This post is nearly as late as the bikes are crossing the finish line, from that you surmise that all didn't go according to plan. It's so long ago now I hope I can remember what did happen, but at first all was well with the world, the bikes and the riders. Both Dave and James had a run out at the Jurby circuit and other than expected tweeks all was looking rosy. Practice at first continued in the same vain with both riders setting nice 111mph laps to get themselves more acquainted with bikes and the course conditions.
Working with James's mechanic Phil was great and it was good to get an insight into even more prep we could do on the bike prior to departure. I'd like to think he enjoyed himself at the Festival of Motorcycling with hopefully less pressure than the main TT event, but we did find some odd things that we never expected. Last year Dave (on Katy) kept adding preload to the Ohlins front forks, what James noticed was that the preload adjusters were winding themselves off whilst circulating the island, sorry Dave we have now fixed that with some locking wire. It certainly was an eye-opener working with Phil and his understanding of James's needs and with adjustments we tried to give James the best set up we could. It must have been reasonably good as James lapped just a few seconds outside the 888 Ducati lap record set by Mark Farmer back in 1993. As seems normal at the TT races things happen that you've never seen or expected, one event was that we lost the reed valve off the engine breather inside the air-box, it was quite simply gone to that great roadside pile of bits and bolts along the circuit. Probably alongside Dave's footpeg from the year before. A phone call to my friend Phil Colgan got him to finish the tooling he'd been working on for a few years to make these overnight, a replacement reed valve kindly gifted was installed soon after.
In the meantime, Dave was also working furiously on the 250 Yamaha again, as well as taking Emily out for a few laps. Sadly on one of the laps, at the end of Cronk Y Voddy straight, we had a catastrophic failure of the main bearing. This destroyed the main bearing assembly along with splitting the outer race of the bearing into two halves radially, along with that the super rare 996SPS twin pick up alternator cover was also destroyed. This effectively ended Dave's Superbike challenge, I simply don't have those parts to hand on the island and given the size of the van was unable to bring the spare engine, this has been rectified for this year as long as I can source the parts. Upon return inspection we can only assume that the brand new main bearing had failed causing the destruction. Nobody said it was easy.
James was having a better week with a 7th place finish on Steve Caffyn's 500 Honda. This was their first finish over the TT course for this class and we were all chuffed for them. Our Superbike race was delayed a day due to the weather which meant James and family had to rebook their travel arrangements and poor Phil was supposed to be elsewhere. But we prepared for the race as normal fuel, tyres and checks and more checks. The TV crew had been around and stuck cameras on the bike for ITV, we were ready to go. We're all dressed up in our Alpinestar fire suits and James looks resplendent in his Dainese leathers even Michael Rutter says how good the Ducati looks on the start line. James asks Liz why I'm so quiet, she says "he's like that on race days", and I am more nervous than all week, this as always is the toughest part, 4 laps with a pit stop.
James speeds away as the starter gives him the customary tap him on the shoulder, a slight wheelie and he's gone. In the mean time we're in the pit area resplendent in our new blue fire proof suits, the fuel has been loaded in the overhead tank and Phil has tested the flow due to previous issues. We listen on the radio via the speakers in the stands as best can over the noise of departing riders and their machines to try and keep up with James's progress. The scouts do their thing on the old scoreboard and all seems good as James flies down Glencrutchery Road at a speed that makes me gulp! A few minutes pass and just before we expect James at Glen Helen we hear that he has retired at Ballacrye corner, rider ok. We get news that it's a mechanical issue and think we can get away to collect the bike and James via some of the back roads and before we even set off James is back, a kind marshal has run him back in her car, star power. He said it just started making a bit of a racket so pulled over, fair enough, bugger.
Liz and I do pop out and collected poor Katy and there is little to do except have a beer really. The diagnosis can wait until we return but we do have a date with a photographer for a piece in Practical Sportsbikes magazine so she gets to roll on Manx soil for one last time this year.
