Gary Johnson

Gaz was on for a classic TT, until it all went wrong...

All you Gary Johnson Racing fans (well, both of you) might have noticed that my column was missing from last month’s mag. We didn’t forget, I just hadn’t been up to much really and we didn’t think you would want to hear about my exciting life full of trips to the supermarket and whatnot. The truth is, I’d love to be out on a bike some more but I’ve been struggling for the opportunity with the Lee Hardy squad. What has been absolutely awesome this month though is the Classic TT. I was over there riding a 1985 Suzuki XR 69 1200 with Team York Suzuki, under the Classic Suzuki banner, and what a week we had. It’s an incredible bike, to say how old it is and it’s had some real good chassis improvements over the last few years too.

Practice was a bit of a nightmare to be fair; the Manx weather wasn’t kind to us so we only got five laps of practice done, but we were in a decent place by the end of it and our last lap was just about the fastest of the week, so that put us in a good place for the race – the Superbike Classic TT.

I got away fairly well, my first pit-board said P2 but there was nothing in it between me and Connor Cummins, in third, on his Padgett’s Yamaha YZR 500. I felt like I was riding really well, the bike was great and handling like a dream. I wish modern bikes felt a little bit more like the old ‘Slab-side’ that I was throwing around. I know it’s a bit slower but it didn’t half hold a line well. Anyway I got to the pit-stop at the end of lap two, which went brilliantly, but when I pulled out of the pits the clutch gave up and started slipping. I was running in third at the time but with a slipping clutch I was only ever going to be a mobile chicane round the TT course so I pulled over and watched the rest of the race from the sidelines. It was actually a new type of clutch that we were testing this year, which was great in practice but obviously let us down in the race.

I was gutted not to get a finish but I was pretty happy with my performance on the bike and I’d rather have a breakdown and retire from the race in a podium position, than run round in 10th or 15th and finish the race. I feel for the team really because I know how much effort they have put into the bike, I’ve got a real good mechanic in Ben Needham and Ken Pearson (aka Captain Sensible… not) the Team Principal was fantastic to work with, as always. We have got solid engines and we are going to do some more development on them. We’re always going to be a step behind the lads with Kawasaki ZX-R750s – they are a much more modern bike – but we can definitely give them a run for their money, as we proved at this year’s Classic TT.

Not only is the Classic TT great practice for the ‘real’ TT, it’s a load of fun too. Now that we are home though, it’s time to start looking forward to the Macau GP. I’m hoping something comes up in the mean time to get out on some bikes as it’s getting more and more difficult to be competitive at these big international races when you’re up against lads that are racing week in week out. Maybe Dangerous Bruce will invite me to team up with him for another No Limits endurance race!