Jurby Airfield, Isle of Man - 28th April 2002

ARA Championship - Rounds 5 & 6
Jurby Airfield - (Clockwise)

Jumped in the van and headed for Jurby just after 9am…… Picked up my Spannerman on the way…… Jon 'The Wad' Wade, of Jon Wade Gardening Services (01624 844668) who was making a record third on the bounce appearance…… Top Man, and no mistake……

The journey up didn't take long and it was raining, but not much, the forecast (if it's worth listening to) had given showers throughout the day, but looking on the horizon could see that it was looking brighter up Jurby way…… so again was hoping that if it was going to be wet, it would stay wet, or stay completely dry, as I only had my No 2 Bike available as the No 1 bike is still at V&M in Manchester, it's all run in and ready to race but I couldn't get it over here…… and its putting out more power now than it was before…… Cooooooool…… But it didn't come cheap……… Boooooooo…

Picked my usual (ish) spot in the paddock and started to put my awning up, when that was done Wad put the bike through scrutineering, so next up was to sign on, and get the kit all checked, had to wear my old (repaired) leathers as me new ones were still at Sam's (Celtic Leathers) getting repaired. The sun had come out by now and there was blue skies, though it was well windy, which was blowing the dodgy clouds away, but was also blowing new ones over…… this bike already had my wets tyres on it so it looked like we'd be changing them. Got all the usual jobs done, and changed the wheels to the dry tyres…… sure enough, before the first practise session, it started raining, so had to put the wets back on. Went out to the start line and taped my lap timer beacon on to a cone, try and remember not to forget it this time……

Went out in my first practise session, did 4 laps, it was pretty cold, and had it sliding around a bit, had a problem with my visor steaming up, even though its got one of those Fog City Shields on it, that's the main reason I wear my dark visor even in the rain, (if anyone was wondering), it's the only visor I have that's got one on, the second reason is to hide my ugly mug. Had forgotten to set my lap timer to the proper settings so never got a time for practise, although it felt steady enough, though, not at all quick. Just before the second practise session, the wind suddenly picked up and then it hailed…… Jesus H. Christ did it come down…… so much so that they postponed the session till it ended, had to have a few of us holding the awning down, and it was strapped to the van!…… Was slightly worried that it was going to take off…… It soon passed though, and then the sun came out and with the wind that was blowing, it started to dry the track, but not the paddock, or the inside of my awning…… went out in my second session, still on my wet tyres, this time I tried a different visor and taped my nose up, with my foggy mask over the top, which seemed to do the trick, and also managed to up my pace. The track was drying up pretty quickly by this time and there were only a few damp patches left, most notably at the Hairpin and Snuffies……… By the time I pulled in I had already decided to change to my Supercorsa's. Changed the wheels with Wad, but decided against putting brand new rubber on, went instead for the set that had done 18 laps on at Oulton Park and 7 laps at Cadwell Park (approx 63 miles), usually, I wouldn't get much more out of a set, and would sell them as scrubs, but thought that in the conditions that we had, the pace wasn't going to be hot enough to warrant ruining a new set…… It's handy having more than one set of spare wheels. Had a few others come to see what tyres I was running, Robbie Black being the most subtle when he ripped me tyre warmer off and had a look…… Typical Laxey Booooyyyy…… Dessie Collins of Wilson & Collins tipped up and introduced me and my Team Manager, Chris, to top rider Blair Degerholm, a seriously fast boy, who, if there's any justice, will be back on a bike soon…

