Racing
at the Manx Grand Prix
Prologue
Team UKRM did the Snetterton 8 hour
race on the weekend
preceding the start of the Manx Grand Prix.
While the bike hadn’t been changed much since
the previous 6 hour race
at Pembrey, it did have a new petrol tank. Insufficient
flushing of the contents caused serious problems with the
fuel system (blocked filter, knackered
fuel pump).
So, for the two days before
departure, Alex Ferrier and I
went through the whole bike – replacing all the consumables
(oil and filter,
brake pads, tyres, etc) and replacing the all the fuel lines,
connectors and
filter, as well as changing the tank for one with a normal filler cap
(instead
of the twin filler dry-break system we use for endurance racing).
Alex and I are lucky enough to be
good friends of Manx
residents Keith and Jan, and their near neighbours Sally and Michelle
– lodging
had been arranged for us with “the girls”, and
space cleared in Keith’s
workshop for my bike and kit.
Friday 20th August
Having loaded the van the evening
before, today consisted of
little more than driving to Heysham, collecting Alex from Bridgnorth on
the
way, and getting the ferry to the Isle of Man.
We arrived in the early evening, driving over the mountain
(the “wrong
way”) to Ramsey in the evening sunshine.
On days like this, the Isle of Man
is definitely
one of the most beautiful places on earth. After
unloading an enormous amount of kit into Keith’s workshop, we
ensconced ourselves in Sally and Michelle’s house, and then
got a takeaway
curry.
Saturday 21st August – First
Practice
A busy, busy day - I had to get to
the Grandstand in Douglas
and sign on, get my kit inspected, and jump through several other
administrative hoops including the newcomers briefing and the newcomers bus tour of the circuit. Meanwhile, Alex took my bike to
Slick Bass’s
tuning shop and gave it a run on the dyno, to ensure that it was still
healthy
after all the work we’d done on it.
Encouragingly, it still made 130bhp at the rear wheel.
Scrutineering for practice started in
the afternoon, with
all the newcomers scheduled to do a lap behind a travelling marshal
(mounted on
a Fireblade) before being allowed to take to the circuit alone. This new measure was introduced this
year
after a French rider killed himself at the TT last year, on his first
lap of
practice, on about the 3rd corner. And this was our undoing. Despite
the bike having run that morning on the dyno, and run for the best part
of 8
hours the previous weekend, it chose this moment to develop a water
leak (where
the hose joins the water pump) on the start line, just as
we’re due to be
shepherded round by the travelling marshals.
We quickly pulled it off the grid and fixed the problem in
about 10
minutes; however by this time the ducklings had all left with their
mother
goose, and I wasn’t allowed to start – I would have
to wait until Monday. This
was not a good start to the
fortnight. Later, in more
contemplative
mood, I reasoned that if one were going to suffer a catastrophic water
leak
anywhere on the Isle of Man,
waiting on the start line
is probably the best place.
Sunday 22nd August
A
busy day in the garage. I
can’t remember what we did now (two weeks
later) but it must have been important.
Monday 23rd August – Second
Practice
Because of missing
Saturday’s session, I and half a dozen
other newcomers were to be escorted behind a Travelling Marshal at the
start of
today’s practice. Consequently,
our
presence was requested early at Scrutineering – i.e. around 2:30pm, even
though the scrutes don’t arrive
until 4pm. There’s a lot of waiting
around in this
game. And, the weather
didn’t look
good. In fact, it looked
pretty bad – it
was raining, so we retired to local hero Tommy Clucas’
awning, for a cup of coffee
and a slice of cake. Tom is a
mate of
Keith’s, and despite being favourite to win the Junior
race, and perhaps the Senior too, he is really down to earth, friendly
and approachable. I first met
him six weeks earlier, when he
took time out to sit in the passenger seat of the car and talk me round
a lap.
