IOM 2014 - Day 1 - First Practice

After a few hours good kip, we were up early to unload the bikes and get our stuff together for signing on, paperwork, briefings, first skrootineering and hopefully get out for first practice... oh, and visit the Fairies. Ummmm... and organise to get the toolbox and bike keys!

Getting my gear and fireproofs checked, signing on, road insurance, rider's briefing and tech briefings go quickly and soon we're loading up the Ducati 888 and getting her ready for skrootinnering. Luckily the Duke has a keyless ignition, so at least we have one working bike :-)

Kevan with the old girl

Last year skrootineering was a nightmare with queues over an hour long... this year, the old girl sails through in half an hour :-) We fuel her up in pitlane and I go get me gear on for first practice. Dark clouds have been looming all day and it's quite chilly, but the rain was holding off so all was looking good for a lap or two.

"All In" flies through skrootineering once again

I'm really keen to get that first lap in... settle myself mentally and just get everything going. I get my kit on and head up to pitlane. Phil Taubman, the Clerk of the course comes on the tannoy. Bad news... not enough marshals. To run a race of practice, they need a small army (over 500) marshals around the 37.7 mile course. Unfortunately a passenger on one of the morning ferries had a heart attack and they had to turn back. With the ferry running with one engine short, they couldn't make up the time and this pushed all the other crossings back a few hours. A lot of the , marshals couldn't get on the island on time :-(

Stafford Evan's immaculate Duke 888/944 looking fantastic in pitlane

They let the Newcomers do their speed-controlled lap and cancel the rest of practice. This is is the third year in a row that Saturday's practice is cancelled. I bust my ass to get here for Saturday practice... Bugger!

Despite the disappointment, we end the day well by having a good braai with Warren Verwey and Mike Dickenson :-)

John McGuiness's little setup in the paddock