[Eric the viking]

Formula 1 race…

Well burning the midnight oil, we got the 750 shock into the f1 bike and everything was set for the big race. The weather was very misty in the morning and the race was postponed for an hour. Dave was confident that the handling problems had been sorted out and was looking forward to a good race. Well the sun came out and the race was on. The pit stops went well, but we decided not to change the rear tyre as with all the handling problems we had not got the quick change system sorted out.

Anyway everything went well for the race, first lap was under 20 mins, the fastest Dave had gone all week. The bike was still not handling right, but Dave finished the race is his fastest ever average time, at an average speed of 111.51 mph. When he finished his words were “F*cking hell, I was hanging on for grim death at some points, if only we could get the thing to handle, I’d be much quicker”

So that was the F1 race, the production 1000 race is on Monday, when we stand a very good chance in the 750 class within the 1000 cc race. The 750 handles really well now, like the 600. Dave is even talking about using the 750 in the senior race at the end of the week, rather than the 1000. “It was just bloody difficult to ride the beast fast” was one of his comments. As the advert says, “Power is nothing without control” and, although the 1000 handles on rails around a short track, it handles “ like a bag of shite” around the TT course.

Adrian Archibald won the race, at an average including 2 pit stops for fuel and rear tyres of 123.18 mph, with Lougher 2nd on the Honda SP2 and McGuinness 3rd on the ducati.

A fitting tribute to David Jeffries that his team mate won the race in his honour

anyway, we are off out for a beer tonight, to celebrate the result and also because its daves birthday. I will post some pics up tomorrow

Eric

 

[mach600]

A 111.51 is fantastic

Keep trying guys and lets see what happens. Damn shame about Jeffries.
We are with you Dave, give'em hell

 

[Eric the viking]

Production race…..

After a 3 hour delay due to the weather, the production race began….

Well we knew we were up against it, running a 750 in the 1000 cc production race, but we were confident of a potential class win of the 750 class within the main class.

Dave was doing well after the first 2 laps, but he was 27 seconds down on the guy leading when Dave came in for his pit stop. I told him he was 20 seconds behind the leader and he said “Right………….” As he nailed it out of the pits with the front wheel skipping the tarmac, spending more time in the air than on the deack. He rode the socks off the bike, in his fastest ever lap round the island, but he finished 2nd placed 750, 11 seconds behind the winner. He also finished in 21st place overall, no mean achievement. The winner of the 750 class was one place ahead of him in 20th Place. Dave lapped the 3 lap production race in his fastest EVER average lap time of 112.28 mph, faster then on the F1 bike.

Some notable people had problems, Archibald on the TAS Suzuki who won the F1 race, was struggling as he ran out of fuel on the run in to his pit stop. John McGuinness on the Ducati 999 ran out of fuel at Governors bridge, and pushed it the rest of the way, about a mile to the pits, then collapsed and his team refused to let him continue. He had earlier in the day won the lightweight class on a 400.

To show how fantastic the big Suzuki’s are, the first 5 people were on GSXR 1000, sixth place was an R1, then it was GSXR 1000’s all the way to 17th Place.

Suzuki’s rule the TT races on real roads !!!!!!!!!!

Dave was absolutely elated, although pissed off to finish second in class. He has qualified for a bronze replica, as he finished within 110% of the winner’s time. A real achievement on a production 750! Just goes to show how well Dave can go given sorted suspension, so a big thank you to Dave Parkinson of Race Components for the sorted forks in the 750, here’s hoping for some equally good results in the 600 races, as the 600 also has Race Components forks and a sorted Ohlins shock. We know Dave will struggle in the Junior race as his production 600 will be up against all the factory tuned 600’s, giving away at least 20 horsepower to then.

Anyway, I have a load of pics from today that I will post tomorrow as we are all out now for some well earned beer.

Dave was even interviewed for the Telly, watch out, you may see him on the TT program down your way.

Will post more tomorrow when we have sobered up