TEAM NORBAR YAMAHA TZR250 MOTORCYCLE RACE TEAM

Manx  TT  Report – August    21st-28th 2008: Andy “Moose” Muse - #45

I've Pulled !!

Don’t get too excited – this isn’t actually a report of me racing on the legendary Isle Of Man on the frankly lethal Mountain course, you know, the one used by the big boys for the full-on TT each year in June. No, it’s more of an update on what was closer to being an extended BNO – that’s Boys Night Out – while watching a couple of other intrepid ex-YPM riders showing how big their balls have got since moving on from racing TZR’s!!

So, come around 11:30 the 21^st, there’s me and Gary from work pitched up in the bar on the good old Steampacket ferry, downing what would be the first beer of the trip – the first of many as it would turn out……..

By the time we wandered out of the ferry port in Douglas it was definitely time to find a pub and keep what had by now become a decent drinking session going, and it wasn’t too tricky to find a suitable watering hole with some benches outside, and spend a fine afternoon chatting with the bar staff and generally watching the best of the Manx financial district head back to work after a late lunch.

After a couple more beers we hailed a cab and headed off to hook up with the rest of the guys in the race paddock, who at this stage included Craig, Gavin and Rachel from Ramit Racing, plus Roy Parbury.

Rachel had a perm-a-grin on her mush at this point, as Sqwelch had proposed earlier in the week, and he’s said yes. Think there was a deal about racing a TZR in 2009 plus a return to the Manx in 2010 to give it another go thrown in as part of the deal……

Oh yeah, I should probably point out that we were there to support Paul “Sqwelch” Welch and Mark “needs a nickname” Parbury, who were there to compete in the Newcomers race on the Bank Holiday Monday on their 600’s - Yamaha R6 for Sqwelch as ridden for most of the year with Bemsee, and a nearly brand new Kawasaki ZX6R for Mark, that had hardly been ridden by anyone at all!!! They were also hoping to qualify for the Junior race a couple of days later, while Mark was staying on for a couple of days after that to hopefully take part in the Senior race too.

So, after hooking up with the guys and doing the normal back slapping and “here’s a can of Fosters” welcoming type things, we headed off to our hotel to check in. Err, no, scratch that. We don’t have a hotel. B&B then?? Nope, couldn’t get one of them nailed for less than £50 pppn either. Tent then?? Yep, that’ll be it – camping in the paddock making use of the three bedroom dome tent thing that Craig had picked up from Argos for not too many £££’s at all, including air beds, sleeping bags, pillows and everything superb!!!

Unfortunately the conditions in the paddock were already a bit on the rough side, with persistent rain/showers turning the parts of the paddock that weren’t tarmac into a bit of a swamp – we should have made the most of it, as it only got worse from this point onwards thanks to the truly awful weather. The rest of the facilities were good though – clean toilets and good showers, better than most of the circuits we normally race at……..

The weather had already played havoc with the boys track time too, with one days practice lost completely, one day reduced to a single lap and one day of damp patches here and there causing lap times to be lower than the 95mph needed to even make it into the Newcomers race, let alone the Junior – bugger. Only one thing for it – crack open some more Fosters, which seemed to be in plentiful supply if you make it to the IoM in a van, not like us two that had gone as foot passengers.

One thing we did manage to do in between drinking was sign up to be a marshal, as they need over 500 staff at various points on the circuit to even close the roads and run a practice session. The office seemed very accommodating despite us being half cut, allocating us the last of the 12 sectors to report to the next afternoon when we’d sobered up a bit, an area that we could walk to from the camp/swamp/paddock no problem. Watching the DVD turned out to be a bit of a problem, but they didn’t seem too bothered. Good marshals pack provided though - orange vest, instruction book, programme, race/rider guide, a pass and a fancy armband thing in which to keep it in. Plus some discount vouchers for various food places, and a token for a free beer in one of the pubs in Douglas – awesome!!

We headed to the main grandstand for the evenings practice (close to the beer tent too, which had a queuing system set up for crowds of 100’s or maybe 1000’s, but only ever had me and Gaz buying anything. Still, the bar staff thought it was funny too. James Toseland was wandering around the grandstand during the practice too, signing a few autographs and looking amazingly fit and healthy – so fit and healthy that he didn’t follow my instructions to take a left turn into the beer tent when he walked past, but did hear me shouting and looked around rather confused by the whole suggestion.

Anyway, both Sqwelch and Mark managed to qualify for the Newcomers race with a couple of 97-ish mph laps, so that was one job done and dusted. Time for a beer then……. 

Next day was glorious, so we set off in Sqwelch’s van for a lap of the course, and frankly became more amazed as each mile post passed – the place is incredible, tight and twisty in places, narrow and fast in others, even when open and flowing there’s always a lamp post or a set of railway lines crossing the track or something to worry about, or bumps that’d make your fillings fall out on a genuine race bike – that’s why everything is set up softer for the IoM. It’s the towns and villages that fuck with your head though – in some cases you’re doing well over 100mph past driveways and terraced houses (no, not in Sqwelch’s old Transit….) or between stone walls that have parts that jut out every now and again for strength. The worst bits are painted white though, so that makes everything alright! 

