Never raced at TT or MGP, But part of me would love to!.Been racing for 19 yrs! (where does the time go?) i was a late starter (29), started the same day as a certain Jeremey McWilliams! ( i must have taken a wrong turn somewhere!!) seriously, i was and still am in it just for the fun.
Never took it too serious, but did put my mind (and expenses) to it in 1997, and won the Irish Clubmans 400 s/c championship.
Made my road race debut at Killalane (dont remember what year!) , enjoyed the expirience, but dont think i am really cut out for it!.
Since then, i have raced at Cookstown, Bush, Kells and Dundalk road races.On the circuits, Aghadpwey, Kirkistown, Bishopscourt, Mondello, Anglesely, Snetterton and ST Angeleo (Enniskillen).
I also competed in the KRC 6 Hr endurance races at Snetterton, best result was a 2nd in the 400 class.
I also remember finishing behind Andy Ibbot in a 600 B race sat Snetterton ( i was on my 400!) and was 5th!.
I have been lucky enough to have been able to compete in a couple of Parade laps around the TT circuit, but the most satisfying, was without doubt, when Alan Robinson(RIP) asked me, if i would like to ride in the Hondas 40th anniversary lap!!, Did i need asking twice?, No!, This was indeed an honour for me, to ride with all these esablished Honda TT Stars!
I could go on, as i would have so much to say, but suffice to say, i am eagerley awaiting next March to get out for my 20th season!
(ps, done a few yrs grass tracking and some Moto Cross and Grass Track races before the tarmac!>
Baylon
http://www.irishracephotography.com

I can just see you flying over Ballacrye Baylon..............on a SV 650? :wink:

I've tried this already Barry.

Baylon would be a perfect rider for the Manx I should know I've seen how smooth he can be from behind. And with you and I teaching him he'd get a decent result too

Go on Baylers give it a shot

Come on, Baylon... go for it... you'll always regret it if you don't.

I hope this thread continues. Have thoroughly enjoyed reading your stories. Well done everyone.

I have very fond memories of my first time at the MGP...........Barry will remember this

Ronnie my mate had a very broken 250 Suzuki as did Barry and Jim Kelly.
Somehow we manged to find each other and build one good one and Ronnie rode it to a finish.

In exchange for Barrys 250 Suzuki (blown engine If memory is right) Ronnie gave Barry the use of a 250 Rotax ?
Sadly Barry didn't get a finish on it.

I've not see Jim Kelly for years now and Ronnie is moving to Australia early next year..................

I'll always remember building that bitza and we got it all right bar one small pipe which we picked up on and corrected.

Whats you memories of that story Barry ?
I'm sure we didn't know you and only meet by chance

Only problem with the Manx, Baylon, is that after you've done it once, you absolutely have to go back the next year,

and the next,

and the next,

and the next,

and the next . . . . . . . .

Not a problem, really :!: :!: :!:

Don't take my word for it -- ask Cargo.

:wink:

Hi Crofter:
Road Racing to me was always reserved for Gods like Mike Hailwood and Siggi Schauzu ......never thought I would get a chance at it. Watched the greats at the TT and UGP from toddler age to 17 year-old spotty youth.

Then I was asked to passenger on a kneeler for road races in Scotland......and got flattened by the outfit as it ran over me in a practice session. Front-UN-loaders were good at spitting you off the front.

That failed to drum any sense into me, so a began a passionate RR life , but THIS time in the action.
Passenger, then sidecar driver, then solo rider.
Engine builder frame welder van driver cook and bottle washer fund raiser dance attendee skint racer skint racer no time for TV guy.

Found it difficult to keep passengers on the job for some reason- so solos were tried. Only one unreliable guy to worry about that way.

Many of my meetings' races were alternated between solos and the outfit/s, greedy sod I was. Seemed sensible to get as much time out on the track as possible. Jump off a Norton 750 Seeley onto a Yamaha 350, then onto a Ducati MHR, then onto a Russ Collins Windle Honda, IMP or Yamaha TZ700.......then maybe a 500 Hagon just to round up the corners of a pretty full bellied meal of two & 3-wheeled sport . A good day out, then straight to the nearest hostelry to squander the prize money.

Every Scottish track was attacked and learned, what a steep curve too. Keep going, just keep going. Then English, then Manx, then Irish, some continental circuits even. Different attitudes over there.......they gave me cash to appear! Whaoh......shurely shome mishatake?

Hillclimbs were climbed too, and the odd sprint.
Rest, and be VERY Thankful ( that you were still in one piece) was some spectacle, I imagine something like a TT of pre-war days; sheep poo and gravel to help make riding fun...........and a drop sheer down the glen if you overcooked it.

Road Racing was and still is the purest form or racing for me.
Tried Moto-X and liked it a wee bit , but..........

IoM TT and Manx seemed to demand so much time and money ( ALL OF MY HOLIDAY TIME IN FACT ) that alas, I shied away from the Mecca, prefering in stoic acceptance and monetary reality instead, to cross over to The Emerald Isle where one could ride one or two brilliant road races in one weekend, and still be home for work Monday. Clonakilty to Sligo to Tandragee, and every one in between, what a joy to race in Ireland!

How the Irish and Ulster enthusiasts helped! These folk were the salt of the Earth. No bother was too much....pick you up from the ferry at Larne and take you to the Mid Antrim......after a salty crossing in your leathers, as the ferry fee for a van was too much ( if you had a van)

No less generous souls looked after me on The Island.....
Washed out of a hurricane -torn paddock tent, I was installed FOC in a lovely Peel hotel for the Manx week, and fed like a fighting cock! This after hitting a pheasant at 130 mph in early morning practice near Ballacraine and dripping it over the marshals who owned the hotel. Never was a pheasant more luckily plucked, nor with such pleasant results.

