Eyes Wide Open

FROM your very first lap of the world famous and infamous Isle of Man mountain course your eyes are opened as wide as they can be, and all your brain power is focused on the job at hand. There is simply no space left for anything else.

If you are a follower of the TT you will understand when I say the course is everything it’s cracked up to be, good and bad.
It is fast, furious, bumpy, scary and also exhilarating.

Is it the scariest thing Alex and I have ever done? No, parachuting for the first time is just in front of the mountain course in the fear factor stakes, and cage diving with Great White Sharks a fair bit behind. I’ve done all three now so that’s how it rates for me, but everyone’s perception of danger is different.

Leading up to the first day of practice was entertaining in itself, and as the days click by the tension builds, if not in the pits, in our own minds. This is how it was for me, but Alex seemed, at least on the surface, to be a bit more relaxed.

The Isle of Man government had paid for the freight of our 20 foot container which housed our two Ducati race bikes, two Suzuki XR69 replicas belonging to Mick Neason, the 750 Pantah based Ducati owned by Dave Mason, a 250 Rotax powered Cotton (itself an ex-IOM race bike) and a TZ250 Yamaha to be ridden by Russell Fairburn, and Alan Johnston on his more modern Yamaha TZ.

On our arrival some five days before the start of practice we found the container had already been unpacked and the crates loaded into the scrutineering bay. Luckily Neil May, one of the other Aussies riding this year on a Manx Norton and Honda CB350 based racer, was well versed in operating the massive fork lift style machine, and he was able to liaise with the on ground staff to get the job done.

The next day our pit tent was erected and we were able to unload the crates and get our bikes in position. We still had a few days to put the right stickers on, check the bikes, and so on.

We were finding it a very friendly atmosphere, and even on the day we first drove in we asked a couple of guys where the pit entrance for our car was. Half an hour later, and with the two riders making us feel very welcome and thanking us for coming so far, we got where we were supposed to be.

Make no mistake, the Manx GP is a very big meeting, with hundreds of riders from all over the globe. The day prior to practice the 3-4 paddocks had filled up, making it difficult to get a car in.

First look
Early on in the piece we took to the track in our hire car to see what we were up for. Alex and I had already been there done that, as did Shaun Sutcliffe our mechanic from Dmoto in Sydney, but Brian Dyer our movie maker, and long time friend Dave ‘Billy Ray’ Longbottom, had only ever seen the track on television.

It didn’t take us long to see Alex had done lots of research, and was able to tell us most of the time which corner was coming up, and where you needed to be on the track. The funny thing is, I had accused him a couple of months prior of not taking the whole event seriously enough. That’s possibly due to the fact he was either at his girlfriend’s place or out on the town when I seemed to be doing all the work building crates for our bikes.

He had either done the work, or had crammed lots in during the last few weeks. As for me, I had an idea where I was going but there were lots of blanks in the route sheet.

It was lots of fun for the first week, with five mates living large on the other side of the world, checking out the Isle of Man and just hanging about. But come Saturday, August 17 Alex and I at least knew things would change.

After all the signing on was done, transponders hired, and extra insurance paid we were ready for the off. Saturday morning it was on the Newcomers bus for a trip around the course, with our guide being none other than Chris Palmer, himself a very experienced and winner of numerous races at the Isle of Man.

It was pissing down with rain, water was leaking over me from a hole in the roof of the tour bus, and we couldn’t see much of what Palmer was talking about. Despite that I managed to get some pearls of wisdom which would help me later in the week.

Due to the rain we were unable to ride that afternoon, and our guided Newcomers lap would be postponed to Monday. By this stage my wife, daughter and mother would have arrived.

Baptism of fire
As I was entered in the Classic TT F1 race on my 1992 Ducati 851/888 hybrid built by Shaun, I, and five or so other classic newbies, were to be guided by Chris McGahan on a Rob North Trident.

Alex on the other hand was to be guided by a modern machine rider with other modern bike newbies. Alex would later tell me he was doing 190km/h through the village of Kirk Michael on his guided lap, so we promptly taped up his speedo so he concentrated on where he was going.

I’ve heard plenty of people say you need to ride the mountain course as if you are ‘Fast Touring’, and that’s what it felt like at the quick pace we were doing during my guided lap. At times we would back off and wait for the other riders behind us to catch up, then McGahan would up the pace a bit and drop off the guys behind us again, then we’d go through the slow down/catch up thing again.

