Southern 100 - 8th July 2003

Billown Circuit

Tipped up in the paddock with Wad, and the first job we had was to put the wheels back into the Suzuki, we had taken them out so that we could fit new slick tyres.... although the way the weather was it looked like we might not be running them.... It had been raining throughout the day, but had stopped, albeit still cloudy, I hoped that it would dry up.... never took long to get the bike ready, we also changed the preload on the rear spring, which altered the rear 'sag' from 12mm to 8mm to try and cure the back end chatter I was having under heavy braking.... could really have done with changing the gearing, as I wasn't in 6th gear on this bike for very long either, but the thought of going quicker in the race stopped me from changing it....

Was pretty chuffed to find that I had qualified on the 2nd row with the big bike in 6th place at 2mins 28.9secs (102.7mph) with the new wonder boy Guy Martin and big Paul 'H' Hunt alongside me in 5th and 4th places , with Farquhar, Griffiths and Lougher on the front row. Also I had qualified on the front row in the 600 class alongside Lougher and Farquhar, which I surprised about but well happy.... good company I'm in there for sure.... Gonna be pretty daunting lining up alongside them boys, but I was looking forward to it.

This was a mixed 1000/600cc practise only tonight so I decided to leave the 600 alone and scrub the tyres in and check the alterations on the Suzuki. Had a quick lap on the scooter before the roads closed to have a look at the conditions and set my mind at rest as it had dried up enough to use the slick tyres so that was one less thing to worry about.

The boys had the bike in the holding area with tyre warmers on it this time and we were soon out on the track, started to get a bit of arm pump, and as the laps progressed it got worse, and was thinking of pulling in as I felt I was going backwards, but stayed out for one last lap and the chequered flag had come out anyway next time round, so 6 laps managed in this session.

Got back to the paddock and my arms were well pumped and I was sweating cobs.... was hard work that.... lap timer indicated a 2' 29.1 (102.5mph) and the back end chatter had been a lot better, so was happier than I had been going into the race.... Was slightly concerned, like I always am here about the first lap.... because if sommat is going to happen, it usually does then.... 40 bikes all going into the corner together is not good. And then its all in a train type formation of follow the leader till it stretches itself out a bit.... not something I like very much. The wad said that I had used 5 litres of fuel in my six lap session, so I thought, 5 litres = 6 laps.... therefore 10 litres = 12 laps.... which should be enough for the 10 lap race + 1 warm up lap.... just to be on the safe side I told the boys to go for 13 litres.

Lined up in the dummy grid in the holding area in my 6th spot, was happy that I was the first of the production bikes, so to speak, Big 'H' would probably argue the toss, but more has been done to his than mine, so jumped on the bike and went out on the warm up lap.... a lot more people this time round than there had been in practise, and got to my spot on the grid on the 2nd row.... was hoping for a good start but they aborted it as Martin Finnegan stalled on the line.... it was sorted quickly enough, and the lights seemed to stay on red longer than they should have been because there were a few bikes moving, but then they changed to green and we were off.... stayed pretty much in the position were started in, but I had been ahead of Big 'H', but both he and Finnegan squeezed past into Ballakeighan.... thought that we were only going steady and because of this I half expected to either be 'skittled' or somebody else come up my inside, but it never happened.... settled down into both Hunt and Finnegan's slipstream.... and we all made it round the Iron Gate with no fuss.... the two in front were having a right ding dong, and they both weren't backing off and it looked to me one or the other might end up in the wall, and I never wanted to be behind it if something happened.... actually felt that I could have got past the pair of them once or twice had there been any room, but just sat there and watched.... into Castletown Stadium Corner, they were side by side and could have ended it tears, but 'H' let Finnegan through, and it was probably a good job that he did.... going over the start/finish line we were all together and heading up the by-pass to Ballakeighan for the second time.... I approached the corner way quicker than the two in front.... but roughly the same speed I've been doing it all week, then crashing down the gears while pulling on the brakes as hard as I could.... my extra momentum meant that I had to get past to avoid running into the back of the pair of them, which put me in the wrong line and I couldn't make the corner.... apparently I was inches away from Big 'H's front wheel.... only consolation there was now the big bugger knows what it feels like when he's been doing it to me all season.... was well pissed off that I had overshoot, and should really have learnt from yesterday when I nearly did the same thing to Lougher.... I'm still riding short circuit style, fast in and crap out.... these more experienced boys are setting themselves up for the corner earlier than me, but I can't help but feel that somebody would pass me if I did it any differently.... I also came to the conclusion that by braking as hard as I was, was pumping my arms up more than maybe they would do if I rode the way everyone else was doing.... something I'm going to try next time out.... turned round and rejoined in about 11th spot, got by somebody pretty quickly then caught up with Victor Gilmore.... saw that both Parrett and Carswell had got passed me after my excursion.... bollocks.... Victor was definitely holding me up, especially out round the back section and as he was using all of the road, which he is more than entitled to do, it was really hard to pick my moment.... he was just as hard on the brakes into Cross Four Ways as me, so no manoeuvre on there, but I got a lot better drive out of Church bends and was driving past him only for him to out accelerate me to Great Meadow, his bike was way quicker, whether it be better gearing or what, who knows.... so had to follow him round.... this happened for a couple of laps, same thing time and again and I was getting pretty fed up with it, but actually did out brake him into Castletown Corner on about the 5th lap, when I saw the others in front getting away.... but he drove past me again on the home straight.... was up his chuff into Ballabeg Hairpin and really needed to get him here so that I could pull a gap on him through the back section, but never managed to so I was stuck behind again..... all this effort was tiring me out and I was losing interest, I was also having trouble changing direction again, it was okay on the first few laps but when you tire it seems to be more of an effort, didn't want to have any moments so I backed off a tad, but my lap timer was still indicating 2' 28's and 2' 29's for all of the laps.... Victor pulled a second or so but must have thought I was still up his chuff as he defended his line at every corner.... saw Team Manager, Chris stick out my pit board with P10 +6 on it so I had a nice gap on the guy behind, but truthfully was pissed off at being down in 10th, especially when I was comfortable sitting behind Hunt and Finnegan, somewhere I should have bloody stayed.... still, got to learn from it. The bike jumped out of gear once or twice, most notably coming out of Ballabeg Hairpin which had me slightly worried and through here I saw some back markers going into Ballawhetstone.... that was going to hold me up a bit.... got them all by the time I got to Cross Four Ways, but when I banked it over it bogged down coming out, and then again at Church bends.... and again at Stadium Corner.... I reckoned I was running out of fuel.... Disaster.... then coming out of Castletown Corner I signalled to Chris that there was something wrong and the bike started to misfire and chug and jump along till it died completely going over the finish line just as the last lap flag was flapping in the breeze.... toured into the pits.... Quadruple bollocks!

Was absolutely knackered and pulled in and gave the bike to the boys and they couldn't believe it, neither could I, the calculations were wrong somewhere along the line, but it had happened and not worth crying about, I had f*cked the race up by overshooting anyway.... had I stayed behind Finnegan and Hunt they most definitely would have dragged me along and up to their pace, but it was not to be.... next time out I'm determined to try to change my riding style and be slower into the corners but quicker out.

Farquhar won the race, with Griffiths and Lougher in 2nd & 3rd.... with the new wonder kid, Guy Martin in 4th place.... got to take my hat off to him, he's a talent, and he lapped at over 106mph.... which for a newcomer is pretty awesome.... Finnegan was 5th with over 105mph with 'H' in 6th spot.

So tune in next time for another very exciting, hopefully not, buuuurrrr buurrr buurr, running out of petrol episode....