I thought it would be a good time to sit down and think about what I
have done in 2002.
The 2001 season hadn't put many miles on the f1. I decided to leave
the engine well alone, and send the forks and rear shock to maxton. I
had found a crack in one of the front disks on the f1 so it had to
have another a set of disks .I have a collection of disks that have
failed the same place. I don’t think I'm hard on the brakes!
I fitted a pair of ebc Prolite this time and only time will tell if
they are any better than the stealth ones. The commando was supposed
to ready for the first meeting of the year until it burst its
gearbox !
First outing was at Ty Croes for a track day to run the brakes in and
check suspension on the f1. All went well until I let it slip my mind
that I had last year's tyres on. The same tyres that I had done a lot
of burnout's with at the last meeting of the year, "I was there only
to run the brakes in ". Only minor damage to both sides as it flicked
me off on the left right of abbots .I got to see my f1from a new
angle with me on the floor, the bike revving away on it side, until
it came to a halt at a kerb. I picked it up and got it going before
the marshal got to me. Don’t ride on old Tyres its false ecconomy .
During its last road run the commando blows its gearbox and it is put
out of action for the rest of the year!
First race of the year at Athea .New road race so I go just in case
it’s the only time they run .Its along way to Tipperary and Athea is
even further. Its April so the team will revolt at the thought of
camping. A look at the circuit in the dark, I overshoot a slip road
in the van! Next morning after a substantial Irish breakfast we get
to the village to look for the paddock only to find it's in a bog.
The guy on the gate is saying things like "get as far as you can and
the tractor will pull you the rest of the way. " I did get a run in
practice and got shot by stones that were ripping up .The track is ok
but a bit narrow even by Irish road race standards. The village is
one of the best road race paddocks in the world with 12 pubs. Even
the shop was a pub. The nightlife in all of them was brilliant. The
next morning I was only a bit pissed off when they abandoned the
meeting. It was raining all the way home except when it was snowing.
The West Coast of Ireland is right next to the Atlantic.
I went to the TT to watch my friends ride. Spent the week helping
out. I was the pit for Tony Moss in the F1, Julian Bull for the
Production 750 and the 600 production and the junior. I did manage to
watch the sidecar race at Hillbury. We had an up and Down TT as Ian
smith fell off at Alpine on the Woods Ducati during the 1000
production. I went to see him in knobles and thought he looked
remarkably good for someone who should be dead. Anyhow even though
I'm not a doctor, I decided that there no way he was going to be fit
to ride his 350 Honda at the Manx. Like a true friend I did a deal
with Rick (Ian's sponsor) and stole it off him.
My next race wasn’t until Skerries and Rick had agreed to let me try
the Honda, The start of practice was the first time I had ridden the
bike. I was still getting used to the bike the next day and I had a
good race with John Arthur Jones. I should have given the 350 back
after skerries but I had enjoyed the ride so much I took the bike to
walderstown. The ignition rotor failed so it was worth doing to find
a fault! On the F1 things were going to pan and I had some good dices
in the support class with the usual suspects.
Athea was the next outing I had been to the first race there in April
and enjoyed it even though the race was abandoned. The F1 was my only
ride as the 350 had gone back to get a bigger tank made for the Manx.
They had done an excellent job to put a road race on from scratch.
Especially when you live in the middle of nowhere I will be back next
year that’s for sure. The 12 pubs have in no way affected this
decision!
The Manx is what my year's s all about. Just days before we were to
set off to the island. I found out we had nowhere to stay. we would
have been sleeping in the van again. Until Mike offered a place to
stay (Mike is a friend made on the Internet) any concerns on having
to rely so heavily on someone I had found on the Internet. Vanished
when we realised we were the strangers you shouldn't meet up with!
Thanks to everyone who helped. Mike had a big family and we even had
his mum In Ramsey sending reports back to the pit. By now the
officials refer to us as the holiday race team. I was just glad to be
on the start line after last year with the foot n mouth thing. It
took more work than I expected to run 2 bikes but I enjoyed the
fortnight. The weather was fantastic for practice week. The 350 race
was full of drama I lost about 10 min in the pit but I have my
finishers medal and I'm keeping this one. By Friday as I expected the
weather couldn't give a dry track for race day. It was so wet the
Friday senior race was postponed till Saturday.
I enjoyed my race even though the bike wasn’t set up right for the
conditions. Getting pit signals like
"Minus 24 hrs" from the fan club out at the Hawthorn pub that made
me laugh out loud!
I just rode round to a finish and on the last lap decided to give
the finishers' medal to Mike for putting up with us.