2010 marked my fourth Isle of Man TT. Having progressed my results since my newcomer year, 2007, I felt that 2010 was a big year for me at “the island”.

Preparations for the TT started well, having recovered back to full fitness after injuring myself at Anglesey in September 2009. I raced in 3 British Superstock meetings along with a couple of club races early in the season. Running well in each event and improving on lap times etc from previous years. Unfortunatly after the Oulton Park BSB round I decided to part company with PRF Racing for varying reasons.

This left me with no bikes to ride only 4 weeks before the TT. The following three and a half weeks are a bit of a blur. I borrowed money (from my Dad) and bought a brand new Suzuki GSXR1000. Many people dug deep to give assistance, Quill exhuasts, Maxton suspension, RLR Motorsport and many others gave support and rushed work through to get me out on the grid. Myself and James (JPR Group) built the bike in my garage in 3 weeks.

We only managed to fit in a half day test at Mallory park on the Wednesday before first practice on the Island. This was a massive help, although it wasn’t much track time, it gave the bike a shake down and enabled us to find a base set up which otherwise I wouldn’t have had. For the supersport races I was kindly loaned a GSXR600 by Graham Eyton Motor Body Repairs.

After all this action we made it to the boat on Friday afternoon ready for whatever the TT could throw at us. First practice was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions on Saturday, This wasn’t a big issue for me as I still had a few jobs to sort out on both bikes.

We got under way on Monday night for the first session, out on the 1000 first to get some miles under it’s belt. With only 30 dyno miles and 60 track miles I had to be a bit careful with the motor initially. Getting back out on the course for the first time in a year always brings the memories flooding back, braking markers, turn in points etc all return in an instant. Although the high speed of the place takes a bit of acclimatising to!! I came in after 2 laps, I’d done just shy of 120mph on my first and just over 120 on my second lap.

Happy with that I jumped onto the 600, which I’d never ridden before, for a couple of laps. At Braddan bridge I noticed a red warning light on and instinctively hit the kill switch and coasted to Union Mills. As it would turn out this was only a fuel injection warning light and caused no issues at all with the running of the bike. With this not being my bike and not knowing the ins and outs of it I wanted to check it out before carrying on. I leant the bike against a wall and a kind member of the public gave me a lift back to the paddock. This enabled me to get another very useful lap in on the 1000.

The remainder of practice week was very productive for me lapping at just under my personal best.

Posted: July 5, 2010

TT 2010 Part 1 Practice Week