Eventually we got scrut’ed,
and then it was another two
hours until the roads closed at 6pm, with practice due to start at 6:15. Although the rain had stopped, the
weather
still looked bad – the problem with the Island
circuit
is that if the weather comes down, the mountain section is covered in
fog/cloud. In the old days,
no one
cared, but now, if the helicopter can’t fly the whole course,
then no one
rides.
So, at around 6:30,
the practice session was cancelled and we all went home. So, I’d been on the Island
for four days now, and still hadn’t ridden the bike. It’s fair to say I was not
in a good mood.
Tuesday 24th August – Third
Practice
In the morning, a group of us stood
around in the workshop, wondering
why there was so much travel in my brake lever.
Alex, Keith and Joe decided to fix the problem, and pulled
the brakes to
bits, discovering several stuck pistons and some rather dished disks. We got all the pistons moving (with
compressed air), cleaned them up, fitted some moderately flat disks and
Keith
bled the brakes in 10 minutes, and now they felt 10 times better than
they ever
had before. Why
didn’t I do that ages
ago? Thanks, guys.
Got to scrut’ing early
again, and then had the wait until 6:15 pm for the off. Which, today, actuall happened! Six new boys in orange bibs lined up
on the
Glencrutchery Road,
and off
we set behind the Travelling Marshal. It
was immediately obvious that this was going to be a sloooooow lap
– apparently
some of the TMs had been criticised for going too fast on the escorted
laps on Saturday. I spent
half the time resting my left hand on
the tank – I don’t think we went faster than 70 or
80mph down the
straights. No matter, my
penance was
served, and when we got back to the Grandstand I was free to do a solo
lap. Which,
after a
quick look over the bike, I immediately did. This was more like it! I headed off towards St Ninians
Crossroads
and Bray Hill, aware that I just need to dial myself carefully. But even so, that drop down the hill
is quite
amazing. Fortunately, having
done so
many laps of the circuit before on open roads, I had no problem knowing
where
the course went, and was able to navigate round at a comfortable pace
– I got
back to the Grandstand to find that I’d done 95mph
– I was happy enough with
that for my first lap on closed roads. The
bike wasn’t handling particularly well either, so I resolved
to call
Richard at Maxton for some set up advice the next morning.
Wednesday 25th August –
Fourth Practice
By now I’m in the swing of
things. There are always a
few little jobs to do in
the morning – checking the bike over, buying fuel, charging
the transponder,
etc, and then it’s off to the Grandstand in Douglas,
and
get in the queue for scrut’ing. Now
that
I’d passed my novice initiation, I was out practicing with
the fast boys –
practice sessions are divided in two – the first for classic
and smaller
capacity bikes (125s and 400s), the second for the 600s and 750s (and
the odd
pukka race 250 two stroke). So now there as an even longer wait until
my
session started just after 7pm. A fair amount of meaningless
wandering around
took place to pass this time. I
also
managed to meet Richard from Maxton in the queue, and he had a bounce
on the
rear suspension of the bike, and applied a few clicks, and then a few
more.
Bikes go off in pairs at ten second
intervals for practice,
just like in the race, but your starting position depends on how soon
you get
through scrut’ing and how much you’re prepared to
jostle in the queue. I
didn’t want to be too near the front, but
nor did I want to be near the back either, so I manage to get out about
half
way. Bear in mind that there
are a lot
of bikes on the course for a practise session – easily over a
hundred. I set off with
another rider (can’t remember
who now) and immediately felt good – just comfortable and
enjoying the speed of
the bike. I wanted to do two laps (including a ‘flying
lap’ as the second one
to actually get into the rhythm of the place, and make sure the bike
was ok, as
it would need to do this in the race (which is four laps with a pit
stop). Of course, there are
still some places where
I was slowing down despite the fact that I knew I shouldn’t
– the flat out
kinks at Glen Vine, Crosby, Gorse Lee and the end of Conk-y-Voddy were
far from
flat out. But elsewhere the
suspension
felt far better now Richard had adjusted it.
