Boasty’s last road race
After the death of a brilliant young rider, Peter Boast has given up road racing. But his final race was his best ever TT result
I‘D ALREADY DECIDED THIS WOULD BE MY LAST road race. I did my first lap of the Mountain course when I was 18 and now I’m 54. This time I had three bikes: my Kawasaki GPZ600 for the Lightweight; D&M Engineering’s Honda CB500 four for the Senior; and Ken Rutter’s Honda CB350 twin for the Junior. The first night’s practice was good: 7th fastest on the GPZ, and 3rd on the 350. Then the rain came, and stayed. I finally got out again on Thursday night with one lap on the 500 (12th fastest) and one on the 350 (3rd again). I was well chuffed with that, but the 500 was using 500ml of oil per lap. The lads changed the engine, and put the race engine in the GPZ. It wasn’t only a big night on the spanners for us: everyone’s pit garage was still lit up at midnight. People were borrowing tools, rebuilding engines. It was a great atmosphere. The 500 race was Saturday morning, and by Ballacraine I caught Phil Mcgurk on a BSA single. He was really good through some sections. In others he was holding me up. We spent the whole lap dicing: absolutely side by side on Sulby Straight and the Mountain Mile side by side, not a mile an hour’s difference in the bikes. We shot down Bray Hill together, I caught him on the brakes at Quarter Bridge, and we came up behind Steve Ferguson with his hand up. Phil slowed a bit, I went round the outside and I
never saw him again. Apparently he had a clutch issue, but he rode through it and beat me, because the singles don’t have to stop for fuel. The last lap I was on my own, and struggling to concentrate. The CB500 is a long bike and you’re tucked in with your neck bent to see where you’re going. We’ve got tape on the tacho at 11,500 and all you’re doing is keeping the rev counter needle on that tape. The engine blew up as I crossed the line. I finished 13th. Then came the Lightweight race in the afternoon. I was 11th on the GPZ600 at Cronk y Voddy. Then the engine sucked a cam seal rubber in. I retired at Ballaugh. I’ve owned that bike four years and we’ve worked on it so hard... and it’s finished one TT, last year. The Junior race on Monday went better. I was 8th by Glen Helen, and 6th by Ramsey. I stayed there until the head gasket started blowing at the Bungalow on the last lap, which dropped me to seventh. But it’s still my best TT result. I’m stopping road racing because I lost a good mate this year when James Cowton(26) died at the Southern 100 near Castletown. I’ve seen tragedy before, of course. I’ve had people get killed next to me, I’ve ridden through devastation. Even this week I threaded through Bernie Wright’s crash, him lying on the road with his leg smashed, Dave Linsdell on the other side. On the road you’d stop and do all you could. As a racer you keep your head down and say it’ll never happen to you. But it will. James and I had been kayaking that morning. We’d been karting with Ivan Lintin that week, we’d had dinner together. It was like losing one of your family, and it shocked me into a decision. James had so much life. He was daft as a brush, super friendly, worked hard. I’m old enough to be his dad but we had the same interest. I’d say, ‘Come on James, let’s ride the flat track bikes tonight.’ And he’d say, ‘Yeah, I wanna do that.’ I like that. So many young people are happy to sit in front of a computer and waste their life. James wanted to be a road racer. I’ll miss the roads, but I’m replacing it with endurance racing. Will I come back here and watch? Probably not the Classic TT, because I’ll want to do it again. I might come to the TT instead – there’s no chance I could do that.. A very big thank you to all my team: Johnny, Gary, Stuey, Reg, Paul, Kev, Ken and Steve
‘As a racer you say it’ll never happen to you…’