Hi to all PaddockGossip.com readers. Its been a busy few months on the social circles. First off we had my big 21st birthday at Union Mills Football Club. There were over 160 people at the party and all had plenty of drink. The party ended with a massive food fight.
I was away at the North West 200 with Snorkell and Butch for a few days drinking. I was helping out the old man who had a slightly disappointing week. He stalled the bike in the first superbike race at York Corner and retired. The in the second superbike race whilst lying 7th the race got red flagged. In the two-part race he only managed 10th. Whilst the old man was having a bad time of thing I was out with the boys in the usual haunts of Kellys and the Anchor bar. Luckly the weather was good all week as we had cammed it in the paddock.
It wasnt long once we arrived back on the island and it was time to set up in the TT paddock for the big one. We set up MBR HQ on the Wednesday before practice, and the old mans setup on the Friday (always last minute!). The TT 100 was hopefully going his best to date, having secured some good bikes for the first time in his career, but it wasnt to be. On the first night of practice the Superbike pooed itself at Ballaugh. On Tuesday night he ran out of fuel on the second lap at the bungalow. Then on Wednesday night the exhaust bracket snapped at Rhen Cullyn. Thursday night Ryan and the old man had a coming together at Bishopscourt and knocked the front brake leaver off. Then in the first race on the Saturday he high sided in a big way just past ginger hall, which ruled him out for the rest of the week! Never has much luck my dad!!
After the TT I got my hands on the new Suzuki 1000 K7 that Ian Patterson has nicely run in for me at 125.68mph in the senior race. I managed to get a run out on the new bike at a track day at Jurby and was able to do a back to back comparison with my old K6. The new bike has much smoother power through the rev range, and is also 10bhp up on the old K6, awesome!
The following week was round 6 of the Isle of Man Championship. I qualified on pole for the 600 and the centre championship races. I won both the 600 races, but in the first race I was pushed all the way by a much improved Ryan Kneen on an ex Ryan Farquhar 600. The second centre championship race I had quite a lead after 3 laps when the race was red flagged. I returned back to the line for the restart only to find that Callum Oshea, Dan Kneen, Kev Cringle, and myself had been excluded from the restart for not slowing enough for the yellow flags. There was some heated discussion with rider and official on the line, and the outcome was that the race was scrapped completely!
The following week we made the long trip up to Knockhill arriving again at silly o clock in the morning after getting the last boat on Thursday night from the island. This is another circuit on the BSB calendar that I havent ridden at before .We awoke mid morning on Friday to lovely sunny weather for free practice. After completing 29 laps I was happy to finish 12th on a lap time 53.47s. On Saturday morning the weather was once again sunny in the morning when we went out for first qualifying. I finished the session 2nd on a lap time 52.17s. I was actually on pole for most of the session only to be knocked off the pole position with 2 minutes to go. I went out again to see if I could go any faster by couldnt get a clear run. However it was happy days, 2nd, my best qualifying yet. The second qualifying session that day was run in the wet, probably the wettest conditions that I have ever ridden in. My second position was safe, so it was just a case of riding the bike round to get used to riding on a wet track. I havent actually ridden a 1000 in the wet before. I ended the session 5th 1m00.25s.
It never really stopped raining all night and when we woke early on Sunday it was still raining for warm-up. Im never that good in warm-up; its still a little early in the morning for me! I was happy enough to finish 13th. Due to the weather being bad the warm-up sessions were rescheduled, and my race was first supposedly being at 10.45am. But because of the delays we thought that my race had been delayed, wrong! The organisers had sent a bulletin around to say that our race was going on time and the warm-up had been rescheduled. But we hadnt received one along with the 7 others we were parked by. The first we knew was when the rest of the field went past our truck window on the sighting lap. There was a mad rush to get leathers on and the bike warmed up. Because I was late arriving in pit lane I was allowed to start the race but from the back row of the grid! Gutted after such a good qualifying. There was nothing for it once the light went out (I was that far back I could just see them) but to throw caution to the wind and go for it. After a entertaining race which seen crashes everywhere, a pace car out for 2 laps and then it eventually got red flagged with 4 laps to go. I crossed the line in 7th setting the second fastest lap of the race. If only I had started form second on the grid! There was supposed to be two races at Knockhill, but our second race of the day was cancelled due to the torrential rain that flooded the track.
In the next month I have Oulton Park and the next round for the IOM Centre Championship. Until the next time all the best.