Was soon called for my first race, Race 1, Round 5 of the 1300 Open Centre Championship, 10 laps, and again was on the front row, with Chris Heath, Paul Dedman and Rob Sells, must have been the first time Sellsy had been on the front row for the Centre Championship…… had two warm up laps, then the flag dropped, bogged the bike down a bit and lost a few places when Gary Carswell and Bruce Black came either side of me, but made it all back into the first corner, so much so that I went second behind Dedman with Heathy and Bruce going off the track and through the cones, but the buggers came back on the track ahead of me…… got in behind Heath and nearly hit him one the brakes at the hairpin, and again going round the Perimeter when I got the power on earlier than he did, thought he must have had a slide at the first corner and was taking it steady for the first lap, he pulled away from me on the straight, even popped a big wheelie…… Jesus that thing has got some power, went round Snuffies pretty handy, and into the Bus Stop had managed to pull in the gap, and the four of us had made a break for it, but to be honest, was struggling to get the feel for the bike, it is completely different to my No1 bike and it isn't set up at all, I've only really ridden it in the wet and not a lot either……… they started to pull a gap on me as soon as we got on the start/finish straight, but was going to try and pull a bit back on the brakes into the first crossover chicane, don't know what brake pads this bike has got, but there was no feel and it felt like I wasn't going to stop, so I still had the anchors on by the time I tipped into the corner, first thought was that I was going to hit the kerb…… but dodged it…… then I thought I was on the grass, but managed to dodge that…… bloody hell…… lost a lot of speed (and nerve) over that, close one…… might have something to do with changing the wheels, with different discs, and the pads hadn't bedded in properly…… by the time I got my head down the front three had pulled a good gap on me, as I rounded Nans and was coming out on to the Start/finish straight, there was a bloody cone right in the racing line, one of the boys must have knocked it onto the track…… not ideal…… haired down the straight, and again into the first corner on the brakes, the same thing happened, bloody bike wouldn't slow down quickly enough, so this time went for the safe option of overshooting…… that was it then, have to brake loads earlier than I normally do next time around, wasn't really enjoying it as I could see the front three buggering off into the distance, but knew I was in a comfortable fourth…… next time round, decided on giving this dodgy cone a wide berth by taking a different line, and as I did so it had moved again, and I only just missed it, couldn't friggin believe it hadn't been shifted…… wasn't happy, tried to signal to the officials on the line that there was sommat up back on the track, must have worked because it had gone a lap or so later……… had a steady ride till it started to rain again on the 9th lap and going down the back straight on the last one, it absolutely lashed it down, had a quick look behind and wobbled round the last few corners, must have only been doing 20mph, if that, would have been worth losing some places rather than falling off, but still managed to come home a comfortable 4th…… Wasn't as happy as I should have been with the result the way things had went, and had I been on the other bike, I would have been a lot closer to the front, that's for sure…… although everyone had gone a lot slower than normal, the conditions were far from ideal… my fastest lap was a 1' 02.84…… which isn't all that impressive, could go quicker than that going to the shops. Was glad to get into the Awning and shelter from the rain……

Wasn't out again till Race 6 so me and The Wad, changed the wheels back to my wets, it was so typical that I didn't have the other bike with me, cos instead of changing wheels, all we would have normally done, would have been to warm either one of them up, one already fettled for the wet and the other for the dry…… Had everything ready, until the weather changed again…… It was rapidly drying, but looked like there was more rain in the air…… the wind was blowing the clouds so fast, it was changing every ten minutes or so……… so it was going to come down to a last minute decision, even jumped on me scooter and went to both ends of the track to see what it was like…… and it was wet one end, but pretty dry the other…… bollocks. Anyway, the race was called and I opted for full wets, had I had intermediates, they would definitely have gone on, but decided on the full wets, would be better than the dry's, hopefully the worst that would happen would be that I would banjo the tyres and not the whole bike by jumping off…… Sellsy was on full wets as well, but Norman had Inters on so thought that he would be the one to keep me eye out for…… So it was Round 5 of the Formula 600 championship, 8 laps, was on the front row again, and on the warm up laps, knew that the tyres were going to be a problem, it was only really damp in two or three places, but if it got too bad, I'd just knock it off and cruise round for some points, anything is better than nothing…… we settled on the grid and then we were offski…… got similar start to every one else, but by the time we got to the first chicane I had hit the front, so got my head down and pulled a gap…… had a look behind after a couple of laps and knew that it was Sellsy in 2nd, but a few seconds back, so had a comfortable lead, now to just stay on the bugger…… Had a huge slide at the Perimeter section and the track was drying that quickly I knew my tyres were overheating, but carried on regardless, was still pulling away till on the last couple of laps when the rear tyre felt that bad it felt like it was flat, so knocked it off a tad and cruised to the finish……… quality…… 5 wins out of 5.. Got back to the paddock, and my rear tyre was absolutely wankered…… the front was pretty much okay though……
As I had expected, Norman had nabbed 2nd, Sellsy had slipped to 4th, his tyres were as bad as mine…… so first thing to do was to change back to the dry tyres……… again. Whilst doing so noticed a load of fluid down the right hand side of the bike…… looked like oil……… it was all over the engine casings and as far back as the footpeg……… shite.

