Brian Gardiner Racing 2000 Season

Brians targets for the 1999 season last year was the Lambert & Butler 1000cc Irish Championship, Regal 600cc, NW200, Isle of Man TT and Ulster Grand Prix. Easter Saturday and Monday went very well finishing 2nd and 3rd overall in each championship. The Yamaha R1 proving very effective with its Tony Scott motor and Maxton suspension. The season took a knock at the NW200 in May when my first ride of 1999 on Mark Johns Honda RC45 ended after one lap with a major engine failure and handling problems on the 600 made it a none start.

So I went to the Isle of Man with three new bikes to set up, a new engine in the Honda RC45, a brand new ZXR 400 Kawasaki owned by my wife Anne and a 600cc Kawasaki with a new tuned engine.

 Unsurprisingly practise turned into a nightmare with frequent trips to the dyno, Jurby airfield and every possible practise lap around the TT course. But it did pay off with a 118.44mph standing start lap in the senior TT finishing 11th and 5th place in 400cc light weight. Two silver and two bronze replicas for the mantle piece back home!

The next weekend back to my favourite track Dundrod, where pole position, fastest lap and second place on the big Honda pleased the whole team particularly Mark Johns. Things continued to go well at the Mid Antrim road races when another fastest lap and third place in the 1000c Lambert & Butler saw me in second place in the championships by 0.5 points. I had to go to Monaghan road race to maintain my championship hopes, a track I had never been to before.

Unfortunately this ended in disaster with two crashes, the last one resulting in four broken fingers on my left and a stay in Belfast City Hospital! End of 1999 Championship hopes! I just made it out for the end of season in October to prove to myself I could still ride and enjoy it. What an up and down year! What about this season? I plan to keep the Yamaha R1 for the Lambert & Butler. Mark Johns has agreed to let me race the RC45 again at NW200, TT and Ulster Grand Prix. While my wife Anne is also letting me borrow the wee Kawasaki again!

Brian has put in some impressive race performances this season already with a 5th place in the CP Hire Production Race at the International Coca Cola North West 200 in Northern Ireland in May on the Honda RC 45 with an average speed of 112.226 mph and with the TT and Ulster Grand Prix to come  we will bring you reports on Brian's progress.
 
My thanks go to my Team, Dunlop, NGK, Millers Oil, EBC Brakes, All in All Ingredients, Road Racing Ireland, Mark Johns Motors and Uel Irwin of
  NI Motorcycle Tours MAG Corporate member.
                 
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