Ready for the roads
After two years away, Pete Boast is gearing up for an Isle of Man return this summer, and there’s Irish road racing in the diary too.
It feels like it’s been a really long winter. I’m always revved up at the start of the season but there’s been that much uncertainty over the last two years, that this year I’m more eager than I’ve ever been to get out there and race. The Isle of Man has always been the big one for me. I first went with my dad in 1973 when I was nine years old. It was the family holiday and we’d never go anywhere else, well, apart from Scarborough and that was for the racing too. I first raced there in 1982. It’s a drug really. I’ve done lots of other stuff, but the Isle of Man is still the ultimate. I’ve had a couple of wobbles. When you lose someone it makes you think; Jamie Cowton and Ivan Lintin were good friends, but they wouldn’t want me to stop. I just want to keep going back and get a good result. The Manx GP at the end of August is the big goal for my season. I was hoping to get four races but the rules and format have changed, so I can really only do the Lightweight and the Senior Classic races, but I didn’t have a bike for either. I was looking around for bikes and I’ve really been lucky. John Chapman has lent me a beautiful 2002 Honda RS250 for the Lightweight and Angela Cragg is letting me ride her 1967 Seeley framed Matchless G50 in the Senior Classic. You couldn’t really get two more different bikes, one’s a V-twin two-stroke and the other’s a British single. Riding other people’s bikes can be a bit awkward, you’ve got to have an understanding about what happens if they get crashed or blow up, but John and Angela have both been around racing for a long time so they know the score.
The goal is a 100mph lap for the Matchless, but I don’t know about the Honda. It’s got 90bhp and weighs nothing so it’s going to be really quick. I raced against them on my old Kawasaki F2 bike; that was doing 136mph on the Sulby straight where the Hondas were doing 153mph. I don’t race superbikes on the Island now because I don’t feel comfy at those speeds, but this may be just as fast.
I need to get some other racing in too. I love the pre-tt races on the Isle of Man, but I want different experiences too. I’ve not raced in Ireland since the Ulster Grand Prix in 1985, so we thought we’d do some Irish roads too. I’m going with the missus and a holiday attitude, we’ve worked hard the past two years, got a few quid saved up, so let’s have some fun.
‘I’m more eager than I’ve ever been to get out there and race…’
I can do Kells, Munster and Skerries on consecutive weekends. Then back in July for Armoy, end of August to the Isle of Man for the Manx. Well, that’s the plan. The bikes are basically all sorted and I can’t wait. Before all that it’s the start of the national racing season and we’re running young Franco Bourne in the Junior Superstock series that’s a support class for BSB. I’ll let you know how we got on with that next month. I’m hoping he’ll be getting regular top six places this year…