thewitch Wrote:Come on, now... you've started, so finish... tell us your story.. even if it doesn't include racing here!

Okay, here goes...I'd always been a race fan, from the first time I was taken to Mallory Park for the Race of the year in '67 (Hailwood on the Six, Ivy & Read on the V4 Yams, etc) but didn't have the opportunity to try it myself until I bought a nice new Montjuic in 1979. Used it on the road and for club proddy and fourstroke racing, got it into race winning fettle, capable of beating the 350LC brigade. Started the Marlboro series in '82, then foolishly got married and bike had to go. Met up with a guy called Graham Binnion who was building a "world beater" for fourstroke racing and needed a rider. It was 400/4 with a Yoshi 498 kit and a frame built from scratch by Graham to his own design with a beautifully made rising rate rear suspension machined from solid. What a brilliant bike that was, we won the North Glos championship on it, then next year went into F2 with a 550 Suzuki in another of Graham's frames. Worst memory of that season was turning up at the first round of the British championships at Thruxton and having to wait while they drove cars round to melt the ice on the racing line! The Suzuki was bored out to nearly 750cc (you could almost see through the liners, they were that thin!) and entered in the F1 race at the '84 British GP (you could do things like that in those days). The first and only time I ever got start money! What a fantastic experience to be lapped by Joey as he went past in a scrap for the lead with Roger Marshall, Mick Grant and Wayne Gardner!

Anyway all the dreams of doing the F2 race at the TT came to nothing when I had a BIG smash on the road, hit by a drunk driver. Injuries meant the end of my insignificant career, but it was fun while it lasted. Got to visit the IoM as spectator in 1971, '78, '79 and after a long break (I couldn't bear to watch) came back in 1992 and have been most years since.