IOM 2103 - Day 12 - Last Practice

On Wednesday morning was the running of the Manx Grand Prix Newcomers races and the Junior. I had prepped the Aprilia the day before and hauled up to skrootineering before the roads closed at 09h30. We were up on Glencrutchery Road for the race start to wish the Newcomers we knew a good race. While that race was underway, we got the Aprilia through skrootineering and ready for 1 lap of afternoon practice.

 

Well done on Peter Minns and Dominic Herbertson, both finishing their first Manx GP, earning replicas and setting very impressive lap times on their standard machinery. Peter and Dom finished 4th and 6th respectively in the 'Newcomers B' on their Supertwins.

Peter Minns and father Ken

Peter getting off the start line

Warren Vervey got a good 10th in the Newcomers A with blistering lap times. When I saw his name on the start list and it rang a bell. We were at the same Primary School (Bryandale Primary in Johannesburg, South Africa) and in the same year. Turns out that he lives just a few miles from me in Silverstone. More than 30 years later and we meet on the Isle of Man. It's a small, small world!

Dominic Herbertson on Glencrutchery Road minutes before his race - what pre-race nerves?

Dominic gets off the line

Proud Dad Mark after the race

Also a great result from Alex Pickett on his Ducati 848 all the way from Australia. Unfortunaely the standard fuel tank isn't big enough for him to do 2 laps on it so he had stop for fuel on every lap. He came 8th in Newcomers A after setting the fastest qualifying time last week. I don't know what they've been telling the Newcomers, but a bunch of them have been so, so fast this year. This old goat may struggle a bit against them in the Supertwin and Senior races come Friday!

Alex and Chris Pickett from Australia - Chris was on one of the other Ducati 888s in the Formula 1 race on Monday

 

I headed back to the garage during the parade lap and Junior race to work on the Suzuki. James Cowton had a storming Junior race, until the last mile. He was leading by 26 seconds until he ran out of fuel at Governor's Dip on the last lap. His fastest lap was a mammoth 119mph... close to the lap record. Flattrack's 2012 Thunderbike Champ Neil Martin is spannering for him... the standard fuel tank just isn't big enough for the speed that James is now riding the bike. They're looking at blowing the tank out to get an extra litre or two in for the Senior race on Friday.

Our little corner of green in the paddock

Gabriele Burne was running well and achieved her 2013 goal of a 100mph lap on lap 2 riding her 700cc Suzuki SV. It sounded gorgeous! Unfortunately, Gabs slipped off at Guthries on lap 3 and was airlifted off the mountain to Nobles Hospital. Fortunately, she slid down the road and the only damage was a thump to her knee and some damaged ligaments in her shoulder. Hope you feel better soon! (The lucky girl is considering riding in the Supertwins race on Friday)

Here is another awe-inspiring story from that day's races:
History maker Chris Mitchell is an inspiration to others

The Suzuki exhaust is knackered. Didn't want to risk it blowing to pieces during the race so replaced it with a carbon 'Termignoni' from the old Ducati.

 

After the Junior race, we headed up to Parc Firme. I had got the Aprilia right near the front of the queue. I guess it was because everyone else was so busy with the Newcomers and Junior race bikes. With heat in the tyres from tyre-warmers, I headed flat-out down Bray Hill for the last lap of Practice.

The lap was going okay and there was very little traffic being at the front of the queue... but for some reason I kept on missing my usual lines. I wasn't making any mistakes... but just landing up in places I wouldn't have normally been on the track. It felt a bit uncomfortable. Half-way through I was telling myself just to relax into it and not try so hard. Peg it back a notch.

The bike ran beautifully and the changes we had made worked out. New gearing was spot-on. She felt stable. Back-end was really loose under hard braking though - afterwards found that I had been bottoming out the forks. Will try fix that for the race.

My lap-time: 110.5mph... from a standing start! A new personal best, bettering my previous best I set on the old Ducati on Monday by 1.5mph. Yeeeeeeeee-ha!

That Pirelli Supercorsa is starting to work now!

 

Now... we just got to do that 8 times on Friday :-)