ManxGP 2011 - Day 13 - Prep and Some Thoughts

Spent the day prepping Candy for the Senior race tomorrow morning... and swallowing the bitter pill of yesterday's disappointment.

In yesterday's Supertwin race: After lap 1 I was lying in 12th place and did a 102mph lap... from a standing start, traffic and rain on the mountain. The rain got worse at the race went on - I fancied my chances. 4 of the riders ahead of me on lap 1 failed to finish... despite this, a top ten finish was still on the cards... on probably the oldest bike in the Supertwins race. Couldda, shouldda, wouldda.

Perhaps the gods were saving me from something that could have happened later in the race. At least the bike didn't blow up... it won't cost me anything to have her racing again.

Candy's paint  is now a mess. I ran out of brake cleaner... so went to the race shop. The guy didn't have any so sold me some carb cleaner, telling me it's the same stuff. No it ain't. It took Candy's paint off! But at least it's run over some of the stone damage... 

Anyway... the big bike is ready to race now. I've only done 3 laps on her... the last one 105mph more than a week ago. Would have been nice to get more practice in on her... but, that's the Manx! All we have to do is hurry up and wait... and hope the great weather we've had today holds. But the forecast isn't good.

The view out the garage. Camera is just about level... check out the angle of Bray Hill...

Looking forward to tomorrow... also looking forward to picking up Alex from the airport later... haven't seen her for more than 2 weeks now! In the pits tomorrow I'll have Ian on the fuel hose, Alex on the visor and screen and Graham (a local that does the pit stop for Ian Lougher at the TT) on the kill switch and fuel cap. It's gonna be a hum-dinger!

Bring it on!