Woke yesterday to pouring rain. But by 12 it had cleared and was sunny. Everyone was keen to get out and get those qualification laps in... so the queue for skrootineering was all the way down into the paddock! Eventually got both bikes through with nae bother.
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| Traffic on the mountain |
Candy in pit lane with tyre-warmers on and a full tank of gas - I wanted to get two laps in on her. Suzy V parked up in Parc Ferme as backup - if I wasn't happy about anything on Candy I'd come in after a lap and jump on Suzy V.
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| A soggy morning |
Uncharacteristically, the session started on time... 18:20. By 18:25 I was caning Candy all the way down Bray Hill... through the traffic lights "Whump!"... and on over Ago's Leap. By the time we got into Appledean, I had caught the two riders ahead of me - one was my mate Neil Vicars. We were both Newcomers the same year. He's a bit quicker than me on his 600 so I thought if I stuck with him it'd be a good lap.
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| How NOT to be organised - this is the Newcomer that crashed on his sighting lap's paddock area |
Three corners later and there were marshals on the track waving yellow flags and a big incident at Greeba Bridge. I learned this morning that Neil Kent had lost his life there. Neil was well-known, much loved and respected Manx campaigner of 25 years. He worked in one of the race shops in the paddock and just that morning I had chatted to him. He was out there doing something he loved. He will be missed.
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| Candy took some hits |
We picked our way through the bits of bike and debris. There is always the temptation to rubber-neck a bit to see who was involved... but I just keep focus and watch the road for any debris. Two years ago I was fresh on the scene of an incident on the Mountain when Ryan Farquar hit the embankment... I rode over some debris that gave me a puncture... I didn't know I had a puncture until I was sliding sideways around the Verandah. Eye's on the road boy!
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| Looks like she's been hit with a 12 gauge! |
The rest of the lap was stop start as Neil and I kept hitting traffic. Clumps of 2 or 3 riders normally held up by a Newcomer. Got absolutely peppered with stones. More damage to my lid and fairing. The screens I use are plexi-glass (as used on fighter jets). Twice the price as normal screens, but most bikes in the paddocks now have holes and cracks through the screens. Some have bullet holes through the fairings. The stones are very bad this year.
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| Bray Hill and Begarrow damage on the belly-pan |
Neil and I swapped places on the road a few times... more bad traffic and stones. Finally getting a clear run from Ramsey over the mountain.
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| A bit concerned about tyre wear on the big girl... this is after one leisurely and 2 good laps... race pace is higher and will be 4 laps. Trying a harder compound next. |
Despite a few yellow flags and the traffic, they were a good few laps. I had steepened the fork angle by 0.7 degrees to try get her to turn in easier. This worked well, but of course compromised her rock-solid stability from Monday night. So we'll bring that back a bit. Also holed the belly-pan at the bottom of Bray Hill - looks like fibre-glass repair-job is going to be needed after every lap.
Lap 1: 103mph, Lap 2: 105.7 mph - heading in the right direction.
Looks epic. go fast!
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