T.T. 2003 Practice Week - 24th May 2003

Had quite a few problems with one thing and another leading up to the event, with promised parts not arriving, but in this game, as most racers will know, that being surprised at this happening, funnily enough, would surprise me……Changing the bike back to Production Spec turned out to be a major pain in the proverbial arse…. Me and my Spanner man, Stuey had spent a couple of nights doing this in me garage after Jurby Road Races. My bike was missing the EXCVA (Exhaust Control Valve Actuator), which is basically the motor which drives the cables to the 'Exup' Valve in the standard link pipe, I had arranged to borrow one of these from Paul 'Big H' Hunt as he doesn't need the one on his Superbike as it has an aftermarket exhaust system, but Production Rules stated that mine had to be standard. But he couldn't find his, so I ended up going down the road of buying one, as I couldn't take the chance, what with the TT being only two days away….. Was gutted to find that a new one was £353 and I only wanted it for two weeks, but managed to get one from a firm that breaks brand new bikes for £50 +P&P….. Better. It arrived the next day, near enough at the same time 'H' told me he had found his……. Typical or what! This all took a bit of time setting up, and I also had to change a few other things, like the brake master cylinder back to the standard one,(but that had been 'mislaid') , Standard pitch Chain & Sprockets and the Clip Ons…. And the ones given to me by TAS were the wrong ones, looked like they were off 600 and were too small……. Disaster. (Should really check all your spares are the right ones). Another call to Big 'H' and I arranged to swap my Harris Bars for his Standard ones…. Had to wave bye bye to them cos he says I'm not big enough to get them back off him…. The big Twat.

My Production 2003 Yamaha R6 arrived complete with Spanner man 'Jaffa' on Thursday night…. The bike belongs to a Corporate Track Day firm called 'Pro-Cet Racing' (www.procetracing.com / 07984 693488), managed by a bloke called Andy Wright, and I was more than happy to ride it for them…… Must admit, it looks the business, and its just tooooooo pretty….. turns out that Jaffa is a bigger tart than I am when it comes to looking after the bike……. So there'll be no complaining off me there…… the boy just can't stop 'fettling'……

Had previously signed on, on Thursday, and got all my kit checked and then went to the first briefing on the Friday, mainly to get it out of the way and get there before the crowds did, which was handy, as in the scrutineering bay I was the only one there….. waited out for two hours to do the same thing at the Manx GP last year…. Groovy. Stuey and I decided on getting a spot in the concrete paddock so we went up on the Tuesday (20th) and parked his big race bus in there and erected his awning…… there was already a few there and there were others arriving by the minute….. Didn't fancy getting soaked on the grass what with the weather forecast being shite an all. Half expected to be turfed out as the locals are usually treated like something you stepped in, but managed to blag a camping permit so that was treats.

24th May 2003
First Practice

Tipped up in the Paddock at about 1-30pm…… Had a proper team lined up…… My Main man… Jon ' The Wad' Wade…. Stuey 'Fast Boy' Bainborough, Jaffa and Juan ' The Fastest Boy In The East' Kinnish…. And what with the race truck and awning we were at least looking Semi- Factory!

The boys set about dismantling the GSXR 1000 and swap the Clip Ons with Big 'H's bike, it was a novelty watching them doing it relaxing in the deck chair….. Oh yes Indeedy…… As the weather forecast had given rain, Simon 'Goose' Fulton had agreed to lent me the wheels off his new 2003 R6 and an added bonus was that they already had Intermediate tyres fitted to them (Cheers Goose, Top Man)…… and as it rained then dried then rained again, we took the full wet tyres off the Suzuki spare wheels and fitted inters to them as well……. And banged both sets onto both bikes…… well, it would be well wet under the trees that was for sure…… and there are a hell of a lot of trees around the course…. At one point though, it looked like they might cancel the session the weather was that bad.