Names like Munster 100. Dundalk. Cookstown. Fore . Sligo. Killalane. Skerries 100. Faugheen 50. Temple.

Jings, what a romantic roll-call.

Jurby RR. Manx GP.

Then there's the so-called short circuits which were even bumpier than the open roads............East Fortune. Kircaldy. Scarborough. Cadwell.

Funny, I liked the rough places best. Smooth roads felt odd.....sort of untrustworthy.

Let us hope that Road Racing stays with us for another 100 years at least.

I would like to think that future generations of lads and lasses can still get the same thrills and meet the best folk at the TT , and everywhere there is a ROAD RACE.

Crofter[/quote]

Well gp it would seem your new password works :wink:

Larry..............I like this guy look what he says about smooth roads.

Welcome (back) to TTwebsite gp...............enjoy

Thanks to all that replied I enjoyed reading your posts.

I have never raced myself but I suspected from the postings a lot of you had or were very interested in the road racing.

So thanks for taking the time some brilliant stories there also.

I wish you all a good christmas and happy new year.

Roll on the TT


Crofter

There are others who I feel could contribute to this thread which in all honesty has be fasinating.
So........................

Lets hear form Steve Linsdell. Espcially about the Enfield and the MGP

NickJ is on holiday I think but we'd love to hear a quick outline of his story.

And young Ollie Linsdell.. lets hear how he got so far so young, and what his plans are for 2008

cargo Wrote:I've tried this already Barry.

Baylon would be a perfect rider for the Manx I should know I've seen how smooth he can be from behind.

Ummmmm you are starting to worry me Cargo matey........

I remember Ronnies old RG, wasn't that the one that ended up in the Raven's car park?

So many tales and so little of them can actually be put on here....... lol

I remember one incident at Cadwell where someone was not doing the decent thing on track, breaking the unwritten rules at every opportunity, so while they were in the Ducati Bar everything in his tent was turned upside down apart from the camp bed, we ... oh sorry I ment someone had even removed everything from the fridge freezer, turned it upside down and put everything back. Wasn't until he woke the next day that he realised.. must have had a few the night before..... don't know if he actually did though because we couldn't remember much either....... he got the message though... couldn't do half the stuff nowadays that we got up too.......

Not that I condone that sort of behaviour you understand.........

I do remember hearing of a group of racers returning from somewhere to London, where a real convoy developed - one lot would open the rear doors of the Thames 15cwt and pass cans of beer tied to a scarf to the following van, who would then open the rear doors and....you get the picture I am sure! The problems came when London was reached, when nobody wanted to break the chain, so one or two would go through the lights at green, two or three more at amber, leaving the rest to decide whether to stop or not on that funny reddish colour.....
Hooligans, of course, but in those days of light traffic not quite what it would be today!
I must own up to being the driver of the Thames (6-cylinder Zodiac engine squeezed in!) round the coast road from Douglas towards Laxey, with a few buddies in the back, and shouting out that the brakes and steering had gone, shooting straight over the tram lines up a track that I knew was there, and the others didn't - there was a need for dry cleaning of trousers, and fumigation to get rid of a strange manure-ish smell!
Happy days!

Royal Enfield.............that's where the Queen keeps 'er chooks, innit?

I've had great fun reading everyone's stories. I'm back from Thailand and looking forward to Christmas, so Happy Christmas to all our readers.
I got this annoying bug to compete on two wheels in the fifties. Then in the sixties I travelled in the back of a Commer van to many sidecar events with Colin Appleyard,(Robin's Dad), plus events that my Dad was officiating at. Rode Trials from 1968-2003, and raced 1974-2003, including 83 races round the TTcourse,(63TT's and 20MGP's). Also rode Macau GP, Bol D'or, DutchTT, plus UlsterGP(best circuit in the world) NW200(nearly the worst),Skerries, Scarborough, and most English circuits.
You're right, the craic was good at all these events, but to get the most out of racing, you needed to be with a character like Ron Grant, who looked after me for two hair raising seasons, and when we were never far from trouble. I don't know what it was about him, but he could make you believe you could walk on water. Sadly even Ron found out that he couldn't.
No question about it, competing on two wheels, either on the moors above Fort William in the Scottish Six days Trial,(rode it 16 times),or plummeting down Bray Hill, it was the best thing I have ever done. I DO look a shadow of my former self on a golf course on a Saturday morning, but I don't care, because I DO have the memories. Bit like the expression,"better to have loved and lost , than to never have loved at all", the racing parallel goes,"better to have raced and lost, than to never have raced at all". Hey, I'm not knocking those that haven't competed, it wouldn't have been as much fun with nobody watching!!

Or in my case "Better to be a has been than a never been"

Raced mostly on the short circuits and my biggest (only) regret in life was not doing the MGP when I had a chance.

Now, the MGP is the biggest and best event for me of the year, but behind the lens.

Rusty

Nice one Nick...good to talk to you earlier and looking forward to your stories in the New Year... :wink:

Respect to you all 8)

Sport-Pics Wrote:Or in my case "Better to be a has been than a never been"

Raced mostly on the short circuits and my biggest (only) regret in life was not doing the MGP when I had a chance.

Now, the MGP is the biggest and best event for me of the year, but behind the lens.

Rusty

It's maybe better you didnt do the Manx Russ!
If you were as good in front of the camera as you are behind it, we'd all be running scared :!:

Thanks for the kind words, Scruffy, but I do have the equivalent of a works ride with the equipment I use!

Rusty