View from Pit Lane – Edition 52

Ready for a lap

Manx GP – 27 August

There are not many better places in the world to be than Mona’s Isle when the is shining brightly, and this was one of those days. Glorious all day.

We had 3 races to follow, with the added ‘Brucie bonus’ of a warm-up lap for Rik and Trudie, giving us the opportunity to test the gearing before Monday’s race. With no preparation to do it was a fairly leisurely morning before the, now familiar, usual routine. 

At precisely 11.34 we saw Rik disappear from view heading towards Bray Hill on his warm-up lap. To all of us, it looked as though Trudie had a bit more Vavavooom!!!!!! As this was an untimed lap we just had to sit tight and wait the 20 minutes or so to find out for sure, much like the old days when I was racing.

It’s a little nerve-racking, for sure, made worse when the red flags went out, stopping the session after 8 minutes. Bugger. This was shortly followed by an announcement that there’s been an incident at White gates in Ramsey.

We knew then that Rik was safe and stood easy again as he was stopped on the course, probably close to Ballaugh Bridge. Matt went back to camp to wait and have a tidy up, while Sarah and I chatted away the time, enjoying the Manx weather.

Half an hour later we were all drinking tea and having a debrief. Rik felt the gearing was much improved but will need a tooth smaller rear sprocket for the race. So there you have it, no more practice and I think we’ve achieved a reasonable race set up. Time will tell!

Trudie has held together really well this week, we’re all very pleased and we know Rik’s perfect lap is 111mph. Usually, a rider will put another 2mph on their best practice time. We’re in good shape. 

I cooked the usual full English brunch and we spent the afternoon listening to the race commentaries on Manx radio. For the evening’s entertainment, Sarah and Rik had a quiet night together, whilst I was treated to a night out on the town by Matthew. It was a good night. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination…

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