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Review of 2004
This year was going to be different ! A new bike to get to grips with, more competitive race classes and as it happily turned out, more races.
Neil bought the Yamaha R6 and Brian Bud fronted the money for me to buy the race kit, as I didn’t have the money raised until early in 2004.
With a brand new R6, kitted out with Maxton suspension, power commander a spare set of wheels with wets and everything else we needed to go racing, we turned up at Croft in March for the first meeting, which turned out to be a hard first outing on the bike, due to the torrential rain and gale force winds.
A couple of weeks later I tried out Darley Moor circuit (near Derby), with its smooth track surface and picked up a best position of 8th, enjoying every moment experiencing the new bike’s power compared to the 400.
From there we went to East Fortune for the 1st meeting in April where I began to discover how much more input would be required to get the suspension correct for different circuits. The bike was moving and weaving, shaking its head a lot more on the bumpy circuit, than I had experienced on the 400, caused by lack of suspension knowledge for the circuit.
At the TT in June, we worked very hard to get the suspension to cope with the circuit and were still not quite there by the time I raced in the Junior, but we were learning fast. Learning about the cantilever effect and identifying that headshake is often caused, not by the front being wrong, but by the back being too soft. We also got a lot of tips from Billy McKinstry, Richard at Maxton and John Donnan, who gave us advice.
I hadn’t really expected to get into the senior race, but my fastest lap speed of 108mph in the Junior qualified me and I was out with 90 bikes (mostly 1,000cc, but with about 15 600cc bikes). The changes made between the Junior and the Senior Race improved the bike enough for me to achieve my goal of a 110mph lap and also gave me a race average speed (including pit stop) of 108.6mph, which I was over the moon with.
So I came home from the TT with 2 finishers medals and a great feeling of achievement after working so hard on the bike’s set up.
There was a month’s break before East Fortune in July and the bike was sent to have the head gas flowed. I felt however that I was actually losing out to people I was level with or beating at the meeting before, but I was not sure if this was maybe partly due to me. The bike certainly did not feel as powerful as it had before.
At the Ulster Grand Prix (UGP) in August, this was shown on the Dyno. The bike only produced 108bhp instead of the 118 we thought it should have. The mapping was set though and we got it back up to 113bhp by this alone.
I was supposed to race both in the Dundrod 150 and the UGP, but the weather was so bad, the Dundrod 150 was cancelled and practice for the UGP was more like a procession behind the travelling marshall, in very wet and windy conditions.
At the UGP, Billy McKinstry (who we met the year before) secured me the loan of the JML (John McLaughlin) Kawasaki ZXR 400 in standard tune….. but with some very nice Öhlins suspension.
I basically had no time to set the bike up for gearing or suspension as practice was carried out under such controlled and difficult conditions.
We estimated what the suspension on both the 600 and the 400 would be, and set it at this.
The 600 raced in both the production and supersport classes and I got a best finish of 20th in the supersport race, out of about 60.
This was a sign that I had not had a lot of time on the 600 at the Dundrod circuit (it was the first time I was there). I also experienced how it is not so easy going from a 400 to a 600 with 50% more power.
In the 400 race I was on the front row at the start, but could not get the bike going, the clutch felt like wool. We later found out that it was very worn.
It meant that I was last of the 19 starters as we headed off down the Flying Kilo !
Already at the first corner I caught the two bikes in front of me and passed them soon after. The race continued like this until I had a dice for 3rd with Tony Moss, which I won.
I hadn’t realised my position at the finish though. I was too busy having a great time passing lots of people and generally being a complete hooligan, as the bike was handling so well.
A podium finish at the Ulster GP was an absolutely brilliant end to a difficult event and I was please to give John McLaughlin a good result.
John asked me to come and try out both his 2004 GSXR 600 and the 400 at the Dundalk road races the weekend after, so Neil and me came back across and Billy took us down to The Darver Circuit at Dundalk.