The autopsy finds that something had pierced the front cam belt cover and the debris has got between the belt and the front exhaust cam pulley causing of course a loss of timing and some valve to piston interference. Two bent valves are all that are required to fix after all, along with of course a load of new gaskets and renewed big end shells just in case. Not too catastrophic for the engine but enough to end our hopes of a race finish.
After a morning of photography in the garage the rain as it does sometimes gave a short window to finally get Katy out.
James got a run in and on the whole I think it was a positive experience, even in the still iffy conditions he did get a little quicker each lap whilst getting used to quite a different machine beneath him. Just a short list of wishes from James bar grips and gear shift positions to name two.
After James, Adam Child "Chad" of MCN managed to shower dodge for a few laps but it was still greasy over the far side of the circuit to really press on, so maybe if we get out again we can invite MCN for another blast. Hopefully we'll hit the presses in a week or so and be on a news stand near you! After all had given up hope and departed Castle Combe we just managed to get Rich Llewellin out, again just a few laps as James thought he could hear a noise like pinking whilst he was on board. Rich returned and after trying a few ways of replicating the noise and just complained that she was a beast and would wheelie in 5th gear. It was also still greasy out and about and again Rich took it easier than normal so she must go quite well.
Click on the link below to see James away for the first time.
In the meantime work continues on her older sister Emily in the garage and Louigi's workshop. A new 996cc engine has been crafted and now resides in Emily ready to be run in and tuned this coming weekend.
Oxford Products and
Celeres Racing are proud to announce that James Hillier will be campaigning
their Ducati 888 at the Superbike F1 Classic TT, to be held on the Isle of Man
during August this year.
James meets Katy at Oxford's headquarters in Witney.
Fresh from
his 2017 TT campaign the 5th fastest rider in TT history secured a 2nd and two 4th
places on the 37.73 mile course. Hillier will be riding the Celeres Racing Ducati
888 that celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Oxford Products TT
campaign. In addition, to really authenticate this replica and with the support
of Oxford Products, the bike has been painted in classic 1992/3 Oxford Products
livery as used by Trevor Nation, Robert Dunlop and Mark Farmer.
The Ducati
888 was built last year by Stafford Evans of Celeres Racing to compete in the
2016 Superbike F1 Classic TT race. Wearing Ducati red, the bike was ridden to
11th place by Dave Hewson with a best lap of 115.769mph.
Modifications were made to an original 1991 road frame and an abundance of
carbon fibre parts to replicate the original machines.
James will
run race number 5 in 2017, the same number as Trevor Nation did 25 years ago
and he will also wear replica leathers for the event. He was upbeat about his
prospects. ‘I have a real ambition to win the Superbike race of course, but I
will make every effort to be the fastest man around the Island on a Ducati
888.’
Team owner
Stafford Evans was equally optimistic. ‘It’s a real honour to be able to
reproduce the Oxford team of 25 years ago. I actually think that with this bike
and with James at the ‘bars, we have a real shot at bringing home the top
prize. I am very excited!’
Hillier is
no stranger to the TT course visiting the rostrum multiple times including a
Lightweight TT win in 2013 and the in 2014, he came 2nd in the F1
Classic TT, the best of his 10 races at the classic event. It’s time for the top
step!
Trevor Nation riding the 888 Oxford Ducati at the TT in 1992
Katy steps out for her debut at the Bristol Classic Bike show.
Shining at a recent MCIA breakfast meeting in the Oxford Products Ltd showroom.
Again, inside the Oxford Products Ltd showroom.
Dave "Wavey" Hewson is moving over to Emily and she is getting an engine upgrade to bring her up to the same specification as Katy. Wayne "Ciderman" Axon is moving on to a new project, hopefully on another Ducati. Wayne has been an absolute star for Celeres Racing, gaining a personal best TT lap time on Emily. In the time honored fashion, and I really mean it, I wish Wayne every success and I hope we can work together again. Thanks Wayne.
