‘There was a reason I didn’t race’
“I’ve no regrets about how the TT turned out, even coming back on the ferry. Why should I regret it? If I had come off at Dorans Bend and I was dead or I’d broke all my bits and bobs, maybe. But I got away with it. I’ve been warned enough. “There was a reason I didn’t race. I did one lap, two days before the Senior. We’d tried the Cosworth-tuned engine to begin with and then the Superstock engine, but for this one lap of practice we put the BSB engine in, which was sort of a middleground. I was halfway through the lap and thinking, ‘This is the best that this bike has been, I’m going to race it.’ But coming out of Windy Corner towards the 33rd, I saw a bit of low cloud and I thought, ‘I’ll just roll off here.’ And as I shut off I had a huge slide, I had my feet down and all that. How I saved it, I don’t know – more luck then judgement. It was high in fifth gear. “Then I realised it wasn’t low cloud, but oil mist. I managed to get round the next left-hander and at Keppel Gate I was shouting and screaming at the marshals to get some flags out before someone killed themself . So, I pulled away to tour back and saw what looked like a plane crash – there were bikes everywhere, about 20 of them involved [this was the crash that sadly claimed Alan Bonner – MCN]. I thought, ‘You know what? I’m not going to ride in the Senior.’”