Isle of Man TT Course Familiarisation Trip 11th, 12th & 13th November 2005

From left to right: Robbie Silvester, James Edmeades, Bob Collins, Jay Bellers-Smith, Mark Castle, Kevin Quirk & Howard Bellers-Smith. Photo taken by Adrian Earnshaw.

Paul Phillips who is the TT riders liason officer asked me to tutor two new recruits for the 2006 TT in the absense of Richard "Milky" Quale.

I spent the weekend on the Isle of Man with Bob Collins and James Edmeades who'd both competed in the British Superstock Cup in 2005.

Paul had some VIP visits lined up for the lads on the Friday afternoon but we managed to get a lap in before the formalities began. We visited the Duke Video Headquaters where they gave the lads free copies of on-bike DVD's so they could do some home work away from the Isle of Man..

We met up with Scott wilson and his lovely wife Victoria on the Friday evening, Scott had a very sucessful 2005 Newcomers Manx GP and was a pupil of mine on the February Hailwood trip.

Bob Collins mentioned wanting to do an early lap on Saturday morning, so much to their surprise I was knocking on the hotel room before it was even light!!

We got a really good clear lap in before breakfast before the trafic built up too much.

After Breakfast we met up at the Hailwood Centre behind the Grandstand with Adrian and Kevin of the Hailwood foundation and Jay Bellers-Smith and his Dad Howard who were also over for a look around the track.

TT rider Robbie Silvester joined us and we spent the remainder of the day tutoring the lads around the circuit, we prefered to spend time out of the vehicle walking around the various corners.

It was good for Robbie and I to compare the different riding Styles of the different machines as Robbie has competed on 1000cc race bikes, where I'm more experienced on the smaller 400 & 600's.

It was good to know that our racing lines and road positioning were very similar indeed and it was really only braking and gearchanges which differed, then there's the battering which a big bike gives you over there too, but I'm yet to experience that!!!

On the Saturday evening we got Suited and booted and attended the Joey Dunlop Foundation Annual Dinner, a brilliant evening and a great cause to support.

On Sunday morning we managed to get a final lap in before having to head off to catch the flights home.