Friday 4th June

Didn’t get to learn much yesterday as the session was cancelled, they also cancelled the emergency morning session due to weather forecast, and if it turned out to be anything like it was when we ventured to Ramsey for the day, it was definitely the right call…… It was absolutely pissing it down and there was standing water all over the place…… but late afternoon, it cleared up and it was a top day…… oops, a bit of a mistake there methinks… still, it was a day off, and we could get some fettling done, tyres picked up etc etc………

The weather was well overcast, and there was still a bit of a chill in the air, but that was good, because the flies should be at a minimum, and there would be no sun dazzle…… which is handy enough an that……… The boys had the bike lined up at scrutinnering somewhere near the front, again, hours early……… had a few things to do, so was busy enough and we soon lined up on the Glencrutchery Road for the 6-15 start. We had changed the suspension again to what Ken Summerton at K-Tech Suspension had recommended as a base setting, so we gave it a go…… but still running the 18mm of static sag on the rear of the bike…… still trying to find sommat that I can get round on without tiring me out too much.
There was a slight delay, but I lined up the Bullock 600 Production Honda with Alan ‘Bud’ Jackson on his GSXR1000…… Right behind me was Guy Martin, seriously fast pilot, and one of the favourites, John McGuinness on his factory R1 Formula One bike…… oops…… where’s he gonna come past me…… Bud got a better start than me, and I had to roll it at the bottom of Bray, but got him on the anchors before we got to the QB, pretty wide line ensued, then I haired off down to Braddan…… lost a bit of time tackling the two that started in front of me, and into the Crosby Corner, I lost serious drive by having to go down the box and throttle off to avoid some newcomer in an orange bib…… bollocks…… lost all me drive up the hill through Crosby…… at the top of the Waggon & Horses, McGuinness wheelied past me…… there he is then!…… amazingly enough I kept the gap constant till we got to Ballacraine, and I was pretty chuffed with doing that, but there were oil flags out in force and we had to wobble round…… after Doran’s bend it was the last I saw of him…… Had a few more riders to contend with, and as there were a lot of the fast boys out in front on the formula one bikes, I didn’t expect to see anybody else, and I had a pretty lonely ride for the rest of the lap…… My arms started to pump up, which again, is a worry, and I wasn’t really enjoying the set up that we were running, so decided on pulling in after this first lap……… wobbled round Governors Bridge and slowed to pull in…… had a look behind me and saw that Guy Martin was only a few seconds behind, which disappointed me for a minute, till I realised that he was on his Formula One Gixer Thou…… so not too bad there then…… he’s been doing 118mph laps on that…… pulled in and got the Wad to stretch me arms…… my right one was pumped up to hell…… running standard throttles on these Production bikes is a pain in the arse…… well, arms anyway…… with the ‘kit’ items, you only have to twist them half as far…… lap time was sommat like 19mins 32.4secs (115.85mph)…… but that was slower than we had gone, so it we decided to change only the high speed compression damping as we thought that what Ken had recommended was a bit high, so after changing that it was back out on to the track…… straight away at the bottom of Bray Hill the cable tie, or should I say ‘sharp’ cable tie that holds my I.D. tags onto the chain around my neck was digging in to my chest again…… ouch!!……… every bump, it dug in me and was making me mad, because I couldn’t shift it out of the way…… was thinking of pulling in everywhere, and was even trying to unzip me leathers on the move…… I was gonna rip the bastard off and throw it over a hedge…… tried to do it going down the Sulby Straight, bad idea……… me arm ended up behind me back……… Also couldn’t believe that I had forgotten to put one of my blister plasters on to my gear change toe…… something I’ve been doing for ages and they really work…… and there was a blister appearing…… double bollocks…… after the Ginger Hall, there were Marshal’s waving the yellow flags like hell…… I acknowledged the Marshals, stuck my hand in the air and slowed to less than 30mph…… turns out that Rob Frost had come off at Kerromoar…… not a good place to have a Yee-Ha and no mistake…… I knew it was him cos I recognised his CD Racing Formula One bike up against the hedge, or what was left of it, and they were carrying him away on a stretcher…… fingers crossed he was okay…… started to get back up to speed, and saw that one of the blokes ahead was Team Racing rider Liam Quinn…… cool…… lets go and go underneath Quinny…… tailed him into Ramsey, and caught them right up by the Gooseneck…… there was a bloke on a Formula One plated new R1 ahead and I didn’t recognise who it was, and Quinny was just sat behind him…… sat behind for a bit, but got past Quinny on the run to Gutheries and had to sit behind this geezer…… he didn’t get away from me as much as I expected he would on the Mountain Mile, and I reeled him in again by the time we got to the Mountain Box…… as his bike had more poke than my little 600, he was hard to get past on the fast bits and I was stuck behind on the corners…… was having a few bites at him, but he didn’t see me…… was gonna go for it at the Bungalow, but he drove away again up Hailwoods Rise…… had some more bites around his outside at Brandywell and at the 32nd Milestone, but he went wide on both corners and I had to throttle off……… actually passed him into Windy Corner, then he blasted past me again on the road to the notorious 33rd Milestone…… Jesus, here we go again…… Into the 33rd, he went slower than I wanted to and I had to go down two gears instead of the usual one…… lined him up and went around his outside here, and got to Kepple Gate before him…… didn’t see him again after that…… beeped the Horn at Brandish, cos I knew Noel would be there, and haired off down to Hillberry…… not the best line I’ve taken all week, and the bike jumped around a bit at Cronk Ny Mona…… not as good as I had hoped…… took a different line at the Nook, which I found to be a lot better than I have been using, so I now know the best line through there…… wobbled round Governors, and the flags were out so had to pull in on a short lap…… Was met by the boys…… crap lap…… sommat like 112.5mph…… Ian Smith pulled up alongside me, as it was him who I had been trying to get past, and he just said…… ‘Around the outside at the 33rd……… mmmmmmmmmm’……… nice clean move though, but not sommat most people would normally try…… it’s a big balls corner at the best of times…… Went to my van to get a blister plaster put on my big toe…… actually put two on, and had to tape the little buggers on because they would stick to my sweaty feet…… oh yes.

