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]