TACKLING THE
Boothy's had a fortnight off work and been to see if he's still got what it takes to take on the biggest, most challenging road race in the world. Here's how he got on...
Last year I had an awesome time at the Isle of Man TT, finishing the Senior race in 19th position and in the process lapping at 125mph. It was great; the weather was beautiful, neither the old Kawasaki ZX-10R nor the Triumph 675R missed a beat (ok, they might have missed a few, but we got to the end of the event relatively unscathed), and my little team of gremlins did a top job of keeping the bikes running and making the pit-stops run like clockwork. So the plan for TT 2019 was more of the same – with one minor alteration. I’d chopped my 2012 Kwacka in for a shiny, just-run-in 2018 model. The bloke who had it before me was keen to get rid of it because he’s a bit of a poser and it didn’t match his sunglasses, so I got a pretty good deal on it, which meant I had some spare cash to spend on some Maxton suspension, a Kit ECU and Loom, and super sexy Akrapovic exhaust system. By the time we got to the TT, we had done a bit of testing and a few endurance rounds on the big bike so I felt like when we got to the Isle of Man, we’d be hitting the ground running.
That didn’t exactly go to plan, however. The Manx weather played havoc with the practice schedule and almost all of the sessions were shortened, delayed or just cancelled so, come the start of race week, nobody had done enough laps. I know it’s the same for everyone, so I can’t really use
that as an excuse, but I’m not the type of rider that can go quick off the bat – I need to do lap after lap and ease my way into it, whereas some of the other lads just seem to be able to pin it, right from the start; I suppose they must just be better than me!
Anyway, after a week of spending far too much time on Tinder and sniffing round anything with breasts and make-up, and not nearly enough time on either of the bikes, we finally got the chance to go racing. I wasn’t 100% ready to push so told myself the RST Superbike TT was just another practice and didn’t do anything daft. We tried a few things with the Maxton Suspension for the Superbike race and they worked a treat, but unfortunately the race was red flagged after two laps, so once again I didn’t get as much ‘practice’ as I’d have liked – a result was declared and I was awarded 26th position.
It was a similar situation in the first Monster Energy Supersport race, with a result being declared after a red flag at the end of lap two. Although I had been 25th, an empty fuel tank meant I had to push the bike over the line and lose five places in the process, eventually finishing 30th. It was a bit of a pain in the arse, but my little 675 wasn’t the only bike to run out of fuel in Supersport 1; there was a mega-strong headwind all the way across the mountain that sapped the power and drank the fuel, and caught a bunch of other riders out, too.
The RL360 Superstock race was next and that didn’t entirely go to plan either. On lap one, about a mile or so into the TT course, I struck a bird at about 160mph, most of which rammed itself up the ZX-10Rs ram-air duct (the rest just seemed to vaporise). My newly bunged up air duct didn’t sap all the power, but it made a noticeable difference and meant I had to really wring the bike’s neck to get it to shift. Not only did it hurt me in the speed traps, but also the extra neck wringing meant I used a bit more fuel than normal, causing me to only just make it over the finish line, coughing and spluttering and losing vital seconds. After all that, though, I was just happy to finish, this time in 24th place. Not bad with a (dead) passenger.
I didn’t want to take any chances in the second Supersport race so we leaned the fuelling off a bit in an attempt to make sure we made the full race distance. It was, thankfully, a little less eventful, and after two laps of head down, arse up, I crossed the line in 28th position.
Now I have got a better idea of where I’m going and how to ride a 600, I think it’s about time we engineered a few more bhp into the Team SURF Bar Triumph; it’s only a stock motor at the moment, you see.
After a week of (albeit shortened) races, the team and I were ready to tackle the main event... the Dunlop Senior TT. As it happens I was using Dunlop tyres, and having used them in 2018, I was confident that they would easily do a six-lap, 226-mile race, so we opted not to do a tyre change during the pit-stops, but we’d still have the fuel tank to fill and a visor to change. Twice. I got my head down and was up to 17th position by the first pit-stop. Young Oatesy was in charge of doing my visor change and although the poor lad doesn’t even know how to butter a slice of bread without step-by-step instructions (seriously), he can change the visor on a Shoei X-Spirit III faster than you can say ‘Rain Man’. Not-so-young Hoodless had the job of fuelling me up, and he might be pretty slow at fitting bathrooms but, like Oatesy, he was on fire in the pits (not literally on fire) and both of my pit-stops were just about as fast as anyone else’s. George did an ok job of passing me my drink, too.
Over the coarse of the race, I caught and passed a bunch of other lads, which filled me with confidence and really helped me concentrate, but by lap six I was struggling to hold on. I knew if I made it to the end I was in for a good result as I caught a lad who got a pitboard at the Gooseneck which said p16 – he started in front of me so I knew I had to be at least 15th. The last lap seemed to take forever. I was praying my Kawasaki wouldn’t run out of fuel, overheat or throw me off the side of the mountain – but it didn’t. There’s nothing like seeing the chequered flag at the end of six-lap race around the TT Mountain Course – you can’t put the feeling into words. They told me I’d finished 14th, which the lads were made up with, but in all honesty, I was more elated about just finishing. Fourteenth place was just the cherry on top.
On reflection, it was a successful TT for me. I finished all five races, beat my personal best lap speed with a 126mph lap, and finished 14th in the Dunlop Senior TT. But there’s room for improvement – next year I’m going to insist on good weather for the entire fortnight and if all goes to plan, I can feel a 127mph lap coming. In the meantime, I’m hoping to get back to the IoM for the Classic TT (I better get a bike bought); Northern Ireland for the International Ulster GP; and I’ll be keeping my fingers really tightly crossed hoping for an invite to the Macau Grand Prix – I’ve heard the ladies there are very friendly! But before I do any of that, I’d better give this ZX-10R a clean – where are all them ladies, when you need ’em?