I guess we were doing something in the vicinity of a mid 80 mp/h lap and it was unbelievable fun. At times I was laughing in my helmet, relishing the fact I was actually here, doing something I’d dreamed of for the majority of my adult life. I am serious, that’s how long I have held this dream.

I would later find out, as my average lap speed approached 100mp/h that it’s anything but ‘Fast Touring’, at least for a guy of my ability the first time there. Six laps? To qualify you not only had to get within a percentage of the fastest qualifier’s lap time, you also had to do six laps of the circuit.

This was slightly derailed for both Alex and I when we both ran out of fuel later in the evening. We had underestimated how much fuel we would need and didn’t fully top up the tanks of either bike. My fuel tank was bigger than Alex’s anyway, but it was a mistake we knew could cost us later.

We did the guided lap first, then had a break of around an hour while other classes went out, then we went out for our second lap. Alex and I were in the same session and he went before me on both laps. I sort of engineered this as I wanted to make sure he was OK as I rode the course myself, but the truth of it is I was concentrating that hard myself I didn’t even think about Alex after I headed down Bray Hill.

I ended up running out of fuel at Governor’s Bridge and even though I was able to restart the bike I wasn’t allowed back on the circuit. I waited until the roads were reopened and pushed the bike the 200-300 metres back to the pits.

When I returned my wife and mother were asking me where Alex was, as the organisers had no record of him being still on the circuit. It would turn out Alex’s transponder went flat and therefore he wasn’t recorded as still being out on the circuit. By this stage it was well dark, the roads were back open to traffic, and Alex was nowhere to be seen. You can imagine the thoughts running through everyone’s mind.

The other thing was I hadn’t seen Alex at all, and the fact there is no part of the circuit not seen by marshals had me thinking he was OK. If he had a crash it would have been seen. As it turns out he exhausted his fuel supply and was on top of the mountain enjoying a cup of tea and a biscuit as I roared past on my second lap. I say roared past, while he says I toured past, but I never saw his bike as it was parked beside the marshal’s wall.

Alex was pissed off he’d run out of fuel, citing a previous incident during an endurance race where I’d underestimated the fuel required, seeing him run out in sight of the flag and a podium position on the last lap. He was unimpressed but he never was able to stay mad at me for too long.

Getting sorted
My 851/888 Ducati was performing beautifully, Shaun had built an impressive bike which handled and went well. We had to gear it very tall for the circuit of course but during practice week I would creep up to a fastest time of just over 96 mp/h which I was sort of happy with seeing I never had a flying lap in practice.

We had some issues with an ECU but we were able to borrow one, firstly from a 916 Ducati owned by a guy called ‘Damage’. We couldn’t thank him enough, but it was for one day only as he needed the bike to leave the island the next morning.

Another Aussie, Rob Kenna, was there riding a Suzuki SV650 based Supertwin owned by none other than Billy Cummins, Connor Cummins’s dad. He told us of an engineer who also had the model of bike we needed to liberate the ECU from.

Ours would cut out from about 2/3rds throttle and above, making it very difficult to get a quick lap in. At one stage it stopped completely necessitating a rescue after practice had stopped.

So a visit to Steve Moynihan, himself a very successful TT racer back in the day and now running his own engineering shop, ensued and we were met by a gracious man who took us to his house nearby and loaned us the ECU out of his 748 Ducati. Just another example of the friendship we experienced on the IOM.

Alex’s 2009 Ducati 848 was on fire, running sweetly and fast. Again Shaun had built a beaut engine which was in its element on the TT course.

By the end of practice week I had qualified 43rd out of around 90 riders, but Alex’s fastest lap of 114.8mp/h, from a standing start no less, is what had eyebrows raised and tongues wagging. Alex had simply gone faster with each outing, and on his fourth lap ever on the TT course he did that amazing lap.

He was by far the fastest qualifier for the Newcomers race, and at that stage was fourth fastest qualifier for the Senior race, to be held on the final day of race week (see the breakout for Alex’s view on how he achieved that lap). At my pace the 851/888 was handling well but Alex was finding some issues with his bike at 114mp/h.

