Aintree , 16th June2001

Got a last minute entry for this meeting, and had arranged to go with Nigel Beattie as he was only taking one bike. So, on Friday evening, drove to Laxey, loaded up the van with both bikes and kit and went to catch the 2130hrs Seacat to Liverpool. Had seven people in it as well…..Nige, his Dad, Gary, his Grandad, Ray, two of his mates, Tweed and Beaney and me and Ann. The crossing was quite calm and we drove to a B'n'B not far from the track and got our heads down at around 1.00 am

Got to the track at around 8 o'clock in the morning……found Juan, who had arrived the night before and unloaded the van. Went through scrutineering, signed on etc….then checked the bike over, ready to go. The last time I was at Aintree was in July last year and I came off in practice at Club Corner and broke my collarbone, but still went out and raced……..ouch. (see 2000 diary), so was hoping that I would go better this time. The forecast had given spells of rain but before practice it was completely dry although overcast.

Only one practice session today so went out in the same one as Juan tootled around for a lap, then upped the pace a bit and found that my gearing was all wrong…… halfway down the back straight I was hitting the rev limiter in top……so had to roll it off, it wasn't worth pulling in as it was only a four lap session, so just used it to familiarise myself with the track…….and somehow it seemed different than I remembered it.

We were all entered in four races each the first two were qualifiers for the next two, both me and Juan were in race 5, 16, 20 and 26…..Nige was in Race 1, 8, 16 and 30. Nige was first up and we went to watch and he rode really well hitting the front on lap three (of 4) and went on to win….good start for the Manx Boys.

Got back to the paddock and changed the gearing to a 15 tooth front and a 47 tooth rear……it started to rain, but it wasn't wet enough to put wet tyres on. This year I've got three sets of wheels, each with a different set of tyres on…..wets for when it's pissing down, Dunlop D207GP's for when it's damp and these new Pirelli Super Corsa's for when it's completely dry as these are really just cut slicks as there is no tread going to the edges, so they're pretty shite in the damp. If I had my own van I would have been able to bring all three sets, but as room in Nige's van was limited I only brought the wets, the Pirelli's where already on the bike. It was still raining and I was wishing I had my Dunlops…..both Juan and I didn't know what to do, so we walked around to see what everyone else was doing, and most people where changing to wets…….thought that if the rain kept up that would be the best option. Changed my wheels with the help of Dawnio (cheers Dawn) and Tweed helped Juan and were ready to go. As soon as we had changed it stopped raining and brightened up……bloody typical…..didn't have time to change both wheels, so changed the rear first and kept the wet front on as did Juan. Got to the holding area and it was completely dry…….bollocks. The grid positions are by lucky dip from a bag….not so lucky for me, I picked 40th……….bollocks again. This was the 1300 Open Race qualifier over four laps, and wherever you finished would be your grid position for the final, so I was hoping that I wasn't going to cook my wet front tyre as they overheat if it isn't wet, anyway had the warm up lap and settled on to the last place on the grid………the lights went green and I had a pretty good start and made up a few places at the first corner, could feel the front was a little lively in places but kept my head down and was passing quite a few………had a few front end slides because of the tyre and was thinking of pulling in but because it was only a four lap race I decided to carry on…… on the last lap I had made my way up to 13th and had a huge gap behind and was in a qualification spot but because there was a bloke in front of me I wanted to get him before the end, and on the last corner (Club Corner) I was really cranked over and the front tyre just let go………….and down I went.

Was sliding across the tarmac and ended up on the grass, the bike tried to flip but I kept a tight hold of it and had to pull it back down. As soon as I stopped sliding I picked the bike up and assessed the damage…………there was a foot peg missing a few cracks in the fairing, a bent handlebar, loads of grass and not much else………… a result!…………had scuffed my leathers as well, but they did their job again.

The race was red flagged because of me, so the positions from the previous lap was the result, thought that was handy because I was running in 13th I would qualify…… ……but on checking the hadn't included me cos I had come off……pleaded my case so they agreed to let me start at the back of the grid for the Final. Oh well better than not getting in at all I suppose. Juan finished 6th.

Rode the bike back to the paddock and Juan, Nige, Tweed and Dawnio helped me fix it (Cheers)….. replaced the Foot peg, Handlebar, the front wheel back to one with the proper tyre on and cleaned it up….didn't look too bad when it was all done, you wouldn't have known if it wasn't for the cracks in the fairings. Got the bike re-scrutineered and refuelled ready for the Formula 600 qualifier (race 12). Nige was out in Race 8 so went to watch that and he won it again….nice one.