My sense of fun was interrupted at
the 13th
Milestone, however – coming out of the bottom of Barregarrow,
there were waved
yellow flags – we slowed down, and coming round the corner
there was a scene of
carnage. Three bikes were
down, riders
lying in the road, and straw bales littered everywhere.
We had to thread our way through the wreckage
at no more than 20mph. It
suddenly hit
home to me that if there’s an accident here, the bike and
rider are likely to
stay on the road (rather than slide off the track into the gravel as on
a short
circuit), and collisions were therefore a real danger (I was later told
that
the 2nd and 3rd riders
had crashed hitting the wreckage
of the first one). That gave
me pause
for thought, but I soon got my head down and got going again.
I was enjoying myself here
– there were a few bikes coming
past me, but I was catching and passing a few myself, and in some ways
was just
like being on a ride out with a bunch of fast mates, but with all the
road to
use, and no concerns about traffic or police.
I came
flying through and started my second
lap. We still had to slow to
negotiate
the accident at the 13th, but otherwise I felt
good, and when I got
back to the pits Alex greeted me with a big grin, telling me that my
first lap
had been 101mph, and the second 103mph. I
was over the moon!
Thursday 26th August – Fifth
Practice
Thursday afternoon practise is a
little different – it’s in
the afternoon, rather than the evening, and slightly longer, meaning
most
people can get in three laps if they want. Consequently,
the whole timetable of the day is moved forward.
Fortunately, we had nothing to do to the
bike, and so were up, breakfasted and over to Douglas
with no rushing around. The
bike passed
scrut’ing again without trouble (once we’d noticed
the missing bolt on the
handlebar clamp in the queue! This
place
really does shake bikes to pieces). Often
Thursday produces the fastest times, just because it’s a more
congenial time to be riding bikes (with no low sun as in the evening
sessions)
but the weather was grey with a threat of rain.
Still, no problems, and we were all off on time. By now I was feeling pretty
comfortable, but
I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to find any
additional pace. Again, there
were a couple of accidents on
the course, one at Rhencullen and then, after speeding up again for the
Bishopscourt section I came round a corner to find an accident that the
marshals hadn’t even got to yet – the rider was on
one side of the road, the
bike on the other, on fire, with smoke drifting across and obscuring
the
road. I had no time to do
anything apart
from scream, and went flying through the smoke to find myself still on
two
wheels and pointing in approximately the right direction. Now that was scary.
Friday 27th August – Sixth
Practice
Back to an evening practise today. Scrut’ing was normal,
except the scrute pointed out that the throttle return wasn’t
quite as snappy
as it should be. We agreed to
look at it
later. Clever, inscrutable
chaps, these
scrutineers…
I decided to see if I could up the
pace a little, so tried
to ensure I got out near the front of the practice group, and found
myself
lining up with Irish newcomer Andrew
Neill, riding TT winner Ryan Farquar’s ZX6RR. As expected, Andrew immediately drew
ahead of me on the run down Bray
Hill, but I girded my loins and tucked in behind him, and kept him in
sight all
the way to Cronk-y-voddy (10 miles later), where my bike started to
play up,
holding back in top gear. This
felt
exactly like the fuel starvation problems we’d had previously
at
Snetterton. Through the
twisty bits it
was ok, and only when flat in top did it show up.
I soldiered on, but the bike wouldn’t pull
more than 10k in top all the way from Union Mills to the Highlander, or
along
Sulby stratight, so I knew there was a ‘real’
problem. I must have been
yanking on the throttle
particularly hard, because on the run down to the Creg-ny-bar the
throttle
cable snapped. If only
we’d listened to
the scrutineer. So, I parked
by the pub,
and a marshal gave me some money to get a drink, and I waited for the
roads to
open and Alex to come and pick me up in the van.
Still, I’d managed a 104mph lap, even with a
bike that was a bit slow in top gear. Andrew
Neill was 27 seconds faster (106mph) so tagging on to him had been a
good plan.
