Southern 100 - Thursday, 10th July 2003

Billown Circuit

Had been really looking forward to the 600 race today, pretty excited about being on the front row with Lougher and Farquhar but the weather looked decidedly dodgy, and then it started to piss down with rain. Stuey had a word on Ian Lougher to see if he could help with the suspension on the GSXR1000 and he duly came over and bounced it up and down for about 10 minutes and set it how he would have ridden it…… top man…… changed quite a few things but mostly the rebound damping as he said he felt that both the front and rear was rebounding too quick…… so we slowed that down yissa…… oh yes indeedy.

Changed the wheels on the R6 to intermediates, but as the rain started to get heavier, I went for a lap of the course in Stuey's car and straight away decided on changing again, this time onto full wets…… there was standing water everywhere and the road at Cross Four ways looked like glass, it was that shiny. Had the bike all done and held in the holding area after it was scrutineered……… the rain stopped and as it was pretty warm said to both Stuey and the Wad I was worried that my rear tyre would cut up if a dry line appeared……

I have two different types of wet rear tyres, a 'block' type and a new type that just looks plain weird, and I'd avoided using it because of this, but after using the type that I never fancied at Jurby road race and finding that it wore better than the 'block' type wet, I was wishing I had that on instead. Stuey said he had a spare rear rim in his van, so he got the tyre fitted to it and lashed it on the bike in the holding area with seconds to spare. Lined up in the dummy grid on the front row…… Lucky Lougher was on exactly the same tyre combo as me, but Ryan 'Faragher' was on heavily cut intermediates. Well I had on what I had so if it wasn't good enough and the tyres cut up, I would just pull in……

On the warm up lap, even though it was soaking wet, I was less worried than I was…… followed Farquhar round behind the pace car and there was a huge gap behind us…… started to feel a bit more confident, but less so coming through Great Meadow when there was steam coming off the road…… bollocks! It was drying up…… noticed some of the boys from work hanging off the wall at Stadium Corner, again on their annual pilgrimage for the Thursday afternoon 'session'…… and saw fast Laxey Boy Juan Kinnish hanging off the wall round the bend with his girlfriend 'Bubba'…… gave them a wave too. Got to the proper grid and lined up in my 3rd spot. The lights changed to green, and again I got an average start…… got passed by Griffiths and Parrett, but outbraked the latter man into Ballakeighan. It was Lougher into the first corner followed by Farquhar, Griffiths then me……… Chased them down to the Iron Gate, round the bridge and towards Ballabeg…… could see that Lougher was pulling away from Farquhar a bit and I was up Jason's chuff…… felt really steady with the pace that we were doing and I did feel like I could up it a tad, rounding Cross Four Ways, being careful to avoid all the white lines, started to line Jason up for a pass…… slipstreamed him through Great Meadow and went up his inside at Stadium Corner…… that was a sweet move, passing the 600cc lap record holder…… was well happy with that…… imagined he would now tuck in behind me, so I was wary of him taking me back, but he never…… had a bit of a slide at Williams bend on the second lap, most probably on the white painted line, and thought to myself, Jason would have seen that and might think my arse had popped and try and have a go at me soon after, but he never did. Rounding Cross Four Ways for the second time, could see Farquhar just up the road, and still could see him all the way round the next lap as well…… Chris had +2 on the board then +3 and so on, then got a big gap signal crossing the line, so I was in a comfortable third place…… was having a nice and steady run, and was just hoping that the bike would hold together, and wasn't having any hairy moments…… started to get pretty tired in the arms again, but there was no way I was stopping even though it was pretty difficult to brake, especially at Cross Four Ways, where you have to scrub a lot of speed off…… had a pretty lonely ride and Chris swung out the board on lap 8 saying +8 (when in actual fact it was more like +20…… he said he didn't want me to get complacent!) only seeing +8 made me feel like I couldn't afford a mistake and I lost a bit of time with a backmarker at the Iron Gate…… he actually had a look behind and saw me, but still never got out of the way, and he nearly put me in the hedge when I went around his outside…… nobber. Felt like I had lost a couple of seconds there, so got my head down and kept my eye on the lap timer and was consistently doing 2' 40's and 2' 41's, so that was okay…… The longer the race went on the bigger the dry line was, and the benefit of having full wets on disappeared, so went looking for damp bits to cool the tyres down a bit, didn't know what condition they were in, but wasn't having any slides, so thought that they must be okay eventually saw the last lap flag and still it said +8 on my board, so barring anything stupid I was on the podium, thought I heard the noise of a bike behind me once or twice but that was just my imagination, and through stadium for the last time, the boys were all waving so gave them a wave back and the same to Chris when I went past him, and took the flag in third spot………… yeee haaarr……

