Today was the rerun day, after Wednesday had been washed out. The sky when I woke up was clear and blue and the sun was shining. Racing was due to start at 12:15 but with this glorious start, they would have been better starting at 9am.
I finished off last night with a pizza at the Trawlerman. It’s become my regular haunt for food, there not being that much choice in Ramsey, truth be told. Unluckily for me there seemed to be a rush on pizzas just as I arrived, so I waited 25 minutes or so for it to arrive at table. When it did, it was deep pan, not thin crust. Apparently they had run out of thins but nobody thought to tell me. The lady serving it to me assured me it would be just as tasty and even asked me when I’d finished. It wasn’t bad, I said, shame about the wait. And to be fair, it wasn’t bad, better than the one I had in the Italian restaurant on Sunday.
My meals so far, I can tell you’re all dying to know, have consisted of;
Friday - Chilli burger – normal beef burger with onions and then a red chilli paste spread on the bap.
Saturday – Cod and chips and mushy peas at the Trawlerman.
Sunday – pepperoni/salami pizza, with red chilli sauce at the Italian restaurant.
Monday – takeaway chicken curry and boiled rice from the Chinese.
Tuesday – another burger, plus chips from the Trawlerman.
Wednesday – meat supreme pizza, again at the Trawlerman.
Thursday is a toss up between the Chinese again or some more fish and chips at the Trawlerman, though I may try take away this time round.
Anyway, to the day’s action. Not sure what time I set out but headed up over the mountain again. There didn’t seem to be too many bikes going through (you can hear them on the road), so we’d thought the road might be closed. It wasn’t. This time it was dry and having already got one ‘lap’ under my belt in the wet, I was more confident I knew where the road went this time. The road was busier than yesterday, though not overly so. I took it steady up to the Gooseneck, little choice as there are cones out but then gassed it out of there and powered up the hill. I wasn’t counting, more gloating, as I passed quite a number of ‘scratchers’ on their crotch rockets. On the straights or round the bends, didn’t matter, I was taking them and this with a fully loaded topbox on the back! Needless to say it was great fun and all over far too quickly. You have to concentrate on the road rather than anything else but on the straights I was able to glance at the speedo. It’s digital and was showing 3 figures. King of the Mountain ;-)
I parked up same place as yesterday and followed pretty much the same routine. An amble round taking a few photos, then sat in the sun by the race office, star gazing. There were quite a few, Keith Amor, Steve Plater, Steve Parish, Andrew Pitt but none probably as humungously huge as Mick Doohan. This bloke is a flaming legend. I mentioned him yesterday. This time though I was up close and personal, not just watching him across the road. So up close, I was able to take his photo and then shake him by the hand. I shall never wash that right hand again. DOH! Already have! Another legend was Phil Read. He’d already walked past by the time I realised who the old bloke with scruffy grey hair and wearing a red Yamaha jacket was. It was actually his cap that gave it away. He used to have a distinctive helmet design and the cap was the same design. I suppose I actually do him a disservice. He is probably an even bigger legend than Doohan, as he actually won 8 world titles AND 8 TTs. I suppose it is just that he packed up before I started riding, that I don’t hold him in such regard. Clearly I’m wrong to do that. Almost forgot, Giacomo Agostini presented the Supersport trophy. Another legend and thoroughly good looking dude, even at 63!
Finally, I made my way to the grandstand. If the racing is called off, ticket holders can use them the following day, assuming that is not already a scheduled race day, so I was back in my seat at the top of the stand. By this time though, the sun had gone and cloud was the order of the day. They weren’t rain bearing though, so the Supersport race got underway as scheduled. 4 laps and a victory for Gary Johnson, his first TT victory. By now it was getting quite chilly. My hands were freezing but I had my fleecy jumper on and my neck warmer, so the rest of me wasn’t too bad. The sidecar race was next, followed by a Superbike practice, in preparation for tomorrow’s Senior race. Then there was another flying lap by the Subaru, not as fast as Monday and lastly TT Zero, the electric bike race. Those bikes can shift, you’d be surprised. Michael Rutter won that, his second TT victory and was just 0.4 of a mph off the magic 100mph lap mark and the £10k that goes with it. Small consolation but he clocked the fastest speed through the Sulby straight speed trap, at 149.6 mph. YES!, on a battery powered machine!!
The presentations over, I was glad to be able to head back to the bike and start the journey home. By now my leathers were fully zipped up but I was quite chilled through. It wasn’t any warmer on the ride back. I took the coast rode as usual but it was closed at one point due to an accident and I had to take to a country lane to find my way back into Ramsey. Back in town I headed straight for the petrol station. I’ll probably be local tomorrow, so the bike is now fuelled ready for the trip home Saturday morning.
Fuel stats:
Fuel: 15.51 litres
Cost: £22.02
Cost per litre: £1.41.9
Mileage: 158.1
MPG: 44.6
Not surprising it’s down on the previous, given my blasts over the mountain. Still respectable though for a 1250cc engine.
Don’t forget to check out my pics, today’s will soon be uploaded.
And so to Senior TT race day….