The boys put both bikes through scrutineering and we were all lined up on the Glencrutchery Road, had a brief chat with the Laxey Pole Cat, Nigel Beattie and then tried to find Stuey who was wheeling forward the Pro-Cet Racing R6…..with all the bikes it was hard to spot him…. But did and he was right near the back….. bugger. Lined up behind an old sparring partner, Jeff Tansley, who I had a great dice with for 2nd & 3rd places down at last years Southern 100 Road Races, he turned round and gave me the nod……. Was soon my turn for the off, and bearing in mind that this was the first time I had even sat on this bike, I was in two mind what to do, but as soon as the flag dropped, I left the other bloke for dead and haired off down Bray Hill…….. It was still well damp at the bottom, but hit it pretty handy like and got a nice wheelie, it was really slippy at the Quarterbridge and could have gone round quicker in a shopping trolley, but wanted to be steady… noticed that the front brake was hard and that was after I had adjusted it…. There was almost too much lever there, but it was probably because I'm used to the Brembo item on the Suzuki which is a lot softer for more feel…… Braddan Bridge was like a skating rink and I had already passed a couple, another bad place was the Railway in Union Mills, and it was good fun going past Jeff going up the Ballahutchin……. Took Ballagarey steady enough and passed a couple more through Crosby, and again down the Highlander …… Greeba was piss wet through and I caught some more, but was held up loads…… the sun in the old eyes wasn't helping much either with the glare off the road……. So wobbled round to Ballacraine…… there was a huge crowd watching here, and I had a bit of a slide mid corner as it was piss wet through here as well….. the Glen Helen section was all wet and not much fun, but it was the same for everyone but was still passing people galore…. And this was my first lap of the course on a bike since I broke down on the first lap of last years Senior Manx Grand Prix…… so not too shabby…… The road was pretty clear all the way to Kirk Michael and I noticed that it was shaking its head a bit especially on the bumpy bits and through the village it was pretty bad…… caught up with Mark Parrett here and tailed him all the way to Ballaugh…… was going to pass him, but thought better of it as he won last years Senior Manx Grand Prix, he may be able to show me some lines, so sat behind and followed…… was only going at a steady pace, and I had a huge tank slapper over Ballacrye….. at this point I decided to turn the steering damper up a couple of clicks, but its hard to feel how many through your gloves, especially at speeds in excess of one hundred miles per hour (Har Har)….. Was going to pull in at Ramsey to see what was what, but still wanted to follow Parrett, so never did……. Over the Mountain he got past riders better than I did as I was being pretty cautious, but was still tailing him down to Hillberry……. Went around his outside into Signpost and nearly out braked meself, then wobbled round the rest of it, and slid around Governors Dip, which was a bloody disgrace, wasn't even on the throttle and it was sliding… was thinking of putting me feet down….. Haired across the line and went for another lap…… the conditions this time around were slightly better, but only slightly, and I still had a few stability problems, which I wanted remedied, but this bike had only just been built so it was gonna have a few…..

Pulled in after the second lap and was made up that nobody had come past me, so my record of never having been passed on the Mountain Course was still intact, but not for long I was sure….. but I was half expecting somebody to do it….. I did 101.3mph on the first lap and 101.99mph on the second, so I was inside the qualifying time and it was pretty wet………. The boys had the big Gixer thou all warmed up, and while Stuey went for a drink for me, Juan cleaned my visor and put new rip offs on it…. Got ready and then I was let loose… it felt strange straight away, not just because I had been on a smaller bike but could notice the difference in the handle bars…… had a bit of a scary moment at the bottom of Bray Hill when I went wide and nearly clipped the wall…. We had been messing around with the front forks beforehand and I wondered if this had something to do with it, so I throttled off and was gonna pull in at the QB, but thought, sod it, just get round, looking back it may have been because I was too eager, cold tyres, full tank of fuel and in the wrong line as the sun was now a lot worse….. had a nice steady run and I caught up with Jason Griffiths in the Glen Helen section on the Virgin Mobile R1 Superbike…… I thought this could be a laugh, passing Jason on that thing, but as he was parked across from me, and I know him pretty well, I knew he was on slick tyres……. I never passed him for two reasons…. The first one was that I wanted him to show me some good lines and if I did go past him he would only pass me back in the dry bits and therefore my record of not having being passed would lie shattered……. He even turned round and saw me up his chuff and moved over as if to let me through…. I just shook my head and said to myself 'your having a larf aint cha' any way as I was still worried about why the bike went wide at Bray, and I'm not that stupid, I never tried to hold on to him on the dry bits, so just watched him bugger off into the distance, spoke to Jason later and he said it was probably the quickest bike he had ever ridden…… There was quite a bit of mist about on the Mountain this lap but was drying up quite nicely, could have squeezed another one in but I didn't fancy taking Bray Hill on a flying lap until I had the bike checked…… the rest of the lap was pretty much uneventful, but still past loads of others, and the bike felt pretty much okay most of the way round, and stable enough, the yellow flags were being waved frantically at Bedstead and there were Marshal's in the road, so slowed and stuck my hand in the air and noticed that there was two riders down and they were being attended to……… brought the bike home nice and safe (103.28mph on this one) which was surprising as I wasn't trying very hard, but must confess the drive of the big 1000cc motor is great….. so three laps in the bag, which was handy.

Jaffa rushed off to wash the shite off the Pro-Cet Racing R6, so I joined him with the Gixer and washed that as well, then lashed them both in the Awning for a bit of tinkering we will do to them tomorrow (Sunday)…………

Keep tuning in for further very exciting updates at ……………… Tommy Clucas Racing