Jurby South Road Race, Isle of Man - 13th July 2002

Jurby South Road Race

Had everything in the van still in the van from the Southern 100 Road Races, and hoped I had everything ready to go…… left to go to Jurby at around 10 o'clock in the morning, picking up, again, The Wad en route… The sun was shining and there was hardly a breath of wind blowing, which is just what the doctor ordered……… its been a top week for sunshine so far…… and no mistake.

Got to Jurby and thought about not putting the Awning up seeing as how it was a top day, but decided on doing it anyway…… more for a wind break than anything else…… the weather up Jurby can change……… well, like the wind! Didn't take long to do it as we have done it that many times now…… it's a breeze…… no pun intended.

Had entered 3 races today, all scheduled for 6 laps of this bumpy 4.25 mile road circuit…… both the 1300cc Open Solo events (Races 1&3) and the 600cc Open Race (Race 5), which is always the one I want to do best in…… surprise, surprise, seeing as how it's a 600cc R6 Yamaha that I'm clinging on to. Had Stu Bainborough coming to help me again today, both he and the Wad have been a godsend this past week and I couldn't have done it without them…… it's at times like these that you ever wonder how you manage on your own. Also had my mate Juan 'Fast as F**k' Kinnish tipping up to help as he was on the Island and his knowledge on bike set up being considerably better than mine, I thought that this would be……' well handy like'.

Had the bike all fettled ready after the last race on Thursday at Billown, before packing it in the van…… I had changed the gearing on the bike to what I would have used at the Dundrod circuit, confirmed by Jason Griffith's mechanic, Tom Dickie…… so at least it would be somewhere, there or thereabouts…… Have been concentrating on just using the No 1 bike as it has been a lot harder than I thought setting this suspension up to suit me…… I know I had Moodie's settings on for the Southern 100, but the bike still wasn't handling the way I would have liked it…… still wobbling and weaving all over the shop…… some one mentioned to me at the Southern presentation on Thursday night that a few people had said that I looked out of shape in loads of places………… That's because I was mate…… Even on the straights I wasn't getting that much of a rest…… suspension set up for the roads is far more critical than it is on a race track, where you can get away with murder. Signed on, put the bikes through scrutineering and got my kit checked…… all the usual stuff done., then put some rip offs on my helmet, something you've got to have when road racing.

Was called for the first of two practise sessions, so was about second out on the road…… Chris had my lap timer beacon switched on just after the holding area, so I would get a time for everything apart from the last lap, which would have to do…… Have only been on this track once and that was only my third ever race meeting on the Island when I was a Novice, back in May 2000, but had a pretty good idea where I was going… Had previously done a couple of laps on the open road a few days before on the Road & Track Motorcycles R6 Yamaha to familiarize myself with it……… so got my head down and cracked on…… it was a lot bumpier at a faster pace than I remembered it and on my second lap went in a bit too hot at Jurby West Corner and under braking the back wheel lifted way off the deck as I crested a bump, went for the safe option of taking the slip road, and one of my now customary (so it seems) 6 point turns ensued……… oops. This let a few past me, so got my head down again and had passed them all but one by the time we got to Cronk Corner…… was still really having to fight the bike all the way round again, apart from on the smooth bits…… Had Dave Black pop his head into see me and he gave me a few tips and said that I would have to be taking both the left hand kink and the next right hand corner after that, at the end of the long start straight, flat out in top……and where to apex it…… its easier said than done…… managed the left hand kink in 6th gear ok, but for the first practise only took the next one in 5th…… there was a traveling Marshall's bike on the road here and it put me off a tad…… and I was wanting to stay on it. Pretty much struggled all the way round especially through the 'Pillbox' section where the bike was slapping all over the place…… not good, this is the area that is closest to the pits entrance and the spectators and pit crew are that close to the action you can see how fast it really is…… so much so and cos they weren't expecting it, my little nieces burst out crying when the first bikes went past, even my twin brother who was over on holiday and had never watched before couldn't believe it. The chequered flag came out after only four laps, so it was back to the paddock.