Saturday 28th August –
Seventh (and final) Practise
Alex went through the fuel system
this morning, checking the
tank, fuel filter and hoses. Meanwhile,
I dashed from Ramsey to the paddock in Douglas,
got some
new throttle cables made up, and dashed back to Ramsey to fit them. The new inner cables were slightly
too long
for the new outers, so we had to get them shortened in the paddock
again
anyway. I also got a new
chain fitted,
as recommended by all the old Isle of Man regulars – the
course is so bumpy it
plays hell with chains. We
then went
through the by now regular routine.
This was the last practice session,
and several people
advised me to just take it steady, and to just bed in the new chain. Which is what I did, posting an easy
102mph. Unfortunately, the
fuelling problem was still
there. Oh dear.
Sunday 29th August – Day
before Newcomers Race.
So now we had a problem –
the bike had a fuelling problem,
and there was no more practise time. The
problem could only be down to two things – either the fuel
pump couldn’t supply
the peak fuel demand, or the one-way valve on the tank breather (which
lets air
into the tank, but not fuel out) was causing a restriction. So, I borrowed a fuel pump from
local rider
Derren Slous, and we threw away the one-way valve and replaced it an
old
fashioned length of hose, curled up several times.
We took the bike to Slick Bass’s dyno and ran
it before and after the changes. While
the dyno couldn’t re-create the problem (it’s not
able to put the engine under
load for long enough) we could at least check that it still ran as well
as it
did before. And it was still
making
healthy horsepower.
But, before all this, there was more
admin to do. Keith and I had
to go to the race office at
the Grandstand to sign on, and I had to go to the Newcomer’s
race briefing,
which was really just about how to do a pit stop.
Having done three seasons of endurance
racing, pit stops held no fears for me, but they’re something
new for riders
who’ve only done short circuit races.
It was while having a cup of tea in
the paddock with Keith
that we heard that fellow newcomer Gavin Feighery had died overnight
from the
injuries he sustained when he crashed at the Mountain Box in the last
practice
session. It was the first
fatality of
the week.
Monday 30th August –
Newcomers Race
Scrut’ing is done slightly
differently for the race –
batches of bikes have a time slot, and ours was 7:00
to 7:30. This
meant the van
had to leave Ramsey at 6:30am! We’d loaded the van the
evening before, and
Alex and Michelle had volunteered to take it over, giving me an extra
hour in
bed. Thanks guys! I arrived with Keith at 8:30 and had to
get my riding gear scrut’d again.
And then it was just a question of waiting
for the off, and the weather, which again didn’t look good. While the cloud was quite high (so
no mist
over the mountain) several showers had blown over the course, and much
of it
was reckoned to be wet. I
collared two
guys from Manx Radio, and they told me the entire Glen Helen section
was
soaked. So, that decided it
– we swapped
the wheels to run intermediate tyres, as did about 90% of the field.
The roads closed at 10am,
but a 30 minute delay was announced immediately, putting the start back
to 10:45. At 10:30 we started moving
the bikes up to the Glencrutchery road, but just as it looked like we
were
going to get away, another 30 minute delay was announced. So, we all milled around on the
grid,
chatting to each other and offering clichés and platitudes. And then the time went, and the
start
procedure was underway.
Racing on the Mountain Course is
essentially a time trial –
riders set off in pairs at ten second intervals, and race the clock. I was number 29, meaning I would
start some 2
minutes and 10 seconds behind the starting pair.
Alongside me was a chap called Dave Saxby,
who coincidentally was from Gloucestershire too, and was riding a GSX-R
600
from Fraser’s Motorcycles. We
got a
clean start, and the extra few ponies in my 750 got me ahead of Dave on
the run
to St Ninian’s crossroads, and that was the last I saw of him. When I spoke to him later he told me
his
intermediate tyres we sliding all over the place.
