![]() ![]() We’ve won lots of races together but more than that, he’s a racer and knows what goes on in my head, even if I don’t. “We’ll figure out the next move.” Your new bike, sir! Rennie’s good fortune was hard to believe as the Kibosh BMW team welcomed him in with open arms. “Let’s just get your stuff and head back to the house,” he says. I see my sponsor and great friend, Oscar Solis, in the pits and tell him what happened. The only noise comes from the Mercedes Sprinter van’s suspension as it bashes over the one-lane roads. No words are spoken between myself, Darren and Alan, the team’s lead technician. The van ride back to the pits is about as fun as a root canal with no numbing agent. I call team owner Darren Gilpin to come and pick me and the bike up from a residential estate somewhere in Peel. It’s Thursday night of practice week and I tell myself I’m not riding this bike ever again. I pull in at Kirk Michael Village and off the track. Two more times this happens, once at Doran’s Bend-the same corner that ended Guy Martin’s TT career on the same model of Honda with similar gearbox issues-and the third and final time at the bottom of Barregarrow, the famous corner where you see all the bikes bottoming out next to the stone wall on the left.Īt that point, I’ve had enough. The CBR drops into third gear, but thankfully after I’ve got control of the situation, the clutch lever now fully wedged against the left handlebar. Praying the Honda won’t kick back into gear and send me sideways into one of the waiting obstacles, I get around the first left, pass the marshal and his waving yellow, ride halfway into the second left, and then… crrruunncchhh. I’m somewhere between frozen with fear and full dynamic mode. Subconsciously thinking about Davo’s words somewhere in my psyche, I commit to the approaching left with no engine brake, the CBR just a rolling bicycle at 90 mph. Or the car in the white house’s driveway. Keep the brake force firm but deft-the last thing you want is lock the wheels and skid into the trees. You don’t grab the brakes hard in a situation like this. At that stage, that’s all you’ve got left.” “If it drops out (of gear), just commit like hell to the corner. My good friend David Johnson, a full-house TT star and roommate for these two weeks of TT 2023, gave me some advice earlier that week that inadvertedly saved my life. For a moment, I consider these might be my final seconds playing out as the white house looms ever so large in view. I’ve had bikes drop out of gear before but never in as knife-edge a place as Greeba Castle at the Isle of Man TT. The engine brake I’m relying on as much as the brakes themselves disappears and the once screaming CBR silently accelerates in exactly the place I don’t want it to.Ībout 50 meters up the road, a marshal rushes out onto the racetrack with his yellow flag waving, convinced I’m about to impale myself into the white house on the outside of the first of two left-handers. The Honda suddenly drops into the void between fourth and third gear. In about 30 seconds, things go very wrong. Rennie and the Wilson Craig Honda charge out of Union Mills during the Thursday afternoon practice session. I shift the Honda back to fourth gear with the revs high at around 110 mph and peel into the approaching left. I’m now rapidly on my way to the entrance of Greeba Castle. ![]() I grip the tank, roll the throttle slightly, get set for take-off, clear the Crosby jump, and get hard on the throttle. I’m acutely aware the lap times I have so far won’t do. With its totally rebuilt K-Tech shock and forks and now much shorter gearing, the red number 57 is handling superbly as I try desperately to coax some much-needed speed out of it. Photography by Double Red, Ryan Crawley, Jon Pennan, Dave Purves, Protec Images, Tracey Harrison, Īfter a poor performance in Wednesday night’s qualifying the Wilson Craig Honda team and I have gone through the Honda CBR1000RR SP2 from top to bottom. ![]() Yes, it was deliberate, This will be a good one for the office wall. Rennie puts a little style on for the camera. At over 150 mph, it’s fair to say it’s one of the fastest jumps in any form of sport, let alone motorsport. The approach to the Crosby jump is one of the fastest of the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |