M.G.P. 2003 Practice Week - Thursday Afternoon, 21st August 2003

Was told the Ray Porter had clipped the bales with his shoulder at Ginger Hall, following me on our second lap last night, I heard that he had broken his collarbone, but heard another yarn that it was his shoulder blade, but whichever one it was, it was not good for the lad…… he’s not had the best of luck this year, and I hope he makes the start, because I want to beat him!…… I owe him one from last year.

When I got to the paddock, Stuey already had the Spark Plugs fitted to the bike, but forgot to check and clean the carb bowls…… Doh!…… Have to check that, as we still haven’t found the reason why it stopped…… Also looked for a loose wire, checked the battery, as the bike has no generator fitted to it, and looked for any kinked fuel hoses or the like…… As an experienced valve dropper, the sound of a bike suffering from fuel starvation, is uncannily like an inlet valve letting go…… this was the reason I pulled the clutch in, killed the engine and coasted to a stop…… Was well happy that it started up again and sounded as sweet as…… but was slightly puzzled.

Left the gearing as it was, but had toyed with the idea of changing it, but was only planning on going for one lap to test if the bike was running okay…… then we were going to do all the necessary jobs on it. But we had toyed with the rebound damping again, as I felt that we had gone the wrong way, also kept the tyres on from last night. Have also been approached by Greenlight TV to run an onboard camera on the bike, and they are gonna fit it for tomorrow night's practise to see how I get on with having it there…… That will be interesting to see how that turns out……

