa and moan about the weather with the other riders) trundled off to my pal Harry's for a cuppa.

Half way through me tea, the mist cleared and the race office phoned; they were going for a 6pm roads closed and a 6.45 start for a 3 lap Senior.

So back to the paddock, more tea, and at 4 I rolled the bike back through scrutineering, kit, breathalyser etc. I swear, the *second* I put the bike on the stand in parc ferme, the rain came on. Just to make a point, the mist came down, and down, and at 5.30 (by which time we could hardly see each other's vans) they scrubbed for the second time.

Got me bike back, etc etc etc.

A real shame; there was a good patch in the middle of the afternoon but there was no way we would have had any kind of a race this evening.

Fingers, toes, everything crossed for tomorrow....

Junior race

2008-08-28T09:09:00.002+01:00

In a word, yuk.

Hours late, at 5.30, we got underway with a race reduced to 3 laps. Conditions were amp and patchy, my least favourite... I can ride in the dry, or wet, but half and half always throws me out.

I started with Stu Bainborough, his bike's a hair quicker than mine and so he made St. Ninian's first but I managed to keep him in sight for quite a while... but after Ballacraine, it got much wetter and the throttle turned into a go-sideways lever rather than a go-faster lever. Stu seemed not bothered by this and by the time I made the start of Cronk-Y-Voddy he was just vanishing over the end. Feh!

That set the tone for the rest of the race; I just couldn't get any kind of rhythm going. I'd get a bit of pace on, have a couple of lairy slides, scare meself daft and have to collect meself again.

Rubbish ride, rubbish result.

Good news is the race was won by Manx newcomer Danny Kneen who also won the 400cc newcomers race on Monday. Well done that man!

I'm off up to Slick's now to put the Senior engine in, then I have to get me head straight for Friday.

2008-08-26T08:11:00.002+01:00

Well, after a wee delay things got going yesterday about 4pm. The Newcomers race ran for 2 laps in horrendous conditions; the second lap got caught by rain. Good results for a lot of my pals, Ryan Kneen won the 600 race and his brother Dan won the 400. Dan was more than 2 minutes in the lead! Adam Jones just slid into the top ten. Great going lads!

The rain let up for the Senior Classic, which was won by Ryan Farquar on the Paton.

We got out for an untimed practice lap; it was dry all the way to Ramsey but the mountain road was still pretty wet. Not a big problem as I was on inters, but no point in risking it on the last few miles of practice week, so I rolled it a bit and waved at the marshals.

Slick's coming round for breakfast today, then we're off to his shed to swap motors on the bike.

Racing delayed.

2008-08-25T12:31:00.003+01:00

We had a day off yesterday; I checked the bike and then we all went to the TT Marshal's Association do in the evening.

They do a fantastic job of feeding 700 marshals, on a budget of about 3p!! I must have spent a fortune on their charity lottery tickets over the years and have never won anything, but I managed to win a smaaart TT paddock jacket this time.

It's Newcomers and Senior Classic race day today, but the weather started off yuk... the organisers have announced that they'll close the roads at 3.15 for a 4pm start, and they'll run the two races a 3 lappers. Our practice lap should get out after that.

I'll trek over to the paddock about half two and see what gives...

Rain again.

2008-08-23T18:11:00.002+01:00

We carried this over for Mike Newton on the way back from our last UK trip! It's his boots and orange overalls.

The bike just needed a clean and a check over, assisted as always by Comrade Trotsky.

"I think you need to go up a tooth on yer gearbox sprocket, mate."

We packed the van and headed over to the paddock, to find...

this...

... at Bungalow Bridge.

So we had a cuppa, and came straight home.

They are going to close the roads for an untimed session because a lot of the lads still need to get the laps in to qualify. If they actually do let the bikes out I'm going town to the Central to watch. I'll try to snap a few pics, I don't think motion blur will be much of a problem today!

UPDATE at 18:20: Practice cancelled. Not a big surprise...

Engine swap.

2008-08-22T22:26:00.003+01:00

Oh man, busy old day or what!