Was ushered into the winners enclosure, the team took the bike off me and I was knackered, the bike was covered in crap, but I was well pleased, had a look at the tyres and they were still in top nick…… coooool…… got interviewed by Chris Kinley on Manx Radio again and babbled a load of shite, then went on the Podium with Lougher who won by a whisker from Farquhar. Got a load of photo's taken and then it was back to the paddock to decide what bike I was gonna use in the invitation race…… if it was gonna be wet again I was gonna go back out on the 600…… so me and the Wad gave it a wash…… as we were doing it the sun came out and it was as warm as hell.

Chris got my grid position for the 12 Lap Invitation Race and I was on the 4th row in 12th spot……… a bit of a downer, but I'd been struggling on the big Suzuki so that was that…… had new slicks on for this race and we all lined up on the grid…… got the start and I got another crap one…… the clutch is at the end of the lever and its pretty hard to get it off the line…… lost a few places being extra cautious at the first corner but passed a few going down to the Iron Gate…… just as I was tipping in saw a bike fly through the air and saw that it was Guy Martin's, he had gone straight into the bales and his bike went flying…… god knows how everyone avoided him as he sat in the middle of the track…… I thought that it must warrant a red flag but everyone just haired off again…… so haired off again meself…… had Lougher and Big 'H' come either side of me on the anchors into Cross Four Ways, and nearly out brake each other then the red flags were out by the time we got to Stadium Corner…… so lined up back on the grid, and because it took longer than expected, we all went back to the dummy grid in the holding area…… We were let out again after about 10-15 minutes, and had another warm up lap, the race was reduced to 10 laps, then lined up back on the grid…… got another average start, but wasn't really bothered, about this race, just wanted to see if the changes Lougher had made to my bike made it feel better. Chased Parrett for the first couple of laps till we reeled in and got stuck behind No25, Cranston, who I was told later on used to be Irish Champion years ago, and he was a right twat to get past…… we were both quicker than him out the back section but as I was playing it safe, I wasn't getting involved in any fairing bashing, but Parrett eventually got him on the brakes into Cross Four Ways and started to pull away from us…… getting held up made Big H enter the equation on his 600, and he was diving up the inside of me at every corner only for me to pass him on the straights, and as I couldn't hold it flat out round the back section because of this bloke in front of me I knew 'H' would be catching me back up…… sure enough another hairy outbraking manoeuvre into Cross Four Ways……… wanted to sit behind him and follow him through, but my extra cubes drove me past without trying and I closed the door on him into Stadium Corner, only for the crazy bastard to open it again around the outside of me in the gutter……… had to stand on the brakes which unsettled the bike a lot…… close one…… got round the corner okay though…… Had a P10 signal off Chris and I knew that it would now be P11 as H had just passed me…… next lap round, on the flat out bits, my screen was almost touching the handlebars and I was thinking what the hell was all that about……… then I saw that the fairing bracket which holds the top fairing in place had snapped in half…… bollocks…… the fairing was bending over that far, I thought the whole thing was going to shatter into a thousand pieces…… decided on taking the safe option of touring in………

The boys were waiting for me and took the bike…… I was knackered again, it was really hot and I was sweating cobs…… was glad it was all over and I got through it unscathed…… which is always the best result. Got back to the paddock and the boys took the bracket off ready for welding…… will lash it all back together tomorrow. Checked the lap timer and on my second lap it indicated a 2' 24.89 (105.590mph)……… Jesus! I was wondering if it was right, though it had been all week so there was no reason not to believe it now…… but asked George Peach in the race office to check it and it wasn't……… boo. Don't know how it said it on the ol lap timer though.

Next up is Jurby Road Races on Saturday, where I no doubt will be locking horns again with Carswell and Hunt…… Here we go again………

So tune in next time for another very exciting, podium placing, more dust collectors (trophies) episode of………………… Tommy Clucas Racing.