Leaving my home 18h30 Thursday and heading to collect Martial Nicolas and his mechanic on route, we drove all night nonstop to arrive at the Dover Ferry terminal at 9h30.. 30 minutes after our ferry departed. No problem, we can just take the next one in an hour… “Oh no ferry today before 13h30?” So off to Dunkerque, for the Midday ferry we went!

We berthed at around 2pm, made a non-stop dash up the motorways and A-roads arriving at Scarborough at 21:00hr on Saturday night, very tired, only to be refused access and notified that there was no space in the paddock?? we will need to camp in the spectator parking a KM away. Euh, no, negative. Some ‘energetic’ discussions ensued, before we were allowed in, and then set about trying to find a spot in paddock B. Not an easy task, but thanks to the generosity of a fellow rider (Franck) who moved his own van (and shared his power supply). We set to our tasks, setup and all rolled into bed just after midnight.

With the alarm shrilly sounding at 7am, and with lots of work to do before 9am qualifying morning preparation was somewhat hectic! The RS250 Honda had a long list of jobs to work through: gearing, jetting, fitting numbers, also trying to find out why it wouldn’t run smoothly. I was ploughing through the tasks when the ‘Rain Gods’ arrived, with a short, but heavy shower. Que a mad panic by everyone around us looking to change tyres, I followed suit and they were duly fitted.
The first qualifying group takes the track, the Junior (600cc) even numbers, and sees Gareth keys go into the fence head first on turn 1, (Get well mate!). The result is a red flag and BIG delays.
About 2 hrs pass, no sessions, and importantly, no rain.

In the meantime I fire the 250 and it runs like appallingly, just like it did on the Isle of Man last season. After some frantic investigation I located the issue, a broken reed?!?!? I rummage through my spares and locate a spare gasket but no spare reeds??? The Super Lightweight (SuperTwin) class is suddenly called meaning I haven’t had a chance to test the 250..! That’s racing!

Now after the delays they announce that the 2x 20 min qualifying session is to be replaced by 1 x 4lap session. Chaos ensues as people go for mad dash times. My session is red flagged after 1 flying lap, but at least the track is nearly dry, I’m the only one not on wets. They restart us for 3 laps, so 2 flying laps, but on my first flying lap the clutch slips badly in 4th gear and above coupled with breaking in a new set of front brake pads it is unsurprising that I am placed down the grid.

I return to the pits, drop the oil, slacken the adjuster on the pushrod on the 650, then quickly to the 250, throw the lovely Continental race rubber on the rear of the 2-Stroke, leave the wet front tyre in for grip in the changing conditions and head out, bump-starting it on the way to the dummy grid. The 250 fires up first time, sounding crisp and crackling but having not located a spare reed petal I take it easy for the first 2 laps, opening up the throttle for the one flying lap but…. RED FLAG!!! So once again we are ‘flagged and only my one ‘flying lap’ time is the best time I post. At least things felt good, and I at last had a smile! I am placed mid-pack which isn’t bad considering I had only one real attempt at a time.

At this point there was a small break in my schedule where it allowed me to help Martial in rebuilding his 600cc that went down in his first session (and on the first lap so he did not get a qualifying time). The 650 (super lightweight) race eventually started mid-afternoon. I gridded up, but got a very average start and just rode to finish. The clutch felt good without any further issues, and the brakes were better but still felt spongy.

Time for the Lightweight race (which includes the 250cc GP machines), my start is clean but not crisp losing out a few places meaning I had to fight to get back to my starting positon. Not great but for the first time all weekend I am really enjoying it, even when a 400cc blew up while I was but a meter from his back wheel, smoke streaming all around me and covering the bike and helmet in (what seemed like) a gallon of oil! Overall times were slower than the qualifying sessions due to the inclement weather effecting the grip. Time for an early night!

Sunday we woke to more grey skies, but thankfully it was dry.
It was announced that the warmup sessions would now be qualifying sessions (strange) so off we go again.
My first session was the super lightweight, and with dry conditions I was able to give it an ok run. Still average times, but I felt good, finally getting comfortable but it didn’t last long before the red flag was out again. Only three laps, so two flyers meaning not enough to really get going. Due to the weather again turning for the worse there would be no restart and it was now too wet to go back out on dry tyres.

The following “qualifying” continued in the wet, but the rain settled it, and after another red flag, some more delays, an announcement that the free practice that was made qualifying is again free practice??? With that in mind I set the 250 up for a wet race, as the weather had clearly settled in, but decided to sit out the lightweight warm up and wait to see what the race would bring?
The Lightweight 250 race was first of the day, and I gridded up on a wet track under very light rain. I got a good start off the line but had to take immediate action to avoid an incident directly in front of me, squeezing between the carnage having to run off in the grass. I came through but was now last (but able to fightback!). I spent the next six laps hunting a few places back, climbed four, but the next gap was huge, I was much faster than I had been all weekend however 6 laps just wasn’t enough. A final result of 10th was good enough for me, given how things had gone.

So, 250 done, the rain stopped, but it was still very wet with standing water across the track I put the tyre warmers on the 650 and decided to wait. Come race time there was almost no standing water but the grip was still poor, so in the interests of safety I decided to sit this one out. I had my two signatures for my TT Mountain Course Licence from the weekend which was the aim of the meeting, but I have to admit i changed my mind too late to race the 650 in the last session. Still, nothing broken, and I had fun in a demented kind of way.

So there you go, it was an epic trip however another step closer to the International Southern 100 and the Manx Grand Prix on the legendary TT Mountain Course later in the year.