Yesterday my mate Andy Cowin stopped at Crosby, so I collected his bike in the van. Mine was already booked in for an engine change and his obviously needed looked at so I rolled up to Slick's first thing this morning, unloaded the bikes and did a bunch of preparation like removing all the bodywork.

Another pal, Callum O'Shea was also there with his lovely ZX7R which had sprung an oil leak. Slick did this first, and found the leak was from the gearbox oil seal. The chances of finding a new seal in time to go racing was nil, so Slick pulled the little spring out of the oil seal, snipped a few coils off and re-made the spring, fitted it to the seal and it worked perfectly! Very impressive!

I changed from the Junior engine (600cc) to the Senior engine (636cc) to get a couple of qualifying laps in - of course with Slick at work it was a quick and efficient job.

Here's the maestro at work!

Andy's bike took a wee bit longer but it was buttoned up and tested soon enough.

Two other incidents of note; TT sidecar superstar Dave Molyneaux dropped by and gave us a load of encouragement which lit me up no end... he's a top bloke and it's fantastic to see that lads at the top of the game take time to give a bit of a boost to those of us a bit further down the pecking order... probably bird seed in my case, arf arf! Also the Snap-On van came by and I had to slither in for a bit of a lust at the lovely gear in there... one day I'll win the lottery and then, oh yes, that van will have a BIG delivery to make round my house! I also managed to blag some baseball caps for my pit crew so we're going to be *well* smart on race day.

This done we packed the bikes in the van, dropped by the house to load the rest of the gear and also picked up my assistant for the day, James "Sidecar Mel" Melvin. He's just one of the best blokes you could meet, and incidentally the Isle of Man club sidecar racing champion! We turned up in the paddock to find... this!

Sun! Blue skies! Dry roads! And lots of cheerful racers, of course. The classics and 400's were first out this evening, so we sat in the grandstand and watched them off then headed back to the van to get my gear on and pick up some tools, and some Go-Gels which I've been using for extra energy.

We were off about 7:15; I had Sam Dunlop and another mate Mike Noble (who's been going great guns on my old Suzuki 600) behind me so I was expecting to get caught up fairly soon! Still, I got my head down and got going. Sun glare was really bad up the Ballahutchin road but after the past few days I think I'd be a bit ungracious complaining too much about a bit of sun! I had a pretty lonely run all the way to Ramsey.. got to say the organisers have done an ace job of clearing up yesterday's diesel spill... Sam Dunlop came by at Sky Hill but I managed to tag on for quite a while and he was still in sight when he pulled of at the grandstand. The Mike showed me a front wheel at Braddan... can't have that, so I gave him a dose of Kawasaki power and put him back behind! That was just to prove a point though. I stuck a foot out and waved him through at Union Mills, that way my aging and decrepit eyeballs would have something to aim for through the sun glare up to Glen Vine!

Apart from yellow flags at the Waterworks, the rest of the lap was uneventful.

A good practice on the whole, the engine's great and the suspension tweaks me made worked well. The main problem we have now is the bike is very heavy on the steering at speed -- Quarry Bends for example is *really* hard work -- but informed opinion seems to be that's the way these bikes are. The ride height is about as high as it goes at the back, and the forks are 8mm through the yokes. Hey ho, just have to get them shoulders working!

Tomorrow looks iffy weather wise, the BBC's giving rain from 7pm. We might catch lucky, who knows??

Good practice session...

2008-08-21T22:46:00.000+01:00

Well, our little fuel debacle is solved; I don't think I'll be troubling any more marshals for tea and petrol!

It turns out that the bit at the back of the tank near the rider's, er, tackle doesn't fill up properly with the bike on the stand; the bike needs to be horizontal with both wheels on the ground.

I got 18 litres in, Slick got 22 lites in and pronounced me too stupid to pour petrol into my own bike. He may have a point!

Fuel wise, this evening the warning light came on at Governor's Dip, which is absolutely spot on. Enough to get the job done and not too much more.

Practice conditions were pretty good - would have been well nigh perfect except for the world's biggest diesel spill, all the way from Kirk Michael to Ballaugh. I haven't seen the times yet but the team had me at 105 ish, which I'm well chuffed with.