Whipped all the fairings off with Wad, wiped it all down, but couldn't really tell where it was coming from, although found that the smallest hose from the water pump was leaking, so replaced the hose clip on that and started it up to build up a bit of engine pressure, to see if I could spot anything, looked and looked but couldn't see anything so tried to put it all back together……… had major problems getting the fairings back on, and was losing patience with it…… they had already called the next Centre Championship race and I still didn't have the fairings on or the wheels in……… bollocks, didn't help that I twisted my sore finger again and was kneeling in the puddles that were in the Awning, its at times like these you wonder why you bother…… could have done with more hands than we had…… Missed the Centre Championship race, which was a bitch, cos I'm lying 3rd overall at the moment, so that was points missed……… eventually managed to get it all back together, after a lot of effing and blinding, and during that race the weather was the best it had been all day…… bloody typical, bone dry and sunny but there was still a stiff breeze blowing…… Fitted a brand new set of SuperCorsa's for my last race of the day, the second Formula 600 event (Round 6) ……… but it pissed down again…… Jesus! I'm getting sick of this……… had no option to run a SuperCorsa on the rear, so left the new one on, was going to change back to the scrubbed one but the race had been reduced to 4 laps so thought that I wouldn't ruin it too much, but changed the front back to a full wet. As soon as we had it all done, the bloody sun came out again and was drying the track…… Struggled to get my glove on, my finger had swollen so much, which wasn't ideal to say the least, then was soon called to the holding area, parked next to Sellsy, he had SuperCorsa's on front and rear, while Norman still had his Inters on…… on the warm up lap, found that my clutch was slipping……… what a bastard! Knew I was going to struggle, as the only really damp bit was at Snuffies, but no choice now, was thinking back to when I had a wet front tyre on last year in the dry at Aintree, and I binned it when it overheated, must confess, I was a tad worried…… just wanted to get to the finish in one piece, but still really wanted to win it. There didn't seem to be many in this one, there had been a few that had tipped off throughout the day, and others had buggered off because of the conditions (and who could blame them, really makes you appreciate the Marshals and Officials on days like this). Got a pretty good start as I was first into the corner, but I think I was holding them up as I wobbled round the hairpin…… could feel the front pushing at every dry corner and was trying my hardest to be as smooth as possible, and to keep it as upright as possible, at the Hairpin on the second lap, knew there was someone up my chuff as I could here a bike behind me, must have been close if I could hear it, cos I had me earplugs in…… and it was a four stroke, so it must be Rob…… going down the home straight to start the third lap, Sellsy pulled along side me and obviously was going for an out braking manoeuvre into the first crossover chicane…… as I was on the inside line, that meant I'd be on a tight line…… not good with the tyre I had on, still, left the braking as late as I thought was safe, which meant to get past, Rob had to leave it later, but he went in too hot and had to overshoot, thought about following him, but didn't…… he stuck his hand in the air and came back on in front of me…… he looked behind and waved to say sorry, then I chased him down the back straight…… noticed into Snuffies where it was still damp, he was a lot more cautious than me, it was the only place on the track where I had the advantage, had another look into the Bus Stop, but thought next time round I'll line up a move on him at Snuffies…… He was getting the drive out of the corners better than me, but I was on his tail as we headed down the back straight for the last time……… as we approached Snuffies, he slowed like he did on the previous lap, and the door opened…… but I never took it…… to be perfectly honest, if I would have dived up his inside there, it definitely would have put him off line and he might have ended up on the grass…… and it was that wet, he'd never have saved it…… if I didn't know him, or it was for something a lot more important than just three points, I would have gone for it though…… but all the while, I was thinking 'Take the 12 points for 2nd'…… had another look into the Bus Stop, but it was the same scenario, so, unless he made a mistake in the last part of the lap, I wasn't going to get past him, but he actually pulled away out of the last chicane, his bike is certainly fast, and he got to the line half a second ahead…… I would have taken 2nd before the race, with the oil leak, clutch slip, tyre choice etc…… but was still pretty disappointed, but you can't win em all…… there's no pleasing me it seems…… got to be happy that I've extended my lead in the 600 Championship. Pulled into the Paddock, and there was oil all over the place again, but thankfully not as far back as the rear tyre……… a few more laps and it might have been though, and I still couldn't tell where it was coming from……… triple bollocks. It was getting pretty late in the day by now, so loaded the van after I had lapped the circuit on me scooter looking for me brand new knee sliders that I had lost…… they'll last me a whole season, they will…… couldn't find them though………… bugger…… driving away from the circuit there wasn't a cloud in the sky…

Got back to Peel, and unloaded the van with The Wad, have to try and suss where this friggin oil is coming from, and get a new clutch in it, ready for going away this weekend…… I'm having a crack at the British Championship 600 Supersport at Oulton Park on Bank Holiday Monday…… will be well happy if I can qualify without any mishaps and then go for a top 30 position…… might sound crap that, but you have got no idea, and I mean no idea, how hard it is at that level…… especially for a still, green under the gills, muppet like me…

So, tune in for another very exciting, hopefully not raining, or finger twisting episode of…………… Tommy Clucas Racing.