Juan had watched from the pit straight and had noticed a few things on the way the bike was behaving and said he thought it was still too set up on its nose…… and have to drop the ride height on the back and drop the forks back down the top yoke to level the bike……… so he set about doing this, and I backed off the steering damper, slow speed and high speed compression damping to half what it was, making a shed load of notes on the way…… Stu also changed the gearing on the rear sprocket by going down another tooth, as I'm sure it would pull it down the long straight, especially if I was draughting somebody, but to be honest, didn't think I'd be in a 1000cc machine's slipstream for that long. Checked the lap timer and had best time of 2 '35.78 which is probably 5 seconds faster than I had managed on the R1 back in May 2000, but was still really shit considering…… Was near enough straight out in my second practise session, had the back end done but had no time to drop the forks down, so I went out and tried what we had done…… on the warm up half lap as I tipped into the first corner, noticed straight away that the bike behaved differently, it felt some much more neutral and I didn't have to fight it as much, confirmed by the fact that I could take that big balls right hander after the start straight in 6th gear, albeit feathering the throttle, but knew that it would be pinned to the stop come race time…… was still a little flighty through the Pillbox section, but I'm sure that was half my fault with being in the wrong line and not snicking up a gear early enough. Managed another 4 laps before the flag came out again, and crossing the line I thought I'd have another go at taking those two corners flat out this time, but halfway down the start straight………… Disaster!……… The bike lost power and was making a loud noise……… I slowed right down and my first thoughts were that it had dropped a valve or I'd blown the exhaust pipes out of the manifold it was that noisy…… was gutted……… but it was the first time that the bike had let me down…… toured back to the pits. The boys had 'what the f**k' looks on their faces…… and I had a ' don't f**king know' on mine…… checked the bike over and found that one of the expansion chambers on the exhaust down pipes was missing and it had ripped a hole in the other one……… bollocks…… how the hell did that happen…… so decision time…… either get the No 2 bike ready, which meant changing a hell of a lot to get it ready for Jurby spec or swap the exhaust systems round, these weren't the same either as my No 1 bike has a 60mm laser system fitted and the No 2 a 50mm Akrapovic…… Decided on the latter, as I needed to set up my No 1 bike before anything……… so the boys set about dismantling both bikes…… even had a couple of the scrutineers passing the spanners. It didn't help much that the bike was boiling hot and we all burned ourselves on it more than once…… checked my lap timer and I was 8 seconds a lap quicker, doing 2 '27's…… a massive improvement, only 6 or 7 seconds off Milky Quayle's 600cc lap record………I felt that I had been putting the same amount of effort in for both practices and just because of a few suspension changes my lap time had tumbled, but, I was still rolling the throttle in places where I know I shouldn't have been and as soon as the bike starts to behave better I will be trying harder, for sure……… the tweaks Juan had made had obviously worked…… so now we knew that we were going in the right direction……… If the bike had been handling as well as this at the Southern 100, I would have gone sooo much quicker…… but Rome wasn't built in a day as they say…… Race 1 was called and we were nowhere near getting ready so that was that missed……… bollocks again..