We're still on the hunt for a rider so if you're interested in the job just drop me a copy of your CV, but be quick as interviews start next Friday.
Well it’s the 1st of
August and finally all the parts, well I say all the parts,that is to say all
the parts except those I haven’t got or I need to make are here. Maybe I should
say I have most of the big bits but the devil is in the detail, it’s always in
the detail. We leave for the Isle of Man on the 18th, the race is 30
days away. Err……holy crap. Many projects seem to take a year or two to finish
a project, let’s see if it can be done in a couple of weeks.
It begins
The Ciderman Wayne has been able
to pop over for a couple of days to give project Katy a kick start, he still has one foot bigger than the other from his whoopsy at the TT so maybe kick start should also read
differently. We have two days to tinker on Katy before heading off to Silverstone with
Liz for a ladies only track day, in two days you can get something that resembles
a pretty finished bike. The frame, engine, forks, swingarm, suspension and
wheels all go in pretty quick and hey presto, she’s a roller. We get on with
other jobs like the shark's fin and holes in dashboards for clocks, bang on
clip-ons, rear brake, Brembo goodies and sub frames but you run out of things
you can do if you don’t quite have everything. Without an extra pair of hands I
wouldn’t have got the engine into the now traditional build room (read conservatory),
so thanks to Wayne for taking the time to pop over.
The Silver Fox pops in.
Emily, work in progress.
Whilst reading this you
may ask “where’s Emily?” She’s fine, a refreshed engine with pistons bought and
sent over by proxy for me by Mark Roberts in San Francisco complete with an air
pressure sensor, thanks to Mark and the big 888 family. The top end of the
engine was refreshed by Louigi Moto and has been back on the dyno and still
makes, as expected, 117rwbhp. Emily is parked in the garage, she was a
relatively easy fix and proven bike and everything fits where it should. She’s
already good to go.
Of course as someone said to me
just recently "90% finished leaves you 90% to do", which sounds odd but is sooooo
true. I need to get the air runners fitted so I can mount the ECU, if I can
mount the ECU I can work on the loom position but I need the air runner bobbins
made so I perform those tasks. The four aluminium bobbins, easy to make but I
need a lathe and I can’t get on the lathe till the 11th. I can’t even
test fit the fairings as they hang off the same parts, it will all fit of
course, it will, no really it will. I tinker over the next week with little
odds and sods and order titanium fixings to make me feel like I’m getting somewhere, but
am effectively stalled. In the meantime Peter of Oronero fame stops by to drop
off a few carbon goodies and to assemble a new crankcase breather box for the
sub frame. It’s interesting to see inside the breather box and see the carbon plates that baffle internally to collect the oil vapourallowing it to run back into the engine. As is the
way with these things and Peter everything takes a little longer, time seeps away and he stays over so that's a good excuse for a
curry. The 11th comes and I get an hour on Mark's lathe to knock up the
bobbins, no problem except in my haste I make one back to front, it will have
to work for now and I’ll come back to it after we return. Having got these
parts this sets in motion another cascade of little things that set you back.