Went back to the boys and the bike and me ol Bullock team mate Juan, recommended we go back to the settings that Ken from K-Tech had recommended, but alter the sag on the rear and try it like that…… and if it wasn’t right, I could come in again, and we could alter it again…… was handy having Juan’s input, because he’s a lot more switched on in this area than the rest of us…… had he been in my crew all week instead of Andy Wallace’s, I’m sure we all would have learnt more. So we did as he said, and I set of again………

Down Bray Hill the bike was shaking its head a tad, slightly more than normal, but what I didn’t know at the time, that changing the sag on the rear had raised the ride height on the front…… which was putting more onus on the front wheel, and making it shake its head a bit…… the benefit of this would be that the bike would steer quicker, but it would be more unstable as a result…… I tried like I normally do, and concentrated on being smooth as possible and getting the drive out of the corners……… was still pretty cautious rounding Ballacraine as there was plenty of oil down here and cement dust all over the place…… caught up with two riders at Doran’s bend and could see one was local lad, Barry Wood, and some other geezer ahead of him on a Junior Bike…… managed to get underneath Barry at the left hander at the Black Dub and underneath the other on the right hander without losing any drive…… nice clean moves there, considering where it was…… been taking Glen Helen pretty sweetly all week, but still know I can do it better, got using all of the road here sussed and get pretty good drive up the Creg Willy’s Hill…… noticed that there was a good crowd out watching tonight, and there was a lot of heads at the end of the Cronky Straight, which I can take with the throttle pinned to the stop…… also starting to get the exit better, as I’m standing the bike up more to avoid the seriously banked over wheelies and wobbles down the hill…… The bike did actually steer better, noticeable in places like the top of Begarrow……… wobbled its head a bit at the bottom though…… carried on regardless, and passed the odd bit of traffic here and there, and was pretty steady…… big crowd in Parliament Square in Ramsey, and I’m still wobbling round May Hill…… the front is jumping all over the place at this point, which is not good and I’m losing time up the hill…… up on the Mountain I caught sight of Aka on his Production 600 Honda, and he was tailing Quinny, this time out on his 750 Suzuki…… by the time we got to the Verandah, I was on their arses, and I had a bite at Aka at the Bungalow Bridge…… no joy there as he never saw me, but did actually get him before the next few right handers before the Bungalow itself, then tailed Quinny…… was having bites at him all over the place but never actually got him till Windy Corner, and then got my head down and arse up and started getting on it again…… was getting a few photo’s taken it has to be said…… quite a few flashes were going at Hilberry…… but if somebody wants to take a photo of me, I’m not going to complain……… maybe they want to hang it on their mantelpiece…… to keep the kids away from the fire.

Nearly clipped the bales in Governors Bridge as I was a tad wide, probably because I’m going round there in 2nd gear instead of first, still not too much of a worry, and at this point decided to go for a flying lap…… and flew trough the Grandstand at speeds in excess of one hundred miles per hour……!!!! Again, the bike was a little flighty all the way to the bottom, but got it settled in time, to take the corner flat out…… and had it snaking on the anchors into the QB…… I was soooo tempted to stand on the back brake here and get some smoke coming off the rear tyre, but thought better of it…… was steady and smooth all the way to Glen Vine, and took Ballagarey in 6th gear, but am wondering if it would be better to take it in 5th and get better drive out, can’t really tell which one is the fastest……… passed a few 400cc bikes on the run to Ballacraine, but without any fuss, and was having a nice run…… smooth as you like around the Glen Helen section and had me knee down a couple of times…… still really shite at Douglas Road corner in Kirk Michael, but is it worth trying to make up a second, tops, here with the risk of making a mistake…… This time round at Alpine Corner, went down a gear to 5th and held fourteen thousand revs on the exit, then snicked it back into top, taking the corner in 6th gear I’ve noticed drops the revs down to around the 11,000 mark Couple of nice wheelies at Rhencullen, and a mighty leap at Ballacrye……… the bike was still shaking its head after the Ginger Hall, but it always does, and I was keen to see what my lap time was going to be…… I liked the way the bike was steering, but know that there is better in there somewhere…… I can go quicker if the bike will let me…… passed a few more bikes on the Mountain, but not too many and was flagged in on a short lap…… stuck my hand up and slowed……… pulled in the holding area next to the boys…… they were quite impressed, but the short lap confused them a bit on the times front……… but found that I had actually lapped at 19mins 15.8 secs (117.52mph) and amazingly enough topped the 600 Production Leader board……… Its not often that you have your name ahead of McGuinness and Archibald…… Chris pointed out that I had averaged 117mph for both laps, which was not too shabby either…… Discussed with the boys what I thought the bike was doing, and it was at this point Juan said the ride height would have altered…… so to set it back where it was and leave everything else the same and go and try that………… wasn’t planning on doing the practise session after Saturday’s Formula One Race, but am going to now, as we have something else to try, and won’t be able to if it rains in the other designated sessions………

So, tune in next time for another very exciting, leader board topping episode………