The boys worked flat out to get the bike ready for Race 3 and it had been called and we still weren't finished, there was bits of bike, spanners and sockets all over the place, god only knows how but we made it just in time…… Juan also dropped the ride height on the rear again, and managed to do the forks as well this time to help with the stability…… was hoping that everything was tightened up, but you've got to have faith in your team, so I put that to the back of my mind…… was also hoping that this exhaust system wouldn't upset the carburetion on the bike and it would run okay…… went out on the warm up half lap and settled on my spot on the second row for this 6 lap race…… (was looking forward to the 600cc Race cos I was on Pole for that one)…… and when the flag dropped, I got a really good start and was up to second behind Gary Carswell on his big Suzuki Gixer 1000…… by the time we were in fourth gear, Big 'H' on his Gixer thou' blasted past me and there was nothing I could do but watch them pull away, but still, I was in third place and holding my own…… approaching the 'ballsy' right hander, flat out in top, decided on keeping it pinned to the stop all the way round, but the two lads in front were skimming the newly cut grass hedge and the wind blast of them going past meant I was showered with grass which made me roll the throttle a bit and they pulled further away……… got to Ballavarran Corner and Pete 'Hound Dog' Hounsell, on his R1 Yamaha showed me his front wheel, on the brakes…… actually he went in a bit too hot, and because of this I let him in, (he apologised later), said he had to get past because I would have held him up through the Pillbox section, but he actually held me up for the first part of it, then powered away on the straight. He pulled quite a few yards on me and into the second lap along the huge straight it was still the same position wise with me holding fourth, when the red flags came out and we were all held at Ballavarran Corner…… turns out that John Crellin and Barry Wood had crashed at Killane…… a notoriously bad spot on the course…… nothing serious though I was told, although it was a huge crash…… the marshals there told me Johns bike hit the hedge, took off and flew 60 yards through the air……wow. If I hadn't seen where it landed I would never have believed it. We were held for absolutely ages, then were sent back to the paddock, only to get the tyre warmers on, fuel checked, then they called us out again. So it was back out on the warm up half lap to the grid…… On the restart, which was reduced to 4 laps, got another good start, but this time Big 'H' got a better one than before and I watched as he and Gary approached the fast left hand kink side by side…… then Hound Dog blasted past me again…… all the while I was thinking, just wait till the 600 race ya bastards……… again the grass was blowing off the hedge…… Posted two 2' 27 laps for the first two, having to stand on the footrests most of the way from Jurby West Corner to Cronk Corner it was that bumpy…… but then decided that I wasn't going to push that much harder to make up the ground on Hound dog, so I knocked it off a tad for the last two laps……… had a look on the last lap at Ballavarran Corner, and saw somebody a 100 or so yards behind, but said to myself that he wouldn't catch me before the finish and sure enough got to the flag in 4th (first 600 home)…… had a look to see who had been catching me and there was no-one there, and didn't really think that much more about it.Got back to the paddock, found that I was in the prize money again, so that was not too bad, my last 3 races have earned me a few quid, not a lot though, beer money if nothing else…… Juan suggested we try and drop the rear ride height again and did it ready for the 600 race, which I was well looking forward to, had the bike all ready and then was informed that the meeting might have to be cancelled because both Ambulances had gone to the hospital, because someone else had crashed on the last lap……again, at Killane. Time was a pressing and because of having no doctor or Ambulances at the circuit, they abandoned the rest of the meeting…… so only half the races were run…… bollocks…… didn't get chance to try the suspension changes we had made, Juan reckoned this time it should prove better again…… but alas, thundering down Bray Hill at the Manx GP may be the first time I try them…… Left the team to pack up while I went round the circuit with Big 'H' and Chris Heyes as we had been selected to clear the course……… when we got to Killane we found out what had happened on the last lap, apparently, Brian Kneale had crashed heavily behind me, that was why there was no-one there when I crossed the line and had a look…… He was taken to hospital, and it looked a bit dodgy for a while, but it turns out he should be ok.

Got back to the van eventually and the team had it all loaded up, ready to rock……… Top Banana's………… Now that I've had them this week, I don't want to be without them…… if I had been on my own today, I would never have changed the exhaust on my own in time and would have had to trot back home in the van……… Also got the nod on my start number for the Newcomers Manx Grand Prix…………… No 18……… which I think is a f**king disgrace…… seeing as how the 5 Irish lads that are doing it are ………. You guessed it………. 1,2,3,4 & 5……… yeah, they really know how to look after their own……… God know's what my numbers are going to be for the Junior and Senior…… I'd have preferred to be somewhere nearer, or at the front and run my own race…… and if anyone came past me……… well, fair play to them………

Anyway, got a lot of fettling to do to get the bikes back how they were and get them all ready for the Manx Grand Prix, may do a track day beforehand or sommat, but don't know for sure yet…… but will be getting some miles in on the Road & Track Motorcycles R6 Yamaha, now that I've only got the TT course to concentrate on…… bring it on.

So tune in for another very exciting, sun cracking the pavements, wobbling all over the gaff episode of………………………… Tommy Clucas Racing.