Now I have the ECU in place I can fit the loom, the problem is, and I didn’t
see it coming, is that the 888 cases use temperature senders in different locations
to the ST4S donor cases I’m using. The ECU water temp is in the wrong place and
the dash gauge water temp sender doesn’t exist, with a Corse loom that is made to fit
there is no room for positional changes. Having tried a few different fittings,
including one fitting sent over from Germany I chew over the problem with big Chris at
Louigi Moto. He suggests that we could use the later type oil temp sender on the
strainer and I can make an extension for the ECU water temp sender. It all sounds so easy
but it all takes time, tick tock. We don’t have time or the money for the Plan
A colour scheme so Plan B comes to the fore, that’ll be red then, the old
trackday fairings I already have along with a fibreglass seat unit that weighs
a ton. Still, this was always going to be a development year and anything solid
will do for the Isle. The fairings are fitted, brackets are fettled, just missing a
belly pan, more of that later………………..a whole lot later. Fuel tank fitment is a
bastard, more of that later too, I have to dremal away access slots in the now
even more leaky air box to be able to bolt the tank down. Fuel line access is
pants and tight on the air box, it also fouls the throttle bodies, please just one job give
me a break. If anyone who reads this knows where you can get 8mm fuel hose with
a pre moulded 90 degree bend please let me know. Battery box OK, new battery
from Carrot Cycles very OK, radiator bracket OK, front wheel spacer OK,
alignment of rear sprocket not OK. I have a different output shaft fitted to
the gear box so need to set the spacer for the sprocket, but it’s just not
checking out. I then realise I have the wrong sprocket carrier on the rear, which is
probably why when I bought the bike the front sprocket was back to front. No
problem, I have another and once fitted I can get the front sprocket within 20
thou without any more adjustments or parts, hooray. A few more days holiday off work and
working in the garden sunshine Al Fresco and we’re nearly there, no chain, no
brakes (who needs ‘em) but with three days to go she turns over and is at
Louigi Moto's workshop for the prestart check over. It’s Tuesday morning and by
11am she can go on the dyno, just fit a chain and hey presto, I said hey
presto! Chain fitted and tweeks made but hey presto no spark, fiddle around, no
spark, different plugs and then leads and then ECU and then different coils, no
spark. Substitute a complete 996 SPS loom, draped like Christmas decorations
around Katy, we have a spark. Tick tock, old father time moves on andwith telephone help we find that the two wires that feed the coils
have got cut in manufacture whilst being crimped.
It’s just one of those
things, it just happened to those two wires only, everything else checked out from the
ECU. Thanks to Papa Louigi once again for his time and input to the project. All
fixed, but by now and like the flat batteries through the day we’re too late to
get on the dyno, but she runs and was shown live on Facebook in her moments of
birth, oooer.
Wayne is on the boat to the Isle a day later than us and volunteers to
collect Katy before travelling upto try and get her a run on the dyno. It
turns out that Mr Dyno hasn’t the time even when we leave Katy at the workshop for
the extra day. Hey ho, we'll run with a standard 996SPS chip for the twin green
injectors and plan to at least see Mr ‘Slick’ Bass on the Isle for a mixture
run as soon as possible.
We are by now already on the Isle
with Emily and courtesy of Lloyd and Jason we have our pitch all set out, a few
enquiries are made and we have two of the posh white garages in the main
paddock area, these are to house my two 888s, Dave Hewson’s TZ250 along with an
RC30 with a rider from Canada. I never got to meet the said Canadian rider as
his RC30 dropped a valve on the first night of practice and flew home again,
what a pisser for him. We are all nice and cosy and as the weather is appalling,
we settle down in the caravan to wait out the rain, there is now’t to be done
until Katy arrives. Friday comes and so does Wayne with Katy. With regards to
the belly pan that was to be mentioned later, this was collected by Wayne in a
hand over from the ever time teasing Peter somewhere on the M6, just cutting it fine
again. The belly pan has been made from pictures of Katy with metre rule, a bit
of Emily’s existing pan, some 916 and guesses, just another 'fingers crossed it
fits' moment. As expected Saturday's practice is cancelled which is good for Katy
but not for the ready to rock Emily and Wayne, I’ve yet to see a Manx Saturday
practice, maybe next year. Of course this is good for Katy as we hide her away in
Dave’s friend Denis’s secret HQ garage just off the bottom of Bray Hill (you’d
never find it), an ideal location for the finishing of bikes with power tools,
materials and benches to hand.
The pan.