Worth mentioning that while I was wallying about trying to avoid the spills, top lad Glyn Jones came hammering past in fine style leaving clouds of concrete dust in his wake. Alas he had to stop with a puncture in Ramsey. He'll be one to watch on race day, I reckon. My pals Carolynn Sells and Andy Cowin also stopped, Caro at the 33rd and Andy managed to stop at the Crosby pub. Hope it's nothing too serious, guys!

With the longer gearing the Kawasaki was flying... can't wait to see the speed trap numbers tomorrow! On the second lap I had a fantastic clear run all the way through Douglas right to Ballacraine. I've still got to work hard at keeping the gas open in places like the bottom of Bray and Crosby; there in particular it's really noticable if you lift the throttle... the revs you lose just don't come back. I'm also going to alter the suspension a bit; more low speed damping (it's wallowing a bit after bottoming out in places like Bray and Bayr Garoo) and less high speed damping (to try to keep my last few fillings in place through Glen Duff!).

Blue skies!

2008-08-20T22:44:00.001+01:00

Great day! My pal Alison arranged to have some good weather delivered and it showed up right on time!

Here's Janice in her Lara Croft boots (but minus pistols and, as she pointed out, a couple of other things ending in "istols" for the full Lara effect) enjoying the first sun we've seen in ages.

Number 59 is local superstar Danny Kneen, he's qualifying his R6 for the Junior and running his 400 in the newcomers and ultra lightweight.

Practice got off just a couple of minutes late and conditions were extremely good... just the odd damp patch still drying out. I went down to a 42 sprocket but the bike's still revving out and it only (!) made 155 through the speed trap at Sulby. I'll go to 17/44 tomorrow, as recommended by me pal Champ. He was 9th last year on a similar bike so he has a clue or 2!

The first lap came in at 104 ish, still a bit cautious, but I got me head down a bit on the second ... until the fuel warning came on at Ballaugh! I should have stopped at Ramsey I s'pose, there's a petrol station there. There isn't one at Windy Corner though! There's a lovely bunch of marshalls there however, including my pal Paul England and the amazing engineering medic Doc Moran. They had a can of petrol siphoned out of a Land Cruiser in no time and I trundled back down the mountain all on me lonesome.

Plan for tomorrow; longer gearing, have a chat with Slick about the fuel mapping and make bleedin' sure the tank is brimmed right up before the off!

Out at last!

2008-08-20T08:57:00.001+01:00

Yeeessss! What we see here is the Green Grenade liberally splattered with a sizable minority of the Manx insect population.

After a short delay, practice kicked off at about 18:35, with the Senior and Junior classes (750 and 600 , that's me) leading off.Conditions were a bit variable, everything from completely dry roads to standing water and cloud cover keeping the sun glare away. I was running Rennsport Wet intermediate tyres which coped very well... I only had one significant slide, out of the big left hander at GlenHelen which was completely down to over enthusiasm on my part!

My biggest problem was my new lid... at my huge sigh of relief at leaving the line the supposed "fog free" visor completely steamed up and so I spent the whole of the first lap trying not to breathe so I gould see where I was going. I pulled in at the end of the first lap and switched to my old lid, and got out for a second lap.

Our session was due to end at 19:00 and the time on the clock when I got out was... 19:00:00 !!!

The second lap was more fun and I could get down to settling into the racing lines and analysing how the bike was going. And it was going extreeeemely well, there's a few minor tweaks to do but in the main I'm very happy with it.

I'll go a bit longer on the gearing, to 16:42 from 16:43, tighten up the steering damper a little and probably (fingers crossed!!) switch to dry weather Rennsport tyres.

Next practice should kick off this evening at 18:15. Forecast is possible showers, let's keep our fingers crossed!!

Scrubbed again...

2008-08-18T21:32:00.000+01:00

Yuk. Came down cats & dogs all day; here's the paddock. The mighty Aardvan can se seen on the left, sinking slowly into the morass.

The Newcomers got out for one sighting lap behind the TM's, but the rest of us had to pack up and go home.

Feh.

Here's the view down the Glencrutchery Road. I tried to snap a bloke kite-surfing, but he was too quick for me.

