Manx GP IoM – Day 2 Aug 20th -Blog by Alan Boyter at Vendetta Racing
We started off with yet another full fry up, courtesy of our B&B host Ian (I can see us putting on some weight over here!) we then made our way up to the pits to finish setting everything up. Unfortunately the weather didn’t get much better than it had the night before, fog and rain seemed to be the order of the day but we just got down to business. Sooner we get set up, sooner we can get working on the bikes!
The first big mission for Steve was to officially sign on and get a check over of his riding gear. They are very strict on the safety equipment here so all his kit was checked over quite closely but it all past with flying colours.
We have 2 riders and 4 bikes, Grant Wagstaff is the lead rider, on a Suzuki GSXR 750 for the Senior Race and a Yamaha R6 for the Junior class. Steve will be running a Yamaha R6 for all his 3 races, which leaves a spare R6 sitting on the side lines should it be required. We plan for Steve go out on the spare R6 for the practice week as its more ‘used’ and it keeps the engine hours on the competiton bike to a minimum. We also have a shiny new set of fairings for that too so Steve can be looking his best come race day!
Mid afternoon I joined Steve for the first race briefing just to get a feel of what’s going on. Its surprising how different this is compared to circuit racing. It was explained that the first practice will happen tomorrow night at 5pm as the road will be closing early due to the weekend, its usually done at 6pm, giving everyone time to get home from their work! The entire track is normally a public road and its only a race track when either the TT or the Manx GP is taking place. 107 Marshals are required around the track when it is ‘live’ but obviously they are not always available so they rely on a bank of about 700 marshals, all of which are fully trained and a first aiders, its an amazing feat of organisation.
I miss you Dara - I miss you Jenny .....awwww
With the day drawing to a close and the sun breaking out we took the opportunity to drive the circuit in the car to get a feel of what’s to come. Being a 37.7 mile long circuit (Ed -or size of Bahrain) it takes quite a while to drive the course, even with the fact that there are still no speed limits out in the country sections. There are bumps, changes of tarmac, pot holes, man hole covers, kerbs, walls, hedges damp patches and Sheep, all to be considered, so suspension plays a huge part in bike set up. It truly is an amazing track and I would urge anyone with a spare 5 minutes to have a peek on Youtube at some of the race footage, you’ll be impressed I assure you.
what can we say !
Anyway, another busy day ahead so more updates later,
TTFN Boyter.