Wayne has brought over some spare brake lines,
Dave has tyres and oil and it all seems good, but the closer you get to your goal
the harder it gets. To be honest I really can’t recall what went on over the
next few days, with help from everyone, Dave, Adam, Sam and Liz we just get on
with those tasks that need to be done from the big like brackets for the said belly
pan to some tape under the kill switch as it moves. The original handle
bar was made of Swiss cheese that came with the Harris clamps I prefer to not make
holes in parts that don’t need them. The belly pan fits inside the road
fairings and these need the return on the edges just ground off to get the
fairing to close together and the pan is suspended on four brackets inside. The
fit is as snug as, and will certainly do the job. Fuel line fitment is again
adjusted to stop fouling the throttle linkage as we fit quick connectors in,
little point really as Dave is the only one with fingers that can get the front
bolts to start, the whole job takes an age, not very racy. Dave also does a
set up and bolt check over Katy so I’d just like to point out it wasn’t my
fault the clip on came loose at Glen Helen.
Looks finished, but this is just a test fit.
Monday comes and we pop up to
Andreas to see the legend that is Mr Bass, I explain that she still needs
another heat cycle being so new and all so I drum the throttle in the bay with one
finger in my ear until Slick passes me come cans. She does sound good though.
She certainly smells rich as I warm her up, but that’s what we expected and
with the 25% mix of race to pump fuel we are able to run, thanks to the
generosity of Guy Burton of Burton Engineering, we shouldn’t have the same
detonation issues we had with Emily a year ago. This will be just a power run,
Slick is a Power Commander guy and I prefer old school EEPROM so it will be
what it will be with standard chip for now.
It hurts
Yep she’s running rich and making 131rwbhp
with some tyre slip on the new Dunlops. Slick shows me some other dyno runs of
another famous racer and see that with what he calls a “dyno tyre” an increase
in power from 91 to 98bhp, quite stunning if you need to brag down the pub.
Katy’s tickover is piss poor to say the least but Rich in the meantime is on
the case and already has plans for another chip to be burnt prior to flying
over Thursday, but as they say on Forged in Fire “She will run”.
Tuesday comes and all Katy has
done is run on a dyno and up a lane in first gear so by getting a number plate
made we head off to a quiet location somewhere on the Isle of Man for Dave and
Katy to at least get acquainted. It’s quite twisty, very scenic and I suspect
that the front wheel pawing the air is a good thing as I warn other motorists
that they may meet a motorcycle coming at speed the other way, but that they will
hear her first. Dave's only real issue is that the seat is too low for his long
legs, an easy fix after a visit to the everlasting Denis Trollope. She goes,
stops and turns, of course this is all relatively low speed stuff so tweaks will
be made. Scrutineering is now a double whammy with two bikes to see through, I
leave Tommy and Wayne with Emily and Dave and I see Katy through, two clean
sheets and we’re off to the pitlane, credit to the team.
Wouldn’t it be nice
to just say that a lap or two later all was well, ha. Dave skips off the line
and pulling second the back wheel kicks and the next we see of him, he is sweating
profusely having pushed Katy back into Parc Ferme. It turns out that the chain
adjuster has given up and the rear wheel has pulled forward on the chain side.
It may be my fault not doing up the rear spindle tight enough or just component
failure, either way that’s tonight's show over for Dave although Wayne and Emily
have a good run. When Wayne gets back I ask “What do we need to change?” he
replies “Nothing boss, she’s fine” and shakes my hand. He does admit to a little
fist pump after passing through Joey’s corner after his off at the TT, it’s a mind
game after all. Roads open and Dave heads off to knock up some aluminium
laminate plates at secret HQ. I call Ross, a near neighbour of mine, to nip
around to Jenny my neighbour who is looking after the cats, to get the keys to
get in the garage to go to the top drawer to get a pair of OEM adjusters, then
Wednesday ride over to Papa Louigi to drop them off as he’s flying over
Thursday, phew, got it? All the spares in all the wrong places!