The run down Bray Hill, for the first
time in a race, for
the first time in the wet, was scary. And,
on the approach to Quarter
Bridge, I,
like the most of the
rest of the field, had the warnings ringing in our head not to overcook
it on
cold tyres, with a full fuel load. And
the same advice applied through Braden
Bridge,
which was also wet. In fact,
the road was wet all the way to Glen
Vine, but my tyres felt great, and I was already catching people
– coming round
the bottom of Union Mills and seeing someone ahead of you on the
straight run
to Glen Vine is a great feeling. I
passed a couple of bikes on the way to Crosby,
and
caught a couple more through Greeba
Castle,
passing them on the run down to Gorse Lee and Ballacraine.
And then we were into the Glen Helen
section. Normally I love this
part of the course, tho
I’m not sure I’m particularly quick, but with very
wet roads it needed some
care. Still, I seemed to be
going OK,
and the tyres weren’t moving around at all, so I burst out of
the climb up Creg
Willys Hill onto the Cronk y Voddy straight, and onto completely dry
roads for
the first time, enjoying myself. And,
the bike pulled top gear along the straight with no problems, meaning
the
fuelling problem was sorted.
At the time of writing (10 days after
the race), my memory
has already faded too much to give a corner by corner write up. In fact, I found earlier in the week
that
even after two practise laps, I had pretty poor recall of when things
happened
– the brain is just too busy to file stuff away. The rest of the first lap went well,
and (tho
I didn’t know it at the time) I’d moved into 15th
place. The mountain was
mostly dry (apart from
Bungalow
Bridge,
which stayed wet for the
whole race), and my bike definitely pulled well over the top. The second lap was much drier, tho
still wet
through Glen Helen and the 13th Milestone, and a
few other places under
the trees. It was on this lap
that I
caught number 28, Vince Prevett, who’d started 10 seconds
ahead of me. It took me a
little while to get past him,
eventually doing it at Bishopscourt. I
thought that was the last I’d see of him, but blow me if he
didn’t outbrake me
into Parliament Square,
some 6 miles later. I
followed him up
the mountain, getting past on the Mountain Mile, but he came alongside
me in
the stop box on the way into the pits.
The pit stop was smooth, but slightly
slow – our petrol tank
had explo-safe expanded foam in it, and it slowed down the petrol going
in (we
pulled this out for the Senior race). Two
or three bikes I’d passed got out of the pits before me
(including
Vince) but I soon caught and passed them again, although Vince took a
while. The next two laps were
a bit of a
blur – each lap was drier, though it remained wet in parts of
Glen Helen, the
13th Milestone, Quarry Bends and Bungalow
Bridge. Vince and I had a right old ding
dong,
passing each other two or three times a lap, but I got the result in
the end –
as I’d started 10 seconds behind him, I knew that I only had
to keep him in
sight, but I managed to finish 1 second in front of him on the road too.
I was greeted by Alex and Keith in
the paddock, with big
grins on their faces. I
experienced an
odd combination of emotions – relief, euphoria, achievement,
all overlaid with
a severe overdose of adrenaline. The
results were available on a computer in the rider’s centre,
and it turned out I
was 11th, and had earned a replica (by finishing
within 110% of the
winner’s time). While
there, I learnt
another quaint part of the Manx GP tradition – riders get a
free sandwich,
piece of cake and a cup of tea!
After talking to anyone and everyone,
Alex finally persuaded
me to get in the van and drive back to Ramsey.
After a quick shower, we headed to the pub, and watched
the end of the
afternoon Senior Classic Race. Pints
kept coming, and I’m afraid I don’t remember the
rest of the day too well…
Tuesday 31st August – no
racing
We took the day off, and did nothing.
Wednesday 1st September (Junior and
350 Classic)
I wanted to watch the Junior race,
so borrowed a car and drove down to Quarry Bends.
