Mark Castle Experiences The Northwest 200 Road Races For The First Time…

My plans for 2006 were set on challenging the Supermono Championship on the revitalised Rampisham Garage Yamaha, sporting a quick new engine.

But major changes to the calendar made the series less attractive and at the last minute we decided to miss the first 2 meetings in favour of doing the Northwest 200 on my 400 Honda. Kev Spurr of KS Performance rebuilt the engine and suspension and the bike came together in time to run her in at Mallory.

Brian Wyles collected my Bike on Sunday evening; Andy Grimes and I set off early Monday Morning and finally arrived at 9:30 pm. We did a couple of laps, which were the first I’d seen of the 8+ miles Road Circuit.

Tuesday evening was first practice after I’d attended a briefing and a newcomer’s bus ride.

We breezed through scrutineering and moved in fantastic sunshine to the start line.

The practice laps were escorted for newcomers and to my amazement one of my racing heroes Phillip Mccallen was our instructor. I made sure when we set off that I was in his wheel tracks.

We did 3 laps behind Phillip who pulled over and I did another 3 laps.

However during the session he came back past me and showed me some more lines…it was amazing.

It almost made up for our later session being cancelled due to delays in the Superbikes. I completed 5 laps during Thursday evening qualifying and qualified 29^th out of nearly 60 starters, which put me at the back of the 1^st start

Race day was the hottest day of the week, I felt nervous as I waited on the grid, and I wanted to make a good start but knew it’d be a challenge after only 10 laps of the circuit and a lot of traffic to contend with.

I completed the warm up lap and took up my position again. The engine was getting very hot and it seemed like and age waiting for the start.

Finally the flag dropped, I made several positions down to the hairpin at York corner then it was a freight train for most of the first lap, but as the field spread out I was able to pass people more easily.

I really settled into the race and always had someone to chase down, spurring me on.

I finished the race in 13^th overall, the 7^th 400 home. I was very pleased for my first try at the Northwest and it was a fantastic experience…full report coming soon.