Wednesday, there is an open
testing track day at Jurby so we head up there early to fit the new home made
adjusters and have a better shake down. We share the early morning cool air
and blue skies with Mick Grant on a 250 and Jonathan Rea on his WSB bike. Dave
declines our teasing to show Jonny the way round, he was probably worried by
Mick Grant as well, tee he. Testing goes well but two issues are apparent, one
is that the gearing is too short,even at 15-37Dave is running out of revs on
the back straight on a short circuit. Even if the sight of Katy popping the front wheel in the air between
turns is cool it’ll never do on the Sulby straight. I have a 36T rear sprocket
but that is about as small as they go. The other issue is that the oil cooler
is just not getting hot without the diverter spring fitted so I ask around on the Isle
to see if there's one to be had, nope, there's not even one in stock at Moto Rapido. So ask Papa to pack one
of those with the now filling bag of spares. Because we only have some
home-made adjuster plates and the temperature issue I decide to pull Katy out of
tonight's practice so Dave will have to make do with the TZ. In the meantime
Wayne does some more laps and seems very happy with the Dunlop tyres he is
running this year, all quiet on the Emily front.
Thursday, Papa arrives and drops
off a bag of bits including a new EEPROM. I just get on with fitting the parts to
Katy in preparation for tonight, I’d like a day off. Papa Louigi makes a few tweeks and now Katy will tick over. Speaking to Dave later in
the day he thinks that even with a 36T sprocket we’ll be off on the gearing and
asks B&C Express if they have a 34T available, they call back later and yes
they do but the machinist doesn’t work Fridays, ah bugger. During the day I
notice that there is a possibility of the road style rear suspension rocker
fouling the inlet spigot on the crankcase breather box, I pull out the spigot
and replace the unit with some silicone hose to feed the reed valve in the air
box. As you may have noticed Wayne is clocking up the laps and Dave is not,
well not on the 888 anyway. The race is only 5 days away with 3 more sessions
to go, cross everything. Scrutineering passed again for both girls,we hatch a
plan to get both the girls and boys off the line together for photographic
purposes, we’d hoped that Wayne could slip out with Dave but Milky is having
none of it so Dave waits for Wayne’s group to be called and they set off
together, so cool.
They run together to Union Mills and Dave pulls away on the
more powerful bike but through Ballagarey Dave notices that the left clip on
moves and although he considers carrying on he has to pull in at Glen Helen to
borrow a 6mm allen key of the marshals. He still posts a 97mph lap after passing through static
yellow flags over the mountain and rolling off throttle as Katy just revs out,
she’s fast. Katy also returns with a light coating of oil all down the left
side, my silicone hose breather plan sucks and blows oil out of the air box,
refer to need to baffle oil mist as seen earlier. Wayne and Emily do another
lap without any drama thankfully for the team.
Friday, Dave makes some enquiries
to B&C but not a lot is going on, Jon the machinist texts Dave to ask if there
is any joy, Jon says to leave it with him. Jon comes in on his day off and
sends Dave a photo of the sprocket being machined. Huge thanks for taking the
time to get us out of a fix. In the meantime we apply to the clerk of the
course for Wayne to move forward two groups to start officially with Dave and we
are granted our wish. I also have another box of carbon from Oronero, this one
has the larger breather box the same as Emily and means that the road rocker will
miss the spigot, another day, another job to get it fitted. Scrutineering goes
pretty well, Katy gets an advisory that the left footpeg rotates and although
not loose we attend to the issue with some Loctite. Now the footpeg was a bit
of a sod to undo, it wasn’t loose and the screw had to be undone all the way.
Cleaned and refitted tight with Loctite the peg didn’t spin any more, but as
Dave approached Schoolhouse corner the bloody thing had gone! Dave limped back
via the Laxey coast road, Wayne did more laps and tweaked the suspension. I’m not
sure if it was this evening but on one Wayne had made suspension changes before
a two lap session, he pulled in after one lap as the handling was completely
off, he said he knew by St Ninians that is was wrong and was surprised that an
awful lap still equated to 105mph, not bad for a bad one.
