Good practice session...

Well, our little fuel debacle is solved; I don't think I'll be troubling any more marshals for tea and petrol!

It turns out that the bit at the back of the tank near the rider's, er, tackle doesn't fill up properly with the bike on the stand; the bike needs to be horizontal with both wheels on the ground.

I got 18 litres in, Slick got 22 lites in and pronounced me too stupid to pour petrol into my own bike. He may have a point!

Fuel wise, this evening the warning light came on at Governor's Dip, which is absolutely spot on. Enough to get the job done and not too much more.

Practice conditions were pretty good - would have been well nigh perfect except for the world's biggest diesel spill, all the way from Kirk Michael to Ballaugh. I haven't seen the times yet but the team had me at 105 ish, which I'm well chuffed with.

Worth mentioning that while I was wallying about trying to avoid the spills, top lad Glyn Jones came hammering past in fine style leaving clouds of concrete dust in his wake. Alas he had to stop with a puncture in Ramsey. He'll be one to watch on race day, I reckon. My pals Carolynn Sells and Andy Cowin also stopped, Caro at the 33rd and Andy managed to stop at the Crosby pub. Hope it's nothing too serious, guys!



With the longer gearing the Kawasaki was flying... can't wait to see the speed trap numbers tomorrow! On the second lap I had a fantastic clear run all the way through Douglas right to Ballacraine. I've still got to work hard at keeping the gas open in places like the bottom of Bray and Crosby; there in particular it's really noticable if you lift the throttle... the revs you lose just don't come back. I'm also going to alter the suspension a bit; more low speed damping (it's wallowing a bit after bottoming out in places like Bray and Bayr Garoo) and less high speed damping (to try to keep my last few fillings in place through Glen Duff!).

Blue skies!

Great day! My pal Alison arranged to have some good weather delivered and it showed up right on time!

Here's Janice in her Lara Croft boots (but minus pistols and, as she pointed out, a couple of other things ending in "istols" for the full Lara effect) enjoying the first sun we've seen in ages.

Number 59 is local superstar Danny Kneen, he's qualifying his R6 for the Junior and running his 400 in the newcomers and ultra lightweight.




Practice got off just a couple of minutes late and conditions were extremely good... just the odd damp patch still drying out. I went down to a 42 sprocket but the bike's still revving out and it only (!) made 155 through the speed trap at Sulby. I'll go to 17/44 tomorrow, as recommended by me pal Champ. He was 9th last year on a similar bike so he has a clue or 2!

The first lap came in at 104 ish, still a bit cautious, but I got me head down a bit on the second ... until the fuel warning came on at Ballaugh! I should have stopped at Ramsey I s'pose, there's a petrol station there. There isn't one at Windy Corner though! There's a lovely bunch of marshalls there however, including my pal Paul England and the amazing engineering medic Doc Moran. They had a can of petrol siphoned out of a Land Cruiser in no time and I trundled back down the mountain all on me lonesome.

Plan for tomorrow; longer gearing, have a chat with Slick about the fuel mapping and make bleedin' sure the tank is brimmed right up before the off!

Out at last!

Yeeessss! What we see here is the Green Grenade liberally splattered with a sizable minority of the Manx insect population.



After a short delay, practice kicked off at about 18:35, with the Senior and Junior classes (750 and 600 , that's me) leading off.Conditions were a bit variable, everything from completely dry roads to standing water and cloud cover keeping the sun glare away. I was running Rennsport Wet intermediate tyres which coped very well... I only had one significant slide, out of the big left hander at GlenHelen which was completely down to over enthusiasm on my part!

My biggest problem was my new lid... at my huge sigh of relief at leaving the line the supposed "fog free" visor completely steamed up and so I spent the whole of the first lap trying not to breathe so I gould see where I was going. I pulled in at the end of the first lap and switched to my old lid, and got out for a second lap.

Our session was due to end at 19:00 and the time on the clock when I got out was... 19:00:00 !!!

The second lap was more fun and I could get down to settling into the racing lines and analysing how the bike was going. And it was going extreeeemely well, there's a few minor tweaks to do but in the main I'm very happy with it.

I'll go a bit longer on the gearing, to 16:42 from 16:43, tighten up the steering damper a little and probably (fingers crossed!!) switch to dry weather Rennsport tyres.

Next practice should kick off this evening at 18:15. Forecast is possible showers, let's keep our fingers crossed!!

Scrubbed again...

Yuk. Came down cats & dogs all day; here's the paddock. The mighty Aardvan can se seen on the left, sinking slowly into the morass.



The Newcomers got out for one sighting lap behind the TM's, but the rest of us had to pack up and go home.

Feh.

Here's the view down the Glencrutchery Road. I tried to snap a bloke kite-surfing, but he was too quick for me.

Practice scrubbed.

Those of you who read last year's blog will find the next bit familiar. Clouds, rain, more clouds, LOTS more rain.

Our friends across the water in Norn Iron got three quarters of their August rain ration in one day... today was OK, but the forecast for tomorrow and Tuesday is pretty gruesome.



Above is the mountain, from Ramsey, before it got much, much worse!

Here's the Green Grenade tucked up warm and dry in the Aardvan.

Top dudes from the Dutch Laverda club Dirk (actually it's Tom Selleck, incognito) and Henk.

Attenpting (with some success, it has to be said) to get Italian electrics to cope with the Manx rain.

We're off! Sorta...

Signing on today.

I started off me Manx with a "sports massage" -- in other words I got beaten to a pulp by physio Frank Dunne -- and then over to the paddock.

My signing on lady was Andreas Racing Association Race Secretary Sarah Blake who's me top mate so that took about 3 seconds and I even got a sweetie! This year it's all computerised and keyed to the bar-code on my TT course license... very slick, I must say!

Then I got all my personal kit checked, no problems apart from a comment that my leathers smell like a dead goat. Fair point, I must admit.

I then sneaked into the DH Autos tent and treated myself to a new lid; and then sneaked into the back door of the kit checking shed to get a scrutineering sticker on it. The lovely and very rapid Maria Costello complained I was jumping the queue.. age before beauty hun! Arf arf! I doubt if that will work after the flag drops, though!

Riders briefing with the new Clerk of the Course, Phil Taubman was also slick and set up to register attendees with a swipe of the bar code... one change I like is the way we'll set off in practice in batches according to race number... this means we won't have to turn up to scrutineering hours early to stand a chance of getting a good start in practice. Way hey!! Good going you organisers!

Off for me tea now... more later!

Race numbers are out for the Manx Grand Prix 2008!

I'm #51 in the Senior, and #60 in the Junior.

Here's hoping I get through the fortnight without this happening again...