Practice scrubbed.

2008-08-17T19:02:00.000+01:00

Those of you who read last year's blog will find the next bit familiar. Clouds, rain, more clouds, LOTS more rain.

Our friends across the water in Norn Iron got three quarters of their August rain ration in one day... today was OK, but the forecast for tomorrow and Tuesday is pretty gruesome.

Above is the mountain, from Ramsey, before it got much, much worse!

Here's the Green Grenade tucked up warm and dry in the Aardvan.

Top dudes from the Dutch Laverda club Dirk (actually it's Tom Selleck, incognito) and Henk.

Attenpting (with some success, it has to be said) to get Italian electrics to cope with the Manx rain.

We're off! Sorta...

2008-08-15T19:24:00.003+01:00

Signing on today.

I started off me Manx with a "sports massage" -- in other words I got beaten to a pulp by physio Frank Dunne -- and then over to the paddock.

My signing on lady was Andreas Racing Association Race Secretary Sarah Blake who's me top mate so that took about 3 seconds and I even got a sweetie! This year it's all computerised and keyed to the bar-code on my TT course license... very slick, I must say!

Then I got all my personal kit checked, no problems apart from a comment that my leathers smell like a dead goat. Fair point, I must admit.

I then sneaked into the DH Autos tent and treated myself to a new lid; and then sneaked into the back door of the kit checking shed to get a scrutineering sticker on it. The lovely and very rapid Maria Costello complained I was jumping the queue.. age before beauty hun! Arf arf! I doubt if that will work after the flag drops, though!

Riders briefing with the new Clerk of the Course, Phil Taubman was also slick and set up to register attendees with a swipe of the bar code... one change I like is the way we'll set off in practice in batches according to race number... this means we won't have to turn up to scrutineering hours early to stand a chance of getting a good start in practice. Way hey!! Good going you organisers!

Off for me tea now... more later!

2008-07-19T15:57:00.003+01:00

Race numbers are out for the Manx Grand Prix 2008!

I'm #51 in the Senior, and #60 in the Junior.

Here's hoping I get through the fortnight without this happening again...

2008-03-29T10:07:00.000Z

Here's my new toy for the 2008 season! It's verrry greeen!!

Post script

2007-09-03T08:31:00.000+01:00

A bit of non relevant news; my old Dad has just finished 4th in the World Triathlon Championships in Hamburg, over-70's class! Way to go Daveeyyyyy!

You can see all my photos of the MGP on my Picasa site.

Coda

2007-09-02T13:14:00.000+01:00

Well, that's that for the 2007 Manx GP. Bit of a mixed bag as it always is; it was a real shame to miss out on the Senior but there was really nowt to be done about that.

On a better note, here's the Andreas Racing Association Lightweight team, Dave Sells, Dean Martin and Wally Kneale plus race secretary Sarah. A fantastic result for the lads, we're very proud of 'em!

That Sells, does he look chuffed or *what* !!!

And here's Neal "Champ" Champion, picking up his silverware for a 9th place finish. A fantastic result, we'll see ya next year doing even better, I'm sure of that!

Looking forward we've a canter round Jurby Airfield in a couple of weeks, and then the season finish, the 4 hour endurance which I love!

Senior (non-) race day

2007-08-31T19:50:00.000+01:00

Feh. This is the 750, in the parc ferme. And this is as far as it got. Weather was rubbish, the 400cc lads came in from the day's first (and only as it turned out) race with lurid tales of big skids over the white lines at places like Guthrie's and the 27th.

We waited a while but the organisers decided to cancel the Senior. It was the only call to make I have to say, the conditions really were vile, but I am so, so frustrated.

Clacker and Woody, about to set off for the 400cc race.

Here's Carolynn, also about to start the 400cc race. She was second fastest in practice, you can here see her friend carefully inserting her race brain.

Thursday fettling

2007-08-30T15:54:00.000+01:00

I went to Paul's for the last new tyre of this Manx, forgotten how many that is... after that we did a bit of investigation as to whether the 600 spare wheels fit the 750... the rear ones do, the front ones don't. So we're going with an inter front tomorrow, and either a supercorsa or inter rear depending on the weather.

