M.G.P. 2003 Practice Week - Monday Evening, 18th August 2003

Straight after the session this morning the sun came out and it was well nice, listened to a couple of different forecasts, on the radio, it said it would stay fine for the next two days, but on the telly it was forecast blustery showers…… here we go again……… Chris texted me to tell me that we had a big headline in the IOM Examiner Newspaper, and it was a great write up, but it actually sounded like I spoke to John Wattie, when in fact I haven’t seen him so far…… I assume he was at the Bungalow cos that’s the picture he took of me that was in the paper…… The caption read that I did a claimed 117mph, which would have been great, but my team reckoned it was more like 114mph…… but that doesn’t matter…… it sounded good and no mistake.

We planned on doing two laps tonight, which would be five in total and that meant we would be qualified outright, which would be great this early in the week, would be so much harder if the weather turned sour…… so get that in the bag and its Relaxville Arizona…… Took the intermediates off the bike and lashed the part worn Supercorsa’s back on as well as a new set of front brake pads…… Stu wire up everything that it was possible to wire, after we discovered that one of the rear wheel adjuster bolts had backed off, and we put new nuts on as well, charged the battery, juiced her up, and then we were ready……

Stuey put the bike through scrutineering and said that we were somewhere in the middle of the pack…… Oh well, looks like some traffic tonight then, but later on towards warming up time, he had me near the front…… right alongside Ray Porter, Phil Gilder, David Bell, Iain Pattinson and a few other contenders…… told Stu to let them get ahead of me, as I would rather be the chaser, than be the chase-ee…… Went and got my kit on and was probably the last one there…… Took my time getting my helmet and gloves on, said hello to a few, including me ol mate Keith McKay, and you could see that Porter wouldn’t let us behind him…… Bollocks to that, he’s not following me, so told Stu to hang on a bit…… but he wouldn’t move forward, so the Officials told Stu to get in line…… bollocks……… Jumped on the bike and then got ready…… Porter ran in to my back wheel, to let me know he was there, I would have done exactly the same to him, and I could see him smiling through his lid……… had a brief chat but pretty difficult with engines running and earplugs in, and couldn’t hear much, but he probably heard me tell him to f*ck off and follow somebody else……… I ended up alongside somebody on a 250cc machine, and only had No 1 David Bell, and No 3 Phil Gilder ahead of me…… thought, right then, I’m having a go at these two…… They were off and ten seconds later so were me and the other bloke…… the bike bogged a bit, but I was soon flying down Bray Hill…… kept the throttle pinned for about a second longer than normal before I shut off and caught sight of the other two at the QB…… up to Braddan I could see them both with Beller in front…… wobbled round Braddan Bridge, didn’t have time to give Scotty Boy the fingers again, and set off to catch them…… reckoned I was only about 5 seconds behind going up the Ballahutchin, and I was thinking of keeping it nailed in 6th gear first time round Ballagarey Traffic Lights, but knocked it down to 5th just to be safe…… will build up to that, later in the week, although I know I can do it…… down into the now infamous Crosby Corner, hoped that Gilder would roll the throttle, and he sure did…… because I didn’t, and I gained on him all the way through the village and passed him going up the hill right by the Crosby pub…… Down the Highlander I was up Dave Bell’s chuff and was thinking of just going around his outside at the Mushroom farms, but decided on biding my time…… he’s nice and smooth and it was fun to follow him, but had to get past so, out braked him into Greeba Bridge, then got my head down as I was now first on the road…… tried to be as smooth as possible, and get the power down early, which worked in some corners but not others made a couple of mistakes and missed a couple of gears, and was really not wanting to bounce the bike off the rev limiter and this happened a few times, as Slick Bass says, it’s the last thousand revs that kill the engine…… don’t I know it……

Never saw a soul as I haired around and must admit felt like it wasn’t a bad lap, but every time I rolled the throttle, I thought right, that cost me a second, don’t do it again…… I’ve yet to get the top of Begarrow right, as I’m too close to the pavement on the exit for my liking, but taking that corner at over 130mph its hard not to be close to it…… but an area I can improve on…… Going over Ballaugh Bridge, could hear the sound of a bike, but in fact it was just my own exhaust note rebounding back of the houses…… weird, all the same though…… Actually rolled the throttle a bit over Ballacrye this time to see what happened, and it was more sedate I have to say, but you do lose a bit of drive, but wanted to try it…… bloody horrible bit of the course that.

