27th August Ballasholague Farm, Isle of Man
Kms today 48
Kms to date 10,075
We are still the only guests in Betty's house though she has room for more. She was recovering from cancer so may be taking it easy. She used to have a full house every TT and Manx including such luminaries as Bill Smith, who raced works Hondas in the 1970's.
We had an early breakfast and headed off to Braddon Bridge. It cost 8 Pounds to park in the church yard and we were early enough for a prime seat right at the front wall. The church also provided refreshments in the church hall behind us and we enjoyed soup, pasta and cakes through out the day. I fell into conversation with Donna the woman beside me and we chatted during the long periods waiting for racing to begin due to the weather A very dapper German gentleman was sitting behind us and he had a Phil Read replica helmet branded Premier; which was the brand Phil Read used to import back in the 1970's.
The racing was supposed to start at 10:15 but was steadily put back to 3:00 and the parade lap was rescheduled to before this. So I rode round the back roads to the pits to check out the RC30's on the grid. The bikes had all gone into Parque Fermee so I went around to the exit onto the grid and got ready for the cornucopia of bikes to come past. Suddenly two men came up to me offering grid passes to me and another guy so we grabbed them with glee and I rushed around to the other side of Parque Fermee to get onto the grid. I ran as there was not much time before everyone set off. As I approached the marshal to get onto the grid I was stopped as the grid passes where for another day! Damn!!!. I ran back around to the position I had before, but by that time most of the RC30's had come out onto the grid. What a bummer! Anyway I got quite a good few shots of the bikes at the back of the grid. and as they came round at the end of the parade lap. I saw Tom Sewell come back down into the paddock on his very trick Moriwaki 8 Hours special and he was buzzing!
I also caught up with another RC30 owner just like me and he told me he had his RC30 up to 150 mph down Sulby Straight when it cut onto two cylinders and then stopped. He was thinking the worst but after a minute or two he managed to get it started again and made it back to the pits OK. He was stoked!
I got back to Braddon Bridge in time to see the start of the Classic Junior. It was dominated by 350 Honda twins. This seems to be what happens; a particular bike gets the support and tuning bits and dominates the class. The 350 Honda was not by any means a classic racing bike, not even a particularly fast road bike. The race was won by Dominic Herbertson, followed by Jamie Coward and Lee Johnstone all on Honda 350's. There was an AJS 7R and a Norton Manx in the top 10 but very few other classic racers and they were 5 mph slower than the Hondas.. The weather was still good so the Classic Superbikes came on straight after the Junior. The bikes were mainly UJM 4's but Conor Cummins was riding a YZR500 V4 GP Two Stroke and Josh Brooks was riding a Norton V4. The race was dominated by Dean Harrison on a Kawasaki and he put in a 126 mph lap. Brooks and another Aussie rider David Johnston both retired. The main interest was the battle for second between Cummins and Horst Saiger on another Kawasaki. Cummins had a slow pitstop and Saiger got his finger out on the last lap to take second, with Cummins third.
Horst said afterwards modestly "just shows what an average rider can do on a good bike". There were a couple of RC30's racing and one came in 13th with a 104 mph lap - not bad for a 30 year old bike. That's the end of the Classic TT. The Manx GP starts tomorrow.
We went back into town to the English Pub for dinner and spotted a couple of turbo Hyabusa's. The owner of one claimed it produced 400 HP and he ran out of petrol at Creg Ny Baa on a hot lap during the TT; crazy!
There were also a couple of very tasty Honda SP2's done up in Joey Dunlop colours. The bikes off the track are definitely more interesting than those on it.
Kms to date 10,075
We are still the only guests in Betty's house though she has room for more. She was recovering from cancer so may be taking it easy. She used to have a full house every TT and Manx including such luminaries as Bill Smith, who raced works Hondas in the 1970's.
We had an early breakfast and headed off to Braddon Bridge. It cost 8 Pounds to park in the church yard and we were early enough for a prime seat right at the front wall. The church also provided refreshments in the church hall behind us and we enjoyed soup, pasta and cakes through out the day. I fell into conversation with Donna the woman beside me and we chatted during the long periods waiting for racing to begin due to the weather A very dapper German gentleman was sitting behind us and he had a Phil Read replica helmet branded Premier; which was the brand Phil Read used to import back in the 1970's.
The racing was supposed to start at 10:15 but was steadily put back to 3:00 and the parade lap was rescheduled to before this. So I rode round the back roads to the pits to check out the RC30's on the grid. The bikes had all gone into Parque Fermee so I went around to the exit onto the grid and got ready for the cornucopia of bikes to come past. Suddenly two men came up to me offering grid passes to me and another guy so we grabbed them with glee and I rushed around to the other side of Parque Fermee to get onto the grid. I ran as there was not much time before everyone set off. As I approached the marshal to get onto the grid I was stopped as the grid passes where for another day! Damn!!!. I ran back around to the position I had before, but by that time most of the RC30's had come out onto the grid. What a bummer! Anyway I got quite a good few shots of the bikes at the back of the grid. and as they came round at the end of the parade lap. I saw Tom Sewell come back down into the paddock on his very trick Moriwaki 8 Hours special and he was buzzing!
I also caught up with another RC30 owner just like me and he told me he had his RC30 up to 150 mph down Sulby Straight when it cut onto two cylinders and then stopped. He was thinking the worst but after a minute or two he managed to get it started again and made it back to the pits OK. He was stoked!
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| Joey Dunlop Replica |
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| Tom Sewell on a Moriwaki Special |
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| Happy punter after his lap |
Horst Saiger giving his Kwaker the berries coming out of Braddon Bridge
Horst said afterwards modestly "just shows what an average rider can do on a good bike". There were a couple of RC30's racing and one came in 13th with a 104 mph lap - not bad for a 30 year old bike. That's the end of the Classic TT. The Manx GP starts tomorrow.
This RC30 came in 13th, not bad for a 750 cc bike amongst 1,300cc opposition.
This 400HP Busa weapon had an air-shifter with air stored in the extended swing arm!
There were also a couple of very tasty Honda SP2's done up in Joey Dunlop colours. The bikes off the track are definitely more interesting than those on it.
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