The memory's I have of early morning practice, are of "bump" starting our F1 Ducati down the hill that was to the rear of the Casino hotel, (the garage that we used was the Casino hotels old "generator building ), at around 4.30am in the morning. The "bark" from the Ducati's exhaust really used to bounce of the buildings that were either side of the road. Then there was the ride back up the hill and on in to the paddock. The noise that Those Ducati's made must have woken up half of Douglas, they certainly woke me up. !. On another occasion I was riding Tony Rutters F2 machine up to early morning practice, as I arrived at the entrance of Nobles park the was a Police car parked there, the police man signalled me to stop, O'h my word I thought ! he will throw the book at me,...... no insurance, no tax, no registration plate, no silencer, no horn, slick tyres, non of that mattered to him, and he proceeded to give me a right ***********, all because I was not wearing a helmet !. In a way I miss those early mornings, especially when the weather was good, you could stand on the pit wall and listen to the "noisy" bikes accelerating out of Union Mills, and about 20 minuets later hear them again accelerating out of Signpost corner. Exhilarating !!.