We return to the paddock in time to head off for our first session of marshalling, eventually being allocated to a place called The Nook, the entrance to the final Governor’s Bridge complex, which is effectively the last section of twisty stuff before heading off on the start/finish straight. Once the Deputy Sector Marshal that’s in charge works out we know something about bikes and racing we’re allocated “bike” duties – basically it’s down to us to collect any bikes that crash and get ‘em out of the way behind the bales etc. Not bad for a first time marshal. There’s also a couple of other qualified marshals, a medical guy and another unqualified guy that we worked out was a pain in the arse from the moment the first words come out of his mouth………

Fortunately nothing serious happens, other than one rider running straight on taking the new road rather than the old one, but that’s it. Our boys come past and look very accomplished from where we’re standing, but neither manage to improve on their times and seem a bit disappointed when we get back to the tents. It was damp in places, hence the limited chance to push on for a quicker lap. Mark has actually had an off too – getting distracted by a big bug on his visor and missing an apex while trying to pull off a tear-off to clear it. He’s not hurt other than a bruised leg and the bike has survived fairly well too with just a bend foot peg hanger – good job in both cases……..

Saturday was more of the same, with a tourist type trip to Laxley to see the old wheel in the morning, on the Manx Electric Railway this time rather than Sqwelch’s van, before heading back to The Nook in the evening for the final practice. This time we don’t see the guys at all for the first couple of laps, causing a bit of concern for us for a while, but they eventually come round. Mark has just been late getting out, but Sqwelch is cursing ‘cause he’s not run the engine after changing the oil, causing the oil light to come on a few miles into his first lap. He makes it back to the paddock via the public roads - must have been funny to see a race bike riding along the sea front at Douglas, before topping up the oil and getting out for one lap. His head was messed up though, so again no improvement in times. Mark puts in a 98.16mph lap, very close to the 98.5mph needed for the Junior (and Senior too, actually………). Oh yeah, numpty marshal guy gets a telling off for doing a few things wrong, twice. Bloody rookies……

Gavin has headed for home by now as he was only out there supporting Sqwelch for the first week (probably explaining why the oil change didn’t go as planned……) but Dan has arrived to take his place in the Ramit Racing pits for the race day refuelling etc. John Parbury had arrived to do the same for Mark, so other than me and Gaz moving from Craig’s tent to Gavin’s we were now good to go for the rest of the week.

We get a bunch of pizza delivered to the paddock (cheers Craig….), and crack open a few more tins of Fosters or carling or whatever.

On Sunday there’s no racing or practice, so we head off to a sports bar we’ve found in Douglas (called Jacks) to watch the F1 and then the football, plus drink a few cold Heineken’s - all very relaxing. We go for early food, then hook up briefly with Chris and Kev from the YPM’s who’ve made it over to the paddock to say hi.

Monday is the big one, the Newcomers race, so we head off along the circuit to pitch up at the pub that’s at Quarter Bridge corner, but mess up and walk too far, actually ending up at Braddon where there’s a big grandstand and a few benches outside of a church. Fortunately the church has food and drinks, plus the best rock cakes I’ve ever tasked, so the delay for the weather to improve on the mountain passes ok. When the reduced to two laps race starts it’s still damp, and you can tell even from the benches that Mark isn’t having much fun, while Sqwelch seems to be making up quite a bit of time. Next time around it’s actually raining a bit at our spot, but Sqwelch is now right on Mark’s tail, having made up the best part of a minute – Mark starting earlier than Sqwelch in the “two by two pat you on the shoulder then you go” departure routine. They end up with Sqwelch in 16^th and mark in 17^th – an awesome achievement.

By the time we hike it back into Douglas for a celebration curry the boys are ecstatic, and I’m as proud as punch to know ‘em and be considered to be part of the “team”, even if all we did was come over and drink beer…….

Tuesday was another free day with no racing or practicing, so after a breakfast and a bit of mooching around with Tony H (also over from the YPM’s, or more rightly over as part of being a journalist with Bike magazine…….) we head off to Peel on the bus for beer and a bit of a look around, before heading back to Douglas for some top quality Tex-Mex grub, more beer, and an early night.

Wednesday is the Senior race, which the Ramit’s spend mainly packing up Sqwelch’s gear and pulling his caravan out of the mud with Roy’s 4x4 thing, before we also pack up Gavin’s tent, hope it survives, it was a bit damp and muddy – Craig opting to sleep in his van for the early get-away needed, so now it’s me/Gaz/Dan in Craig’s tent.

We head off to The Nook again for the final stint of marshalling, but there’s delay after delay due to the crap weather again. The racing eventually gets underway, is incident free at our corner other than another rider running on down the new road, with Mark piping Sqwelch by a few seconds this time, a fair result in my view. Oh yeah, as it’s a three lap race the pit crew get to do their thing too, with a general bike check, visor/screen clean and more fuel all apparently getting sorted in a professional enough way to draw positive comments from the old hands and marshals – top job guys.

We head off for food, but hooking up all together is tricky as Sqwelch and Mark have to collect their Newcomers race medals at a big presentation thing, but most of us pitch up at Jacks for the last time to down a few more cold Heinekens prior to calling it a night well past the normal curfew. It was actually late enough for Dan to be talking about entering next year on a VFR400 maybe, while Mark confirmed he’d be back for another go too. Anyone up for a returning with ‘em in a bit of a posse – it surely can’t be as bad on the weather front two years on the trot, unless this global warming thing actually is having some sort of effect…….

Next day we have a late breakfast and pack up Craig’s tent, before Roy drops us back at the ferry port to head for home, with Dan flying out later in the day, Craig, Sqwelch and Rachel were long gone by now, having got their crazy early ferries, while Team Parbury were staying for the Senior race that was supposed to take place on Friday, but actually didn’t happen ‘til Saturday – yep, poor weather again.

Hopefully the pictures capture some of the atmosphere of the week.

‘Til the next time………