Saturday, starts very well. Dave
arrives already with the 34T sprocket in hand, it’s soooo tiny! We shorten the
chain and fit the wee blighter, we also fit the spare alloy footpegs of shame
to Katy for today's session, it’s getting all a bit shit or bust. Dave has also had some
problems with clutch feel so as I have another slave cylinder and pushrod of a
slightly different length we fit that to improve travel. It’s not until we get onto Glencrutchery
Road that we are told the advertised one lap session is now two so we tell Dave
to stop in for some gas. Dave completes one lap
and stops for a splash and dash of fuel and complains of the hard work she is compared to the TZ, really?From standing
starts Dave does a pair of 112mph laps, stonking. We now have oil mist on the
right side of the bike, FFS.It’s traced to the small oil seal that sits around
the clutch push rod on the basket side, it must have gone when the new rod was
fitted. But it’s OK Ducati John of Leeds is on the boat on Sunday and offers to
bring over the spares we need, all this cutting it fine crap is doing me in.
Wayne takes the day off, and why not.
The errant seal.
Sunday, plans were to go to the
festival at Jurby for the first time, maybe next year. I get the rear wheels out of Emily and Katy ready
for new boots and John arrives with the £2.56 seal that could have ruined the
day. All parts duly fitted the bikes get the once over and an oil change for
Emily, both bikes have qualified and somewhere in the week Wayne has notched up
a personal best lap of 109.905mph, having set an informal goal of 110mph,
that’s close enough. Nice job Wayne.
Monday, race day. The day starts
well with sun and not much breeze, I start Katy up to double check that the oil
seal is holding and it all looks fine, this is one bike that will never rust.
We final fit her fairings and Wayne and Emily are called up to scrutineering ealier than us for once as on race day the bikes are called in reverse order, this turns out to a
god send. Now we are that close to the start of the race what could possibly go
wrong, I pop one of our lucky Koala mascots from Phil Whitton in the screen and
I just flip the throttle to hear the butterflies snap shut, they don’t.
All hands on deck.
Now as
mentioned earlier I have had the fuel lines foul the throttle body assembly
before so immediately thought that the hoses had moved even though they were
secured with tie wraps. It’s not the fuel lines though, the butterfly pivots
seem to have seized in the bodies and they only move if pushed into place,
certainly no good for a race today. All we can do with around 80 minutes to the race
and 10 till scrutineering is strip off the fuel tank to get under and see what
is going on. I start barking a few orders around, wire cutters, 8mm spanner,
gaffer tape “what colour?” “I don’t care what f***ing colour” etc etc. A
liberal dose of GT85 and WD40 seem to do the trick but I’m still worried as to
why they have stuck at all and will it happen again? We use Dave’s spindly
fingers to get the bolts started again and send Phil Colgan over to keep
scrutineering open for us, we’re coming! All doneJez and I take Katy up for
inspection, it seems to take an age when Jez explains that the scrutineerthought
Katy was one of the post-race parade bikes and had put on the wrong sticker so
was going to do her again with a keener eye, FFS get on with it the race starts in 50
minutes!
Hurry up!
We leave the bay finally with
the appropriate sticker and hurry over to the holding area to get Katy’s tyres on
the warmers as quick possible As we push, the tannoy announces that we are now
able to fill our refuelling rigs, we’ve not even got our fireproof gear on yet.
Tommy and Gab are already sorted at Wayne’s pit as we pass to ours, big
Adam passes up the jerry cans to Jez after a neat fuel flush to check the line we get
ourselves organised for later, tape, tools and tie wraps. Then back to the bikes for their final fuel top
ups, last year we found out how much fuel expands on a hot day losing half a
litre at least into the overflow pot and belly pan so this year we leave both
bikes short by 3 or so litres to avoid the problem.
As we’ve missed quite a few
sessions we have a surplus of 115 octane race fuel so I pushed the ratio to
50/50, this will only help the bikes run cooler during the four lap epic. The
15 minute siren goes and shortly we are off to Glencrutchery Road to line up in
our start numbers, these are allocated in an unknown way as Wayne is at 61 and
certainly quicker than quite a few ahead of him. I never know quite what to say
to the guys at this point, just a nod will do, they have enough to think about in the next hour
and 25 minutes. I walk alongside keeping away and close to the wall, close
enough if they need anything, far enough away to be out of sight.