Then me & Henk went down to the park where the VMCC lads were having a concourse... some lovely bikes there!+

There was also a sprint along the prom. Here's my mate Paul on his Hyabusa.

Some unidentified headbanger on a home brewed special, based on a Yamaha I think. It was well quick, whatever it is!

Junior race day

2007-08-30T15:50:00.000+01:00

Wednesday, Junior race day.

This is the parc ferme, after scrutineering.

The Irish Ago competed in the Lightweight Classic in the morning - he was the only finisher from our club! Here he is, just after taking the chequered flag.

How true, my friend, how true!!

My own race was a bit rubbish actually, on the second lap I got tangled up in a biggish bunch of bikes and we just ended tripping over each other for the last 3 laps. My times were a good couple of mph down on last year, could have done better if I'd been able to make a break from the bunch but I bet all the other guys thought so too!

I got a practice lap in on the 750, Dave Hagen's work on the shock was absolutely spot on! So I'm good to go on that on Friday.

Ready for the off

2007-08-28T18:08:00.000+01:00

Junior race day tomorrow, so we're loaded up.

Here's the replacement loading step, hand make by Henk!

The 600 and the 750, ready to go.

This is what you need for a day's racing here!

Tuesday fettling

2007-08-28T18:04:00.000+01:00

Ohhhhh nooooo! Look who's discovered our beer stash!!

Clutch plates!! The 750 is now fully back together. Slick did the clutch and tested it on the dyno and Dave Hagen at Evomoto in Ramsey overhauled the shock and gave us LOADS of excellent advice about setting it up. Huge thanks to them and also to Paul Dedman ... this is in fact the second set of plates he ordered which were delivered (on time, note!) by Parcelforce.

This, by the by, is a Munch Mammoth, an NSU car engine powered monster from Germany. I haven't seen one before, but this was just filling up at our local petrol station! If it's on 2 wheels, you'll likely see one at the Manx Grand Prix.

We, or rather Henk, also fettled the Aardvan. This is what was left of the loading step!

Monday practice

2007-08-27T18:14:00.000+01:00

The Aardvan had a significant birthday today!

Here's my pal Les taking off from his pit stop!

Another pal Justin finished 3rd in the Newcomer's A... he's the tall one. WELL DONE!!

Here's Dave "Clacker" Clarke at Governor's Bridge... I was waiting for the roads to open and managed to snap him passing through.

I ran the 750 in the practice lap... Slick's mod to the clutch held up, but it's handling like a pig on a pogo stick. I'll speak to His Slickness soon and see what we can do about it.

Sunday fettling

2007-08-27T18:08:00.000+01:00

Here's Champ, goggling in awe at the dyno charts for his 600!

Here's Slick, fixing the clutch on my 750.

DHL!!!! Aaaaaaargh!! What are they like!! My new clutch plates arrived in their depot at Ballasalla 8pm Friday. They're closed Saturday, Sunday and they're on holiday on Monday. Call themselves a courier company!! I even tracked down 2 different DHL employees to beg for my package but noooo, more than my job's worth to open up on a Sunday, squire, etc etc... useless bunch of toerags!! Guaranteed 24 hour delivery is now 4 days and counting.

Slick's done his best with the old plates and stronger springs and spacers, we'll just have to see how it holds.

Saturday practice

2007-08-27T18:03:00.000+01:00

The ladies found that you could get 5 little tops for a tenner in the grandstand shop. Much interesting trying on ensued outside the van; here's Janice.

My pal Mike Newton arrived, he's marshalling Sector 8.

Here's Saturday's crew; Alison, Rochelle, Janice and Becca. Phrase of the day; "Behave, or we'll dip you in chocolate and throw you to the pit crew!".

We only got half a lap in; the session was red flagged at Ramsey due to fog on the mountain. The suspension changes to the 600 worked very well though!

Friday practice

2007-08-24T21:34:00.000+01:00

Smashing day, sorta. I spent the morning haunting Paul Dedman's shop, hoping for a set of clutch plates which as it happens were infesting a shelf in a DHL depot in Manchester. DHL translated "Deliver urgently to the IoM" to "Stick em on a shelf till we feel like sending em".

