M.G.P. 2003 Practice Week - Wednesday Morning, 20th August 2003

Was up bright and early, the weather was dry this time, and there was not much wind, Stuey had the bike at the front again, but told him as it was an un-timed session, it didn’t really matter and I wasn’t planning on going that hard anyway…… but was quite looking forward to trying out the suspension changes, I hoped that it would be one small step for mankind, but one giant leap for me…… was sommat like 30th away, noticed that our mate Robbie Silvester of VRS Performance was quite a bit ahead and was actually riding Ryan Farquhar’s lap record holding Kawasaki ZX-6RR, and Flyin Ryan himself was spannering for him…… thought that would be fun to catch him up…… Had Maria Costello line up behind me, and in the previous nights practise, she had just recorded her personal best lap with a speed of over 111mph, I gave her a tap and said well done…… Stuey told me afterwards that I was in fact behind her in the queue, but she didn’t want me chasing her, so she let him in ahead.

Decided on opening her up a bit this lap, but didn’t want to push too hard as the tyres were now 7 laps old, as I’ve had the same set on all week, and they weren’t brand new when we got here either……… that is without doubt, the longest I’ve had a set of tyres on for…… Was steady enough away and was half expecting Maria to come past me, but I actually passed 3 riders before I got to Braddan Bridge…… kept my head down a bit whilst looking at the rev counter, and it wasn’t pulling up the revs as fast as it used to, thought that there might be two reasons for this…… the first one was that it was still a little tight after the rebuild, or the battery was going slightly flat, although we had charged it……… had to roll the throttle loads with all the traffic that was out, but just concentrated on getting the corners nice and smooth and the power down pretty early, but at the same time, reminding myself that the tyres were past their best…… the bike felt slightly more stable than it did but I put that down to not going as fast till I rounded the end of the Cronk-Y-Voddy straight…… Aha…… was that just me or did that feel loads better…… carried on and was really enjoying it, even this early in the morning, and waved at the gang in Kirk Michael again, who got up especially to see me come past…… Hoisted the front at Rhencullen and it was nice and steady……… passed a few more riders, most of them Newcomers and was thinking that the Milntown section was going to be the real test for our suspension adjustments, and when I got there, I managed to hold it in 5th gear rather than the usual 4th…… so an improvement made there…… Caught sight of a Newcomer after rounding schoolhouse Corner in Ramsey, and saw that it was Robbie…… rightyho, gonna have a bit of fun here…… tail grabbed him through Ramsey, and he was pretty good rounding May Hill, but I could have dived up his inside at Whitegates but just stayed in behind, that bike has some poke, but went up the inside of him at StellaMaris…… gave him the fingers for ages and took the Hairpin really wide so that I could turn around and see him, and gave them to him again…… Har Har. Pointed to him to tuck in, and took the next few corners at a steady pace but he was losing touch, so carried on by meself…… the bike was handling better than it had, so was pretty pleased with it and decided I would be pulling in after this lap…… passed a few more Newcomers before the finish and pulled in…… Stuey asked what was up, and I said ‘Nowt’…… just park it for tonight, get some new boots on it, check everything is okay, and I’ll give it some berries later on…… want to save it as much as possible, and I want new tyres on before I push any harder…… Stuey had me down for just under 113mph, which was a surprise cos it never felt that fast, so here’s hoping that I have a good lap on her tonight…… Ooeerr Missus……

So, tune in for another very exciting, new tyres on for the first time this week episode…………