M.G.P. 2003 Practice Week - Tuesday Evening, 19th August 2003

Stuey took the day off work to take the bike to Slick Performance for its total engine rebuild…… so that I could have a lie in…… top man or what…… When he got there he dropped the engine out, as it was ready to do so from last night, and gave it to Slick to work his magic on…… He had it all done for mid afternoon and Stuey lashed the engine back into the bike…… I had a lot of other stuff to do so never tipped up in the paddock till gone 4pm meself…… Phoned Stuey and he said he wouldn’t be far away, but got as call off him to say that the van was struggling to get up the Mountain, and then got another call to get some rope as it had stopped completely on the Verandah…… Disaster! And the roads closed in 15 minutes!!…… Asked Stuey where the rope in the van was, and he said he left it in my garage…… Doh! Frantically searched the paddock looking for rope and got 3 bits which we had to tie together, then got another call from Stuey to say it had started again and he was on his way…… sounded like the fuel filter was blocked to me…… This had happened before coming back from France in it…… Well the poor thing has done intergalactic miles…… These bloody ‘D’ Series Mercedes Benz vans were Hitler’s revenge…… ‘Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mer-ced-es Benz……(Sprinter Va-an)……

Got the bike out of the van just after six o’clock, and still had other jobs to do on it, like wire everything back up, and replace a broken pipe fitting on the oil cooler…… so we raped Stueys bike for spares, got it all lashed together and put it through scrutineering at 7-00pm…… Phew!

The plan tonight was just to run the damn thing in, so decided on being last out, so that I would not get in anyone’s way, and not get bollocked by the officials, so just tootle round for a couple of laps at no more than 10 thousand revs…… Although to run it in properly, you don’t just sit at 10 thousand, you have to gently go up and down the gearbox and the rev range…… so, set off for a slow lap…… as it turned out 10 thousand revs isn’t that fast, so had one arm resting on the tank, hoisted the front at Ago’s leap and barely popped a wheelie, and wobbled around the QB, short shifting the gears and accelerating gently……… it was pretty dull, and had no traffic in front or behind, but stayed off the racing line where I could and frequently had a look to see if anyone was
a-coming…… Phil Gilder passed me after Ballagarey traffic lights, and I watched him pull away, but not as much as I thought considering the speed I was going…… never saw another soul and nobody else came past me which I thought was surprising, but its handy enough when you can still corner at a handy enough pace, Waved at my sister Angie, Brother in law Mike and Lynny Lynn in Kirk Michael and they all waved like mad back, then I gave them a Yaaaawwwwwnnnn signal…… carried on trying to take corners pretty fast and just tour down the straights off the racing line. I couldn’t believe I actually caught somebody at Gutheries Memorial, and I passed him and pointed for him to tuck in behind, he was a big bloke on a CBR Honda with I think it said ‘Delaney’ on the back of his leathers, was told afterwards by Dave Sells that in fact it was Big Bill Rice…… he zoomed past me on the Mountain Mile, but I caught him again at the Mountain Box, and again turned round and told him to tuck in behind, this time he realised what I was trying to do, and he tried to keep up…… I kept on having a look back and let him catch up, and slowed so that he could, but I was gradually pulling away from him, so I just carried on going at the speed I was going…… actually caught sight of a few riders after negotiating the 32nd Milestone and by the time I got to Signpost Corner, I was up the chuff of 3 of them…… took the inside line and went underneath the 3 of them at Governors Bridge, then spotted a shed load of oil that had been dumped right on the corner…… Whoa!…… had to put my foot down to be safe and fifty pence pieced the corner…… then toured over the line and pulled in…… Let Stuey give the bike the once over…… Big Bill stopped me and thanked me with a huge smile on his face, apparently he’s been trying to crack the ton for ages, and I hope he does it…… If I taught him a line or two I’d be well made up……… decided to go back out for another lap, but this time take the revs up to 12 thousand, but only occasionally…… Started off again, the bike was sounding sweet and sped off like a Nun in a motorised wheelchair down Bray Hill…… was looking at the rev limiter most of the way round, and still nobody came past…… I thought that this was slightly bizarre…… Took Ballagarey in 6th Gear at 12 thousand revs, lying flat on the tank with my head under the bubble just to make it look like I was going fast, and then on the straight I sped up and slowed down trying to bed the engine in properly…… was nice and sedate all the way to Ramsey waving to My Sister, Mike and Lynny Lynn in Kirk Michael again. Into Ramsey Hairpin, I overtook a Newcomer on a 250, so pointed for him to tuck in behind, I didn’t know it at the time but it turned out to be fellow Andreas Club Member, Neil Chadwick…… he nodded and tried to keep up…… showed him my line through the Waterworks and up round the Gooseneck, and every time it looked like he dropped back I knocked it down some gears and waited for him…… on the Mountain Mile I was wondering was he going to shoot past, but fair play, he obviously wanted to learn, and stayed behind, and I duly obliged…… kept looking round to make sure he was still there and had a nice and easy run down to the Grandstand…… Pulled in and gave the bike to Stu, and Neil pulled alongside me and said ta…… he said he learnt how to take the Verandah by following me…… was quite surprised, cos I don’t think I’ve taken it right all week so far…… but if it helped him get round it faster, then great. Couldn’t believe when we got the official time sheet that I had in fact lapped at 100.91mph…… Christ almighty!…… I thought it would be sommat like 80 odd……

Another team meeting had us convinced that doing the morning session tomorrow would be a good idea, so as to up the revs, and if there any problems with the bike we can hopefully spend all day Tuesday sorting them out, rather than leaving it till Wednesday night and maybe missing the Thursday afternoon session, if a fettling session arose.

Stuey tinkered around with the rear suspension to give us something else to try in the morning, as I still felt I could go quicker and be less tired if the thing handled better, so we made a few adjustments to that……… Gave the bike the once over and put her to bed for the night, and not long after got my noggin down meself in the M.Benz around midnight…… ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Tune in bright and early for another very exciting episode………