Southern 100 - 9th July 2003

Billown Circuit

Only had one race today, Race 3, the Total Oils Senior Race, another 10 lapper, and again I was going out on the big Suzuki. The weather was better than yesterday, completely dry and the sun was out and an about on various occasions…… so good enough for sure.

Had left the tyres on from the previous race, they have so far done 16 laps…… again, in an ideal world, I should have gone for new ones, as all the top lads most definitely would be doing, but I was sticking with this set, again just to save a few quid…… The usual crowd arrived to cheer me on along with my board man from the TT races, Simon Harrison, who flew over for a couple of days to watch as well……

Done a few minor changes on the front forks, after Robbie (Sylvester) had been over and mentioned one or two things about the way he thought that the bike was handling as he was watching, so did a few minor modifications, nothing much to lose by trying it. Was feeling really tired in the arms from yesterday, and I had stretched them as much as I could but also was aching in the shoulders as well…… it was really physically draining me trying to hold on to this bugger…… was really hoping I wouldn't get too tired tonight…… it takes all the fun out of it when your struggling, not to mention more dangerous.

Was out on the dummy grid at 6-10pm and lined up again in my 6th spot…… Guy Martin was this time in 4th place, had a quick word on him and he told me he was really enjoying it, not surprised the way he was going…… but no Sign of Big 'H'…… apparently his missus was dropping one in the local Maternity Hospital…… well he was half to blame for it so it was the least he could do. Had the warm up lap and settled on my place on the 2nd row……… the lights changed from red to green and we were off…… got a friggin terrible start and was way down approaching the first corner, Ballakeighan…… was well pissed off with myself…… I thought I had it nailed, but the back end juddered and I lost drive and I then loads of places…… was stuck behind No33, Bob Grant for the first lap and even though his 600 Suzuki is a rocket I was getting held up…… he was a lot slower out the back section than me and could see Gary Carswell that was in front of the pair of us getting away…… never actually managed to get past him till the start of the second lap going down to the Iron Gate, then set about catching Gary…… managed to reel him in by the time we got to Castletown Corner and was pretty much up his chuff going across the line to start the 3rd lap, stayed in this position for the next lap and glanced at my lap timer and it said 2' 28.8 which was not bad…… coming out of Church Bends Gary had a look and saw me right behind him and I was saying to myself 'Yeah, I'm a coming ya bastard' and after rounding Ballakeighan for the fourth time he had another look…… this time he ripped off one of his rip off visors and instead of ripping it off and letting it go, he put his arm around his back and then did, and it came fluttering by me…… thought to myself 'was he trying to hit me with that?'…… soon confirmed that he was when he stuck his arm behind his back again and gave me the finger…… arf arf…… unfortunately he never saw me doing it back…… still we were having a quite a good ding dong, till my arms swelled up like Popeye on about the 5th lap……… Disaster……

I started losing time hand over fist and couldn't believe that I was struggling so much…… so much so that my lap timer indicated a 2' 37 !…… Jesus! 9 seconds slower…… next lap it was 2' 35 and then 2' 34…… was going to pull in, but after rounding Castletown Corner and seeing P9 +3 on my pit board, against my better judgement I decided to carry on, and the more I tired the more effort it became and I wasn't enjoying it at all, it started to take all my strength just to change direction and had to take my hand completely off the bar once or twice just to let the throttle go…… and the truth beknown I was waiting to be passed…… and eventually at Ballabeg on the 9th lap Cranston dived up my inside…… and wobbled round the corner…… even though I was as knackered as I was I could have passed him back easily through the back section as this does seem to be my strongest point, but he pulled away from me on the straights because my arms were so pumped I couldn't open the throttle fully…… at times like these, one mistake follows another and I was well pleased to see the last lap flag being swung out…… still felt like pulling in though…… was expecting to be passed again so defended my line in the last couple of corners but never was, so I thought I'd finished 10th, but in actual fact was promoted to 8th when Lougher and Finnegan both retired…… 8th sounds a lot better than it actually was, didn't feel I rode well enough to warrant that placing…… averaged 99.512mph for the race, and finished 32 seconds behind Carswell…… lost all that time in the last half of the race…… was totally drained when I pulled in and if the boys hadn't been there would have just parked the bike up against a wall somewhere…… the boys took the bike back to the paddock where we discovered that I had actually wore through the rubber throttle grip I was pushing on the bars that hard to change direction…… obviously something is not right somewhere. Had to buy some new grips and we decided on going for new slicks for tomorrow, as now these had done 27 laps…… they still look fine, but it's a load off your mind knowing you have new boots on…… will give the bike the once over tomorrow before proceedings commence.

Packed everything up and went to watch the sidecar races at Ballakeighan, and it was a right ding dong between Crowe/Hope, Moly/Hallam and Bell/Carpenter…… these boys were really 'on it'…… but unfortunately the red flags came out after a major incident at Ballawhetstone involving two outfits, and the rest of today's proceedings were abandoned……… Word on the Manor was that it was not good………… Bollocks.

Tune in next time for another very exciting episode………