ManxGP IoM – Day 1 -Aug 19th – Blog by Alan Boyter at Vendetta Racing
Early O’clock start to the day with everyone meeting at Steve’s at 5:30 before heading to the airport. Obviously it would have been rude not to start the day without a full fry and a pint of Guinness at the Irish village which set us all up for things to come….which was champagne courtesy of Emirates on the flight to Gatwick!
A bottle was actually given to us as well which was then duly taken away by customs as we forgot to take it out of our hand luggage, pants…
We arrived on the island on schedule and were greeted by a light drizzle which then turned to a light rain by the time we got to Douglas. We picked up the hire car from the 2 confidence inspiring ladies at the Athol hire counter who wished us well in a Manx kinda way. ‘first time racing the island then?’
Steve was asked, and upon hearing the answer she then sucked air through her teeth as if to say. ‘good luck, you’ll need it!’
We have definitely scored with our B&B, run by a lovely couple called Ian and Susan, It would also appear that Ian is a bit of a bike nut so that helps. We’ve been given the run of the house and been made ever so welcome, once the grand tour was given we were then invited in to have a beer with them in their conservatory. nice one!
Pit area coming along nicely in the IOM drizzle
Setting up shop...
We got organised and headed up to the pits as we knew the Team was off the ferry and met up with the gang, Wag, Mick, Graham and Ben, good bunch of guys, it took us all of 3 minutes before we were all working together to get the awning set up on the truck as the light rain wasn’t so light anymore. We got nearly everything unloaded and unpacked, enough to call it a night and fully soaked with the rain now p**ng it down we all grabbed a quick Maccy D’s before heading to bed.
Boyters influence no doubt...
Tomorrow we’ll get signed on and get the pit area organised properly, ready for the 2 weeks of Bike racing!