The weather was looking pretty grim and there was a slight delay with a RTA (Road Traffic Accident – well my mate Scotty is a copper!) so had to wait for the call, all the while it looked like it was getting worse, got a couple of phone calls from mates who were up on the Mountain and said that it was getting worse, but the call came and we were going for a start…… threw my gear on and got to the holding area, Stuey was ready with the bike, slapped me ol' mate and all round top bloke, Keith McKay on the back as I have done in every session so far, as he is always somewhere near me………… got to the bike and our mate Craig (Atkinson) wanted me to go ahead of him…… Jumped on and was about 12th or so away……… The bike bogged down a bit off the line and it had been the first time somebody had got to the traffic lights at the top of Bray Hill before me…… but kept it pinned and went around his outside and thundered down to the bottom…… was a little concerned that the clutch was slipping at around the 12000-14000 rpm mark, but this happened to me in the Junior MGP last year and when the bike got hotter, it cured itself, so was hoping for more of the same. Got to the QB after another big wobble on the bump where the Quarterbridge Road meets Alexander Drive, took it pretty fast cos I had lost some time at the start…… rounded the QB and saw two riders at Braddan Bridge, wobbled round there better than I did last night and set off after them…… saw a couple of them with orange bibs on, the clutch slip started to disappear, and now I knew that I would get better drive by taking Ballagarey in 6th and I figured that they wouldn’t…… sure enough I passed two of them going towards Crosby and another when I never rolled the throttle in the infamous Crosby Corner……… drove past that bloke and saw another lad who I figured must be the leading Newcomer Alex Donaldson on his 750 Suzuki…… he’s been going well all week and was so far leading the Newcomers A with a time of 112.90mph…… which is faster than I managed in practise last year, he’s also, I’d say one of the top 6 Irish road racers on the scene at the moment, so he’s no mug, and I had him down for the Newcomers Race win before the MGP even started…… anyway, I knew it was him because he was in the queue ahead of me at the start, and I caught him by Greeba Bridge, but there was no way past, as his extra cubes drove him away from me, I took Gorse Lea faster than him, and although I gained all the way to Ballacraine, I wasn’t close enough…… Bollocks…… now I’m gonna be held up…… could have gone round his outside at Ballaspur, but bided my time and had to go down an extra gear at Doran’s Bend to avoid him…… was thinking of having a go at the next corner, but no move on again…… had to show him my front wheel, as even though I don’t know him, I thought he would be experienced enough to know to move over…… so when I showed him my front wheel into Laurel Bank and he saw me, he stuck his left leg out to signal me to go past……… problem was that this was the side I had lined him up on and couldn’t pass till he stuck his leg back in, as soon as he did I squeezed between him and the wall…… he must have seen my foot slip off the peg at the Black Dub, not because of any oil or owt, just because I missed it! Got my knee down at the left hander at Glen Helen, as I have had most of the week and forgot to mention, and this is the only place on the course that this happens (although I’ve had it down on a few kerbs), and it makes me wonder every lap if it's going to grip, because if I’ve got my knee down it must be over further than it should be…… Carried on and spotted somebody else when I got on the Cronky Straight and was up his chuff out of Handley’s Corner……… He was going pretty well for another Newcomer, but got past him before the top of Begarrow, clocked his number on the way past and it was No 40, Martin Farley, another of the leading Newcomers…… took that in 6th gear this time, but rolled the throttle and it was not too bad……… had hardly any traffic apart some some geezer at Bishop's Court and when I passed him I ran over a small branch that was lying in the road…… Jesus!……… good job it was more like a twig but with plenty of leaves on it…… under the trees there were quite a few leaves and shit…… carried on towards Ramsey…… Gave the thumbs up to Eddie when I passed the Sulby Glen pub (thanks again), and was pretty crap rounding Sulby Bridge…… the bike, as always, jumped around after the Ginger Hall, and I couldn’t really tell if it was better or worse, but this time round I was trying what I had learnt…… and soon caught up with a Junior plated bike, and he was going alright too, clocked it on my way past going into Schoolhouse Corner and it was No 30, Andy Daniels, who was in the same Newcomers Race as me last year…… Got through Ramsey and the rest and caught, Maurice Hogg at Guthrie's…… knew it was him, because it said ‘Hogg’ on the back of his leathers…… he was also in last year Newcomers…… slipstreamed him and passed him going up the Mountain Mile, and at the end of it the weather rapidly deteriorated, the mist was out in force…… We were warned beforehand that it might happen and that’s the reason I went for a clear visor, but that never helped a bit…… it was terrible and pretty scary to tell you the truth, I know that road like the back of my hand and I could hardly tell where I was…… every time I wiped the mist off the visor with my finger it automatically misted up again…… so I was using my finger like a windscreen wiper, which meant it was blocking my vision (what there was of it), and that I only had one hand on the bar…… It was no fun at all and was actually rolling the throttle in second gear…… even though it was a clear visor, I had to lift it to try and see where I was going and it was slightly better, but made my eyes water like mad…… followed the white lines in the middle of the road, it got slightly better at Kepple Gate and then cleared on the way down to the Creg-Ny–Baa…… wasn’t going as fast as I could have, but speeded up after I had a look and saw Hogg behind me…… he must have followed me over the Mountain, but as I was going that slow it would have been easy…… tipped into Hillberry and there were leaves all over the road, so throttled off which made the bike bog down so had to stamp it down a gear……… held 4th all the way to Signpost and was slightly better this time rounding Governor's, was patting myself on the back saying ‘yep, that’s the way to do it’ and then I f*cked up the exit…… Doh! Crossed the line and pulled in…… watched as Maurice Hogg shot down Bray Hill for another lap……… What was he thinking about??? Got stopped at the bottom, and was told that Neil Hanson, the Clerk of the Course wanted to see me……… Oh God, what have I done now…… then was told he wanted my opinion…… aaaahhh.

He duly stopped me and asked, and I replied ‘It's Desperate’ he asked was it bad enough to stop it, and I told him what I thought, and said if I didn’t know where I was going what chance did the newcomers have, and as nobody wants to jump off, I said I would stop it if it was up to me for safety’s sake…… He said that would do him, and we had been lucky with the weather so far, and he put the red flags out…… I was pleased that he asked a rider’s opinion, and was quite chuffed that it had been me.

Got back to the paddock after a quick look at the timing computer in the Hailwood Centre, and was quite surprised to see that I topped the leaderboard and had lapped at 111.11mph…… was at least a couple of mph faster than anyone else…… I must have had my foot down on the bottom section……… in all fairness that was fine and dandy apart from the strong wind.

Got the bike back to the paddock, where we decided to shut up shop and have the day off…… As the bike ran okay, apart from the clutch, we’re gonna try and see if we can find the ‘gremlin’ that we had……… also gonna put a new battery and drive chain on, and change the oil and filter and anything else that needs doing.

So, tune in for another very exciting, better weather, gremlin eradicating episode………………………………………………………