Sunday 8 June 2014

Hi all

Well bit of bad news in that my entry for the Supertwin race at The Manx has been declined, due to the large numbers entered.

Still positives can be drawn, like in most situations, in that I will only have one bike to concentrate on, and having not raced there for 14 years it will take a while to get back into the swing of it, so not all bad.

The biggest positive is that I did get an entry for the Ducati, which is out of the two the one I really wanted to race, and having only one bike I can give it my full attention, which it deserves after all the efforts that Stafford has put into, not only building the bike, but more importantly giving me the chance to ride it for him.

It's very apt that Stafford offered me the chance to race his bike for him as this year is the 20th anniversary of my first ever visit to The Isle Of Man, for the 1994 TT, where I watched Simon Beck racing a 888, never could I have dreamt that one day I would also be racing such an iconic machine on the best circuit in the world.

I remember standing at Ramsey hairpin watching the racing and realised that this is what I wanted to do. It really was a life changing moment for me as upon my return I started working towards racing, something which has been a massive part of my life ever since.

So now the TT has finished it's less than 10 weeks until the Mountain Circuit is next closed, then it will be my turn.

Stafford is not keen on me reminding him of the timescale we have, but I have been visting him on a regular basis to do more than just eat his food.

I get sent home with my homework, usually this is stuff to be turned on my lathe, to do before next weekend.

The bike is coming on leaps and bounds, check the blog for progress, and am so looking forward to riding it the 10 weeks can't go fast enough.

It's not all spanner twirling for me as am watching on board footage of the circuit. My favourite is Michael Dunlop's lap below.



I can't say I will be quite as fast as Michael is but is so good to watch.

Hope you enjoy the video and apart from getting ready for The Classic I have Skerries and The Southern 100 to look forward to at the beginning of July.

So until next time, take care.

Cheers
Stuart