Fettled the bikes on me own in the paddock today, me good ol mate Davie ‘Jamie’ Jamieson had made me a new rod for the quickshifter for the Race bike, so when I fitted that, found that I had lost a washer/bush somewhere along the line, and had to get him to make me one of these…… only trouble was that I had to take it off the spare bike to let him see what it looked like, therefore both bikes weren’t queued up at scrutineering……… looks like I’ll be out at the back tonight……………… Bollocks…… Anyhoo, managed to get both bikes finished and up in the queue…… albeit at the back of it……

One of the fancied Irish lads, John Burrows, came to see me and asked would I take him for a lap in his van, he had been struggling in various places, I thought that it might be a good idea to see if Goose (Simon Fulton) wanted to go as well……… so the three of us went for a lap, and I just told them where I would be and what I did…… He drove the van fast enough, so he should have no problems on the bike!……

For one reason or another, maybe because Juan usually does it, (but he wasn’t here) nobody had warmed the bike up…… it took ages for the temperature to get up to an acceptable limit so I had to pull out of the start queue and get it warmed up properly…… no point in thundering down Bray Hill with a cold engine…… It could seize up and chuck me off…… which would not be, I decided, a good plan.

Managed to get away, and thought that it wouldn’t be a hot lap tonight with all the traffic, and I caught the first bloke at the QB……… then there was traffic galore…… was going up the inside round the outside and was slowed loads…… every corner that you needed to take flat out in top there was a gaggle blocking me, so had to throttle off, bide my time and pick my way through…… had no trouble getting past once it was safe to do so…… don’t think I had more than half a mile without getting tangled up with somebody…… Just before practise had started, there was a bloody Combined Harvester that dropped its oil at Gorseleigh, which is a flat out right hander on the run down to Ballacraine…… decided on touring through here to see how bad it was, and all the cement dust that was down, made me a tad apprehensive…… the sun was also pretty blinding as it was sitting so low, so had to be cautious of that as well………… had to go around the outside of about 4 riders at Glen Helen, then had no bikes for the next mile or so…… Got held up in Kirk Michael and into Rhencullen the yellow flags were out in force…… so throttled off and trundled round there…… they were still out past the accident and all the way through Bishopscourt through to Alpine, I still had my hand up and was travelling at no more than 20mph……… the Marshals were ushering all oncoming traffic to one side of the road, through a lot of the crap and debris funnily enough, then I could see what was left of a bike and the rider in the recovery position at the side of the road………… and as no-one was tending to him, I thought that it must be bad…… not something you want to see, and no mistake…… tried to get back up to speed, and was doing alright, but felt like I was doing it all wrong…… never felt comfortable all the way round, even though I was passing loads and loads of bikes…… a lot of riders seem to catch somebody else and then just sit there, you’ve got to get past or you’ll be there all day boys (and girls)…… Into Windy Corner, I accelerated out, went to hook up another gear, but the lever was missing…… bastard!!…… had a look down and the rod that Juan had fettled had snapped, but to be fair to the Laxey Boy, it was the rod that was supplied with the quickshifter that had bust and not something he had manufactured…… had to tour back to the paddock in 2nd gear…… I pulled the clutch in down the hills, otherwise it would have revved its tits off, then got back in and swapped bikes……

Changed helmets, had a drink then went back out on the No1 bike to test the quickshifter on this one…… again, didn’t have a clear run, took Ballagarey in 6th gear, but still think it might be an idea to drive it out in 5th, will decided that later though…… had a lot of traffic again this lap, and the flags were still out at Rhencullen and all the way to Ballaugh……… then they were out again when I rounded Raymotors Garage in Ramsey, so slowed to a trundle again…… there was somebody off at Whitegates and it was a green Kawasaki…… people have been jumping off for fun all week…… not good……… wobbled round the next few corners and saw the Laxey Pole Cat (Nigel Beattie) sitting in the hedge at the Gooseneck…… didn’t have time to give him the fingers, but will do next time around…… carried on up the Mountain and caught up with another Peel lad, Callum O’Shea and gave him the fingers on the way past, then it was zig zagsville through the traffic rounding the Verandah and Bungalow Bridge…… bloody hell, there was loads out tonight…… felt the front push more than usual rounding Cronk Ny Mona, but more down to me being in the wrong line than anything else…… saw some riders into the Nook, and as I approached, watched what lines they were taking…… saw that one of them was Carolynn Sells so went around her outside, just as she decided to alter her line…… any closer she would have clipped me…… then in Governors Dip, saw that the bloke in front was Mark Castle…… was slip streaming him across the line when all of a sudden he sat up and slowed…… Jesus!!…… he never stuck out a hand or a leg to indicate he was pulling in……… hope he does it in future, should be made mandatory that.…… was actually looking for the chequered flag because I thought it was getting a bit dark to continue…… saw nowt, so I slowed a bit to be sure, then thundered down Bray Hill and hit the bottom flat out in top, off for another lap…… passed some geezer into Braddan Bridge and had the odd bit of traffic here and there…… under the trees it was getting really dark, but handily enough I knew where I was going…… then the flags were still out at Rhencullen, Bishopscourt and May Hill in Ramsey…… so much for my flying lap…… took it steady till the end, had to roll the throttle in various places, and thought that it was funny that I could see lights on in peoples houses and in the distance, and here I was tearing round with no lights and a dark visor on……… wobbled round the next few corners and pulled in…… rode straight back to the paddock, and had a chat with the team…………… My team mate, Ian Pattinson, had banged in the fastest lap of the week so far (118.07mph) and here I have been sandbagging all week…… so I decided on going for a couple of hot laps tomorrow……… needed to get a few things ‘run in’ for the race, so we fitted new front brake pads, new tyres, changed the oil and filter, and the drive chain…… got it cleaned up and ready to go………… We also fitted new front brake pads to the Supersport bike and got another gear linkage made up for it, so hopefully this one will last the distance……

So tune in for another very exciting episode…………………………………………………………………………