Aargh! Still, major kudos to Paul who spent a big chunk of his morning chasing them on the phone. Should have em tomorrow.

So to the paddock with the 600. We were second session out so I got a chance to snap a couple of mates in the classics and lighweights...

I got 2 good laps in, the first was pretty slow as there was a ton of traffic to get through but the second was better at 106ish.

Here's Steve Gibb (25). Obviously the way to go reeeally quick on a Drixton Honda 350 is to wave your foot around and not look where you're going!!

Here's Young Woody, giving it looads off the start!

Some of tonight's crew, Becca (l) and Janice (r) with the Andreas club race secretary Sarah in the middle. Note that Janice has her race week plumage on already, being freshly pink-haired by Cargo's team!

Another one bites the dust..

2007-08-23T22:01:00.000+01:00

Feh. Another practice scrubbed... the classic lads got out and got one lap in but a sea mist blew in and clagged in the west of the island. So their practice was red flagged and after a delay it was announced that it was scrubbed for the rest of the evening.

Today's crew, Becca, Kayleigh and Mick

Sea mist, on the way in!!

The Irish Ago sets off for one lap; the classic lads got the only lap of the evening.

Bike update...

2007-08-23T13:18:00.000+01:00

600: as I hoped, it was just an electrical connection; part of the earth to the battery. All fixed!

750: the clutch plates are mullered. Next step is to phone round and see who can get a set over here the quickest. The bike's up at Slick's in bits.

Van's all packed, I'll just run the 600 tonight.

That's racing, as they say...

2007-08-22T22:08:00.000+01:00

The day started like this. Spot on weather, everybody happy. Then the postie brought several exciting parcels; a new stopwatch and a package containing some "Stomp" tank grips (to make ot easier to hang on to the tank with me knees) but failing to contain the bit I *really* need; a new screen. The old one got clobbered by a lump of rock at the Jurby South event.

Here's me van. As painted by the lovely Gary Partridge at Happy Dog Race Paints. He is truly one of life's better surprises, is Gary, he's just back from passengering for Dave Molyneaux at the World Sidecar championships in Croatia.

Here's today's crew, with some hangers-on! Tracey, Champ (riding a storm, 7th quickest today), Suzanne, Mike, Janice and The Irish Ago, Kev Murphy who's having loads of fun on a classic Ducati.

So how, I hear you all cry, did you get on in practice Keef mate? Shite, actually! I went out on the 750, and the clutch gave up the ghost at the Ramsey hairpin. I got the bike back to the grandstand, pulled in and jumped on me 600. After an entertaining first couple of miles -- I had to remember, no quick shifter so dip the throttle on gearchanges and there's 30 bhp missing so no, the engine ain't broke, it's just a bit slower! -- I settled back into it and was going well until the 32nd... phut, no electrics. Still, John and Mike the marshalls at the 32nd are top company and make a mean cup of tea! The view was great too.

Alas some low cloud swept in and the second part of practice, the classics, were cancelled. I was really looking forward to seeing them!

I'll have a look at the 600 tomorrow, it's likely just a connector come loose with the shaking around they get round here. I'll drop the 750 at Slick and he can sort out the clutch.

Out on the 750

2007-08-22T14:17:00.000+01:00

Took the 750 out last night and had an interesting time... it's faaaaast, but set up for a bigger lad than me! I'll take it out again tonight, knock a tad off the damping and it's on fresh tyres which will help. It also spat a bit of water out of the expansion tank... a bit of a concern but I've changed the cooling water and run it up good and hot and it's not leaking anywhere i can see. We've also gone longer (to 42t from 43t) on the gearing as it was revving out a bit.

Soz no photos today, forgot me camera, doh!!

So; 104 mph last night, let's see if I can get me head down a bit this evening!

Practice starts!

2007-08-20T21:53:00.000+01:00

Finally, we're off! Practice started tonight in prett much spot on conditions. I went out on the 600, as seen below in the scrutineering queue.

This is the queue from the top of the hill! It takes ages but it's important to get the bike checked thoroughly.