Had a steady enough lap everywhere else, but know I can do the mountain box and the 32nd milestone so much better, going round there like an ol woman and fifty pence piecing it more than I should be, this is all because I’m tipping in too early, but when you see the drop on the other side you just want to keep away from it…… Had a slide on that bloody damp bit on the road at Kate’s Cottage, which was a worry, both wheels in fact, but it gripped and I got round okay…… already decided to roll it here the next time around. The bike jumped around a bit through Cronk Ny Mona, but the last few corners were okay and I haired across the line apparently way out in front…… Geoff Cannell asked me afterwards did I have a 7 speed gearbox, because he had heard me trying to change up another gear when it was already in 6th approaching the top of Bray Hill, hit the bottom of Bray with a huge thump and a couple of slightly large wheelie ensued…… think I saw one of my workmates, Hopey, Marshalling at the QB, and he gave me a big wave, so nodded back………… nodded to Scotty Boy as well at Braddan Bridge cos I spotted him this time, didn’t do Union Mills as well as I should and up the Ballahutchin I decided to do Ballascarey in 6th this time around…… and did so, although must confess I feathered the throttle, so still building up to it…… from here all the way to Greeba, you just hang on and listen to the engine absolutely singing its little nuts off, and it’s a worry when you think that the parts in there are probably manufactured by the lowest bidder, and put together by some Japanese bloke on mimimum wage…… would be good not to think about it…… I think I’ll try.

Thought that I’d encounter some traffic, but as its been such a looooooooong day, I forgot it was only still Monday, and the newcomers will join our group tomorrow night, but never saw anybody again…… Felt myself really start to tire midway round this second lap, and was gasping for a drink again, but after rounding the Gooseneck, I got my second wind and got my head down again…… I knew though that I had lost quite a bit of time up to this point, but thought that lap one would be well quicker anyway, and thinking that would have been the only clear run I would get, I wasn’t too bothered about this one. Took Brandish quicker than I have all week, although my mate Derran broke down there on Saturday and watched, said I was way quicker than anybody here…… that surprised me, well he should have seen me this time round…… its sweet when you get something ‘Bob On’…… the bike jumped about a bit again rounding Cronk Ny Mona and then wobbled round Bedstead like a retard…… crossed the line and then went up the return road, got stopped and noise tested…… tested okay. Went up and met Stuey, who reckoned I had done 115.5mph from a standing start…… pretty happy with that…… Chris said he couldn’t separate the two laps and had me down for over 115mph for them both…… mmmmmmm, I felt loads slower on the 2nd lap…… My mate Bubba (Dawnio) texted me to tell me she had me at 19minutes from Gooseneck to Gooseneck, which had me really excited, as that was around 119mph!…… Jesus!!…… so I phoned her and she said it was 19 minutes ‘something’ and Juan had melted her stopwatch and she couldn’t read the seconds……… Doh!

The timesheets weren’t out till 9pm, and when Chris got them, it turned out Porter had gone round 4 seconds quicker than me on his flying lap…… I was about 30 seconds quicker than him on our first laps…… my first lap was 3 seconds quicker than my second, with a fastest of 19’ 37.95 (115.31mph)…… so I was second on the Junior leader board……That’s the fastest I had officially gone round, so have to be happy with that…… I was happier with my average for the two laps at over 115mph. Keep that pace up and I should be up near the pointy end.

Had a team meeting in the Awning as the bike has now done 854 miles, and after last years premature, major ass shitting of the engine, we decided on doing preventative maintenance (Power Station Term)…… I had already purchased the spares parts and we phoned Slick and he agreed to rebuild it on Tuesday……… So, me and Stuey set about taking the engine out, ready for Slick to put the new Inlet and Exhaust Valves, Inner and Outer Valve Springs, Collets, Piston Rings, bearing shells, conn rod bolts, clutch and filter…… get it lashed in the bike, run up on the dyno and then hopefully run it in for two laps on Tuesday night…… This meant that we could test it and get any other required spares in time for the race instead of leaving it till the last minute when it would be too late. Must admit though, I still felt like I could get another couple of sessions out of it, but looking back, we tried that last year with disasterous results…… Might seem a bit excessive rebuilding an engine after only 854 miles…… especially when the parts cost around £600 a throw……… but, that as they say………… is racing!

Barring any mishaps, hope to be out on the track, waving to the crowd, not much else to do when you can’t scream the nuts off of it………

So, tune in for tomorrows very exciting episode…………………………………