Pulled 14th on the grid this time Juan was a row behind me in 19th……the lights went green and I got a pretty good start and at the first corner went around the outside of a few and made my way up to about 6th……..Juan told me afterwards he thought I was going to go on the grass, but had no fears about that, only trouble was I was bogging the bike down as the gearing was different and I was in too high a gear all the time and I was getting passed, had to stamp it down a gear and Juan passed me going down the back straight and dove up the inside of a couple more at Beechers and buggered off, I was pretty cautious everywhere, especially through Club Corner and through here I was losing the most places, each lap I was two gears too high and by the time I had stamped it down two somebody was past me, the only place that I felt I was pretty good was Country Corner, the only left hander on the track, and I ground the fairing down again……….was pretty disappointed to finish 14th. Ann told me that I had lapped in 1'00.6 roughly the same times as Nige was doing and he won his race, Juan had a best of 57.6……..My goal for the day had been to get into the 58 second bracket as I had lapped at 1'00 on the R1 with a broken collarbone…..so, way off the pace I was hoping for.

Went to watch Nige in his 250cc Final (race 16) and he was flying and he won it again, I timed him at 59.2 so he had upped his pace, and looked like he could have gone a little harder if pushed, but three wins from three starts…..pretty good for a Laxey Booooyyy.

My next race was race 20…….the 1300 Open Final, 7 laps, and as I was supposed to go to the back of the grid, I had to wait till every one else had gone through the holding area…..somebody never turned up so I was allocated their position which just happened to be 15th on the grid…….better than the back, but roundabouts where I would have been anyway…. Lights went green and got blocked at the first corner, as all the big bikes got a flier, passed a few though, but was in too high a gear again and got pushed wide at Village Corner and lost a few places, passed a few back and was in a group of about six, was still pretty crap around Club Corner but made up the lost yards at the next one (Country) was pretty steady the whole race and stayed in the position I was in till the finish which was…………..17th………lapped again in the 1'00………..was pretty disappointed not to have broken into the 59's…..and wasn't over the moon about the result. Juan had pulled in after nearly crashing twice on the same lap, was on the grass but saved it both times. I was riding like an old woman, but I wasn't wanting to fall off with the final Championship round at Jurby next week. You're never going to win any races by going steady and having no hairy moments. I didn't feel like I had my head round it today.

Next race was race 26 the Formula 600 Final and I was on the fourth row in 15th spot …………Juan was on the front in 2nd spot. Nige had already packed his bike in the van as he was in race 30 and we only just had time for my race, so after the warm up lap…… the lights went green and we were off, got blocked a lot again at the first corner but passed a few on the outside only to lose them all again when I didn't have enough revs on and the bike bogged down again….was sitting behind three blokes and had a gap behind me when saw somebody crash going into Club Corner and the race was red flagged………shite….I didn't have time for that. Sat on the grid and looked in the crowd for Ann and Dawnio….signalled to them to see if I had time to continue and they gave me the thumbs up…..sat there for about ten minutes and knew that now I would be pushing it to make it to the ferry, looked at Ann and Dawnio again and they waved to me to come in……so had to start my bike up and go backwards through the grid and back to the Paddock………the boys were waiting for me with the van doors open and the ramp to go into the van, gave them the bike to put in and got changed, and we high tailed it to the boat……..made it just in time.

Was a bit disappointed about the whole day, but it could have been worse if the bike had flipped ….and I had hurt myself, but I was starting to stiffen up and had a sore upper arm, finger, ankle and arse……….Nige must have been a bit disappointed too, cos he must have been favourite to win the race he missed. Got a message from Dawnio to say that Juan had won the restarted race and had a best lap of 56.9 which might be the lap record……..nice one…….he was really on it today and no mistake.

After a really rough crossing got back to the Island about 2045hrs, unloaded my bike and kit from Nige's van and straight into mine that I had left at the sea terminal and headed for home. A bit of fettling to do for next weekend, so hopefully I'll pull my finger out and get a few good results. Felt that it had been a pretty pointless excursion. Definitely feel that I need to get away more to improve, and need more time on the bike. With doing it every week you can see the improvement that Juan is making, but it all comes down to money in the end………..or the lack of it…….

So, tune in next time for another very exciting, silly tyre choosing, arse sliding episode of………………Tommy Clucas Racing.