Dave's away at 28
and 330 seconds later so is Wayne, we retire to the pits and try to listen to
the commentary. Bits of info drip in and we have to rely on the scouts manning the ancient scoreboard for location
as we can’t even see the girls in the family area from our location towards the
end of pit lane. Both the pairings boom down past the pits and sound fecking
awesome against the backdrop of Jap wailers, the only other noise of note is
the rotary Norton screaming like a two stroke banshee as she flies by. The arrows
move, the bikes are still going, we wait for the light at Cronk na Mona to come
on, we’re ready with balaclavas atop our heads. An experienced Jez Hill is on
the fuel, Adam Collins gets visor and drink duties, I’ll just clean the screen
and will be on hand for anything else. The light comes on and then Dave is in,
but there really is no rush, it takes quite a while for 20 litres of fuel to
gravity feed itself into the tank, I’m done, Adam is done and we wait those
last few seconds. I step to the rear just in case we need to push start but
fuel cap on and boom they’re off, Dave exits close behind Tim Monett (30) who
he will circulate with for the next two laps. Jez and Adam go for an ice cream
whilst I drift up to Wayne’s pit to help if required. Earlier in the day
Emily’s battery seemed to have given up the ghost and we’ve had it on charge
all morning, I may need to push.
The waiting game.
Wayne is in and Gab, Tommy and Grant move into
action, I think during the stop Gab makes a mistake as I hear him say “Sorry,
sorry, fuck off” in his Italian accent. Wayne pushes the button but she doesn’t
start, I start to get over the wall but the ever present Tommy pushes for all
he’s worth and boom they’re off. I’m just concerned that this may be an
underlying problem to do with charging that has not been seen through the
preceding week. In the meantime Wayne gets a good mention when the commentator
gets excited by his angle of lean through Glen Helen as he zips around the
outside of another rider, he has made up around 30 places by now. All we can do
now is be ready in case either stop on their third lap for any reason, but
again the arrows move and both boom down Glencrutchery Road, lovely. One more
lap to go and we get out of the hot overalls on this fine day and wait at the
expected time near the end of the return road, tick tock, time passes and then
boom we hear Dave and Katy coming home. He does a sneaky burn out and returns
to Parc Ferme where we are by now to greet our first hero home. With all
we’ve been through the pair have done the job and initially we’re told we are
in 15th place, brilliant! My phone rings and it’s Guy congratulating
us on the finish, I say thanks but my mind is already on Wayne and Emily, he’s
due in, tick tock, boom there is only one other bike that sounds that good and
she’s next to me so Wayne is home and my skin tingles now just thinking about
it, two away at the start and two at the finish. Wayne pulls into Parc Ferme
too and it’s free hugs all round for the team. It’s just brilliant.
Hanging on.
Team grins.
More team grins.
Don't ask me!
Home time
After the dust has settled it turns out that due to 4 disqualifications the lads have moved up the order to finish in 11th and 23rd, nice for us but not so for the riders that have hung it on the line for nothing. That gets a well deserved silver and bronze replica each for the lads and a few drinks too, for the whole team. As for the two girls, an oil change and some suspension work to do, an even more improved belly pan is being made, change of colour scheme and if I can find the parts I might just build another engine, any sponsors?
Onboard with Katy and Dave
A huge thanks to all involved and in no particular order,
Wayne Axon, Dave Hewson, Liz Evans, Guy Burton, Rich Llewellin, Frame Fab, Oronero, Sam Young, Adam Collins, Tommy, Jason, Jez Hill, Gabriele Pezzotta, Grant, Ducati John, Ross Alkins, Pete Sutton, Big Chris,Mark Barrett, Mark Roberts, Denis, Carrot Cycles, B&C Express, Motul and anyone else who knows me.