We changed the rear shock settings (a standard second-hand Ohlins from an 848S Ducati) and he went slower, our changes being in the wrong direction.

On his 6th lap the session was red flagged due to a massive three bike crash at Ballagary but after some time the field was allowed to continue at a slower pace while escorted by a travelling marshal. Still, this was enough for him to qualify fastest so we parked his bike confident no-one would challenge his lap. No-one would.

Alex said: “I’ve been asked a few times what it was like to do a 114.8mp/h lap. The answer is it was easier than I thought. I had returned to the pits from practice and an excited member of the public came down with an iPad showing us the live timing which had me doing a 114.8, breaking the sub 20 minute mark. He was excited, and so was I and the rest of the team.

“Everyone’s first lap is untimed, then I did a 101mp/h followed by 104. That was fantastic but to then do the 114.8 was almost unbelievable. The next fastest qualifier at that stage was something like 109mp/h. To be honest I was trying to go quick but I was not riding ten tenths. The bike was moving about a bit underneath me but it never felt uncontrollable, and I didn’t have any ‘moments’ doing it. It didn’t feel much faster than the 104 I did.

“There’s more to it than just holding the throttle wide open though. I had started to get a better grip on the track, there was no headwind slowing me down, and I had a great run with slower traffic, allowing me to slip past without being held up too much. There’s certain sections of the track where getting a good run is important for a fast lap time.

“One example is Sulby Straight, where you need to get through Quarry Bends right to get a good run on to the straight. On my fast lap I was timed at 166mp/h (265km/h) on Sulby Straight, something like 5th fastest of all bikes, not just Newcomers machines. On another lap I was timed around 157mp/h, so there’s an example of how being held up can affect you. Some sections are harder than others, like Sulby Straight.

“Yes, it’s long but it’s also bumpy. You tend to aim the bike in the direction you need it to go because your vision is blurred from the bike bouncing around and the wind blast. From Ginger Hall through to Ramsey you ride the bike almost like an enduro machine, standing on the footpegs as the bike leaps and bounces over jumps and the like. At slower speeds the bike feels too hard in the suspension but when you up the pace the suspension then comes into its own.

“I’ve been told my 114.8mp/h lap (185km/h) is one of the fastest Newcomers laps in Manx GP history. If that’s true I’m proud of the fact I and my little Ducati 848 were able to do it.

News from the Team: Practice week for Team Australia was full of issues for some, but one thing’s for sure, the mountain course made an impact on each and every rider. Russell Fairburn was besieged by machine problems, his Cotton unable to make it down Bray Hill. It seemed to be an ignition problems and it was duly parked for the rest of the meeting.

Dave Mason’s Ducati Pantah went better than he expected, seeing it only had a minor rebuild before being shipped over. Dave also purchased a Suzuki SV650 race bike in the UK some months prior to the Manx GP and had tested it at a track day only a couple of days before getting to the island. It was running well, considering it was a $3500 special. Rob Kenna was struggling to get some pace, but his bike was running well and he rolled out plenty of practice laps.

Mick Neason had decided to park the XR69. The bike was immaculately prepared but he found it not so suitable for a first time rider at the IOM. He had also hired a Kawasaki ER-6 based Super Twin machine from TT stalwart Ryan Farqhuar but a slow speed incident saw Mick with a broken thumb, and out of the game so to speak. Alan Johnston and his immaculate Yamaha TZ250 were cracking out the laps at good speed, and had basically no problems during practice week whatsoever.

Alan’s machine was also a good example of the preparation needed for such a taxing event. Noel Heenan was on his ex-Jack Findlay Yamaha TZ750 and the bike had a few mechanical issues during the week. Noel was able to sort them out and he did the required amount of qualifying laps but unfortunately the big TZ750 proved too difficult a beast to tame around the circuit to get a lap in good enough to qualify time wise for the race. Rob also did more than the required amount of laps but not fast enough ones

Russell’s machine woes ruled him out of getting enough laps in to meet the minimum six required as a Newcomer. Neil May on the other hand was flying, and knew his way around the traps as he’d raced at the IOM before. Neil qualified 54th on his Molnar Manx Norton, and 38th on his Davies Motorsport 350 Honda.

Next month we look at how race week went for Team Cycle Torque.