This is tonight's helpers; L to R Mick, Janice and Andy. I'm due a severe beating from Mick's lass cos he's mad keen to go racing now! Andy caused some comment thanks to his unusual attire.

I got 2 steady laps in. The 600 went and handled great; I want to tweak the suspension a little but apart from that I'll not change much. I'll post the machine settings which will be of great interest to one or two of you and may also help the insomniacs.

Haven't seen times yet, I'll post 'em when I get 'em.

Sunday

2007-08-19T19:21:00.000+01:00

Nowt much on today except we wandered over to the paddock for the technical briefing.. a pep talk from the technical officials to help us have our bikes properly prepared for the technical inspections at scrutineering. I also dropped by Dennis Trollope's van and bought a couple of sprockets to complete my collection - 44 and 45 teeth.

Back at the garage I fitted the 45t sprocket, checked the bike over again and cleaned it again, all ably assisted by Trotsky the cat.

And see? I told you there was a mountain up there! The weather's improving, fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Practice cancelled!

2007-08-18T16:07:00.000+01:00

Feh. as subject. This is the view from our front door; there should be a mountain there with a racetrack running up it. Instead, there's a bunch of cloud, fog, rain and generally more water and less visibility than one would like when wazzing a racing motorbike about.

I did a bit of lockwiring on the 750, stuck the numbers on it and then helped out Champ with his bikes. I also picked up another set of tyres at Paul Dedman's, Pirelli Supercorsas for dry conditions. I left him cackling like a drain and planning his next holiday in the Maldives.

There's nothing planned tomorrow, so we'll get Champ's workshop squared away and generally chill out.

Champ is working out of my pal Sarah's garage, it's a good size and close by but there's the detritus of centuries in there -- I think we'll do a few trips to the tip tomorrow!

Signing on

2007-08-17T21:29:00.000+01:00

Signing on today went no problem. I had to get 2 transponders checked (one for each bike), my leathers, helmet, boots and gloves examined, 2 licences checked -- an ACU National so show I can race a bike at this level and a TT licence to show I'm barking mad enough to want to ride on the Mountain course. Then loads of forms, for my address, contact details, same for me pit crew, and then we're done.

I caught up with loads of mates around the paddock -- lots in the very long queue! -- and dropped in on the TT Marshall's association, officially the loveliest people in the world.

Then back home, picked up some Rennsport Rain intermediate tyres from Paul Dedman's down the road. Stuck them in the 600, then cooked dinner. My mate Neal Champion who's staying with us and is also racing rolled up just then.

After din we finished off the 600 -- race numbers and bodywork back on. Tomorrow I just have to fuel it and stick the transponder on and then load up the van.

Getting ready

2007-08-16T22:11:00.000+01:00

Current state of play with signing on tomorrow (Fri 17th), I'm worryingly ready.

Here's the 600. It's my Suzuki GSXR 600 K2, ex- Slick! Performance. I managed just 6 seconds short of 110 mph (average for one lap) on this last year, so you can guess my plan this year! The bodywork's off for cleaning, apart from that it's good to go.

This is the Cringle Suzuki GSXR 750 K4 that I'll ride in the Senior on Friday 31st. I'd love to say that the team picked me out to ride it 'cos I'm such a talented race god, but in fact I think it has more to do with Kev C dropping my 1000 at Jurby last weekend!

My mate Slick has given it a good service and it's looking REALLY strong on the dyno. The bike has all the toys and I gave it a blast on the dyno myself to get used to the quick shifter (a gadget that cuts the ignition momentarily when you use the gear pedal, so it's gear changes by magic... you just hold the throttle wide open and bang it up through the gears. Wheee!).

Here's a gratuitous tool pron pic of my set of Snap-On spanners, given to me by my mate Eric after he visited the MGP last year. They get carefully polished and put away after every use! Lovely tools, one day I'll win the lottery and have a full kit!

Tap tap... this thing on??

2007-08-15T14:58:00.000+01:00

And so it begins. The 2007 Manx Grand Prix will kick off in a couple of day's time. Soon after 6pm on Saturday the 18th, I should be zipping off down Bray Hill on my GSXR600.