This was a bit of a rude awakening to the standard of the competition in the top road races in Ireland. I was put in with the 1,000cc production bikes with the 400 and was up against the very top racers in Ireland and the UK in the 600 “A” race on highly tuned bikes against the standard GSXR. This showed me how, without circuit knowledge and racing with an international licence (which meant the 400 was in a class against bikes with 3 times as much power) I could not hope to be competitive.
Even still I enjoyed the racing, but if I rode a season like this I would be on my own on the circuit and not have competitive races.
John asked me again to race at the last meeting of the year at Killalane (near Dublin) 2 weekends later and of course I said yes.
This time I rescinded my international licence and raced in the National Support class, which meant I was racing other 400cc bikes with the Kawasaki and could be competitive against the other 600cc machines on the GSXR.
I was winning the National Support 401-750c race when I came off the GSXR at a very slow corner, but it was a pity as I felt that I wasn’t even pushing it.
On the 400 I set off from the back of the third wave of bikes to be sent away. Despite having a wee bit of a sore shoulder from the fall, I was thoroughly enjoying the 400 race and ended up 2nd 400 home. I was really chuffed with this result and I knew that I needed a year in the Support classes to learn the circuits and be competitive.
After this it was back to East Fortune a week later where I got my best finish of the year. A third place in the supersport 600 race. This finished the season here with me in 6th position in the championship (1 point from 5th)……even although I had missed ¼ of the races. In my first year on a 600 it was more than I had hoped for !
The finally to the season is a road race at Scarborough called the Gold Cup. I had never been there before and it turned out to be a very interesting circuit with some nice jumps and very tight hairpins. We had a great time here with lots of races on both the Saturday and Sunday, getting a second place in the 600 “B” race on the Sunday.
So it was a very busy end to a very good first season riding a 600cc bike and it had been thoroughly enjoyable and productive.
So what about 2005………..?
My ambition has always been to race more on roads than short circuits. The atmosphere is more relaxed, I think because there is less panic than short circuits and the adrenaline buzz is a longer slower build up, which lasts longer too.
So what answer could I give when John McLaughlin and Billy McKinstry asked me to race the two bikes in the Irish Road Race National Support class for the 2005 season ……I said yes !
Look out for the two yellow JML / McKinstry bikes with number 7 on the Irish roads in 2005, because I’m out to win !
I’d like to thank all my sponsors and everyone who has helped in 2004:
Sponsors:
A Huge Thanks to Neil for supplying the R6, doing all the mechanics, being a set up guru, getting sponsorship, pit crew and generally making it happen !
John McLaughlin at JML Transport (Donegal)
Billy McKinstry“The Irish connection” for all the preparation of the bikes transport and the mansize steaks
Scottish Association for Bikers with a Disability
www.magsport.com
Brian “Bud” Patterson (sponsor and pit crew)
www.saddletramps.net Saddle Tramps Bike Club
www.notjustbikes.co.uk notjustbikes Ltd, 7 Albert Place Galashiels
York BarbersRussell Murray
www.zoomracing.co.uk
www.freja-fashion.co.uk
John my brother for “the wets”
Morgan Est
Peter Drummond
Thanks to:
Al Cameron of www.dominioncinemas.co.uk
Stuart Ireland for the excellent, fast paintwork
www.mercuryraceexhausts.co.uk
Graham Adkins for helping as pit crew at Killalane:
Jenny for appearing as “Turbo Tea Lady” and pit crewing at the TT
Colin Stuart for pit crewing at the TT and stripping on Douglas Promenade
John, Keith and Jim for coming over to the Ulster Grand Prix (Jim, do Bandits not have 7th gear?)
Jeff, Rachael, Orla, Brian for coming to support at the TT
Liam, Shiela and the kids for being such good hosts and showing us the lights of Lurgan
Lastly, but not least; thank you to all the marshalls at East Fortune and everywhere else from IOM to Ireland.
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