Remembering the roads

Dear CR The article in CR #197 about the making of the film, The Road Racers, got me thinking – always dangerous for a pensioner... I saw the film on BBC2 when first shown and was inspired to have a go at between the hedges racing before making my MGP debut in 1981. I entered the Cookstown 100 in the spring of 1981, with an 860 Ducati, held on the Sherrygroom course (seven x seven-mile laps). The whole experience was unlike anything I had witnessed in the seven years of circuit racing beforehand. No formal practise, just two sighting laps, scrutineering in a tent at the top of a slope in what became a muddy field, fantastically helpful and friendly organisers and spectators (remember this was in the time of the ‘troubles’) and a course which had high speed bumpy sections, damp under trees, cow muck crossings, steep climbs and jumps. So what was the outcome? I got a good start and managed to finish seventh in the 1000cc class. Delighted. The post-race prize-giving party at Milton Thom’s Royal Hotel in Cookstown was very memorable in that everyone seemed to want to buy me a drink... My only sad memory was that Tommy Black, the club’s secretary, who had done so much to help me, was subsequently killed doing his job as a fireman. If any readers were at that event and took photos, are there possibly any of me? If so please contact me via CR. In the 1981 500 Newcomers race I took the lead on the roads at Kirkmichael on the first lap but suffered a seized engine on the second at Sulby when in second place and a 30sec gap over third place – one of hundreds of tales of woe from IOM competitors...

Roger E Bwhite Email

Hello Roger. Lovely memories there, thanks for sending this letter to us. If anyone has any photos of you, we’ll happily put them in touch with you. Good hunting! Tony