Unlike the TT, it is possible to get a decent
view even at the popular viewing places at the Manx Grand Prix, and I
sat on
the bales and watched as the front runners came
flying
through. Tommy Clucas got off
to a
storming start, setting a new MGP record of 120mph on his first lap. He continued to open the gap over
the next
two laps, but on the last lap he didn’t come through Quarry
Bends. At the commentary
point at Ramsey, he was
reported as missing, but no other word came, which I knew meant
he’d had a
serious crash (breakdowns and minor accidents are usually reported
quite quickly
on the commentary).
I went back to Ramsey and had a beer
with Keith in the
Central Hotel as the 350 Classics came through.
Apparently Tommy had crashed on the run down to
Ballaugh
Bridge.
Alex, Sally, Michelle and I went to
the Villa Marina in Douglas
for the presentation of the awards for Monday’s and
today’s races. The
sense of pride I felt hearing my name
read out by Geoff Cannell (the voice of the TT, for
me), and going on stage to collect my replica was enormous, as can been
seen in this
picture.
Thursday 2nd September – no
racing
I went round to see Keith and show
off my replica, to find
him very quiet – Tommy had died overnight.
The second death of the
meeting. Keith
knew Tommy very well, and was talking
about not even riding in the senior the next day.
And, the weather forecast was awful.
Friday 3rd September –
Senior Race
Just to contradict the weather
forecast, the day dawned
bright and sunny. The senior
race was in
the afternoon, after the Lightweight/Ultra-Lightweight race. Despite dire predictions, it stayed
dry, and
the cloud stayed high, and the first race got off on time. And then it was our turn. This time I was starting number 92,
over
seven minutes behind the guys at the front of the grid.
Which was a good thing,
because those guys were going to be going a lot faster than me (fastest
lap in
practice had been 118mph). Number
91 was
a non-starter, so I set off by myself. Strangely,
I got passed by a few people on the first lap, even though I
didn’t feel I was going slowly (turns out I was –
first lap was only just over
100mph). The second lap I got
my head
down a bit and did 103. Although
the
roads were dry, it was incredibly windy over the mountain, and the bike
felt
pretty flat in place, and was hard to steer in others.
Still, it was the same conditions for
everyone. At the pit stop,
Alex employed
his trusted motivational technique – “Why are you
going so slow?”
he asked. “Come on,
get your finger
out!” It must have
worked, because I
picked up the pace and gained some places. Also,
about here, I started racing with Simon Briggs, on his old steel
framed 600 Honda. He was
riding as if on
a short circuit, out-braking me into the slow corners, but I mostly
stuck to my
line and usually out accelerated him down the straights. Of course, it helped having more
horsepower! Simon had a lower
starting
number than me, so I knew I was ahead of him on time, but it was good
fun
racing on the roads. In the
final run
down the mountain Simon got in front of me and I thought he was going
to win
the race on the road, but he outbraked himself into Govenors
Bridge and
I rode through the huge
door he left open for me and beat him over the line.
We grinned at each other as we rode back up
to the paddock.
I got the results shortly afterwards
– 60th, from
some 100+ starters. And a
best lap of
105mph, which had been my target speed from the beginning. Not too bad, tho I must admit that I
felt
slightly disappointed – if I’d gone faster on the
first lap I’d have been a few
positions up, and my mate Keith had posted a new personal best of 107,
and I’d
not been able to go with him. Still,
not
bad for a newcomer.
Epilogue
Alex and I got the ferry that
evening, and drove home
through the night. I got to
bed at 4am. The
next day I was up, changed the oil, filter, brake pads and tyres on the
bike,
fitted the endurance petrol tank and drove the van to Donington. The next day, Team UKRM did the
final six
hour race of the season.
Credits
Many, many thanks to the following
people
-
Alex Ferrier, without whom the
bike would never have even got started
-
Sally and Michelle, for putting
us up, and putting up with us
-
Keith and Jan, and the rest of
the crew at Windsor Road - Paul, Henk, Jo and Penny
-
Nigel Eaton for many large and
small pieces of machining
-
Pip Garrard for work with
fibreglass, filler and aluminium
-
Lozzo for recovering the seat
-
too many others to mention for
help large and small.