2010 EASTER IN IRELAND

The 2010 season start was fraught with potential stumbling blocks. The week began with a blizzard and over a foot of snow on higher ground. As the departure day loomed closer ferries over the Irish Sea were cancelled by high winds. We had arranged our permission to start with SACU so were financially committed to the trip so when April Fool’s day came round we headed off, fortunately in glorious sunshine.

The first race was to the ferry which was due to leave Cairnryan at 4.30pm. Road works en route and an elderly couple meandering to the garden centre at Ballantrae hampered progress. Miraculously the ferry was running late and we pressed on. We checked in and asked if it would be possible to be placed near the lift for easy wheelchair access. P&O were very obliging and we were moved to head of the queue and were almost first to the passenger deck. A smooth crossing took us to Larne and after loading up with fuel we headed south for Downpatrick via a minor detour round the Belfast equivalent of four lane mayhem spaghetti junction.

Ariving at Bishopscourt circuit we were greeted by some of the local teams who made us feel very welcome and helped us set up the awning and unload our stuff. The sidecars had their own paddock on the outside of the circuit while all the solo racers were located in the middle. This actually worked really well as it brought all the teams together and we were signed on and scrutineered at the truck. The plan was practice and qualifying on Friday followed by one race. Kerr had been round the circuit before as a passenger at the Sunflower meeting with Davie Annan but had never driven round before. There’s a long, fast start/finish straight bounded by a long wall into a fast and very stoney left hander. Round the back section is a series of chicanes, some to be worked, some not. The first practice session was not very quick and modifications were made to the suspension to try and sort out the handling as the outfit felt really twitchy. Second session was not a lot better and we discovered that evening that there was no rebound so the sidecar was progressively jacking itself down and lifting the front end as a result.

Rain in the afternoon eventually stopped play without a race. That night Lee, Rhys and Kerr worked on the suspension with some support from the Irish crews. One of the Willie Moore outfits moved in for the evening as it needed an engine changed and the weather was horrendous. There must have been two inches of standing water in the awning. The craic on Friday night was superb – enough said!

Saturday weather was mixed and after a quick warm up session they proceeded to run the Friday race. We had qualified at the back of the grid but the outfit was handling a little better and we had a slightly better run round finishing about 9th. An interesting choice of tyres with a mix of wets, intermediates and slicks all appearing in the same event! Most of the Northern Irish teams were heading home on Saturday night to then go on to Kirkistown on Sunday afternoon for Monday racing. Before leaving they helped take down the awning and Colin kindly took us into Downpatrick to pick up a tasty Chinese for tea!

An amusing evening ensued (perhaps not quite the right word for it) reminiscent of the Apollo 13 mission where things started to go wrong. Rhys and Collette insisted the showers were delightful and hot but forgot to mention they used all the hot water – that was a quick dip! Then the generator started to play up and, although it ran well enough, did not seem to be making any power. We thought the answer would be to find a plug in to the circuit power so that at least the battery for the 12 volt lights and night heater could be charged. Problem one, the circuits was run off a big generator too and it was switched off. All the competitors camping out before travelling up to Kirkistown circuit were on their own gennys. There was no option but to try and figure out what was wrong with it or we would have a cold and dark evening. After much laughter and head scratching the plug was shuvved in a bit and seemed to work.

We got up on Sunday morning and loaded up the sidecar to move on to Kirkistown. We needed to get there for the circuit opening as it would be busy and short on space. We also had to go the long way round Strangford Lough as the lorry was too big for the Portaferry boat. It was a beautiful day with the sun splitting the sky and a very pretty hour and a half drive. We were in good time as only a few teams had arrived at the circuit and we were directed to the sidecar paddock at the far end. We unpacked and decided against putting up the awning as it was tight for space. We then caught up with Corran, one of the solo riders we had bought an engine off, and cleaned the outfit ready for Monday. The boys also cleaned out the genny and got her running right too as it seems the fuel filter was on the wrong way round and the carb was full of gunk!

That night there was further excitement. The solo riders paddock had hook ups to the power but as darkness fell the fuse board went up in flames and the blue lights of a fire engine were soon seen on the horizon. This killed all power to the circuit and only the sidecar paddock looked homely with lights in the windows. There was some concern that racing would be cancelled but the officials endeavoured to rectify the problem through the night. The weather overnight was stormy and we were worried about the sidecar lying out in the gales. Jen had to venture out in the small hours to make sure the fairing was fastened down as sleep was impossible with a vision of the fibre glass flying off at great speed down the paddock.

Thankfully the storm blew out over night and Monday was quite dry. The circuit was quite similar to Bishopscourt with a start/finish straight into a fast left hander but with less stones. The back section had a nifty chicane with the left worked then a blast to the hairpin and back on to the straight. Kerr had outbraking down to a fine art on the section to the hairpin and in the first practice we were fifth fastest. We took another 3 seconds a lap off for the second session but Kerr got a bit out of shape into the last corner and took to the grass endeavouring to keep going we did a bit of gardening and got back on track. Unfortunately the heavy braking took its toll on his arm and it pumped up like a brick. We would have to call it a day. We quickly packed the bike in and the boys helped guide the truck out of its corner and through the paddock. The Clerk of the Course kindly let us cross the track while the superbikes including top road racers Bruce Anstey, Cameron Donald and Adrian Archibald were held on the grid following an accident. We were waved on our way and can’t wait to go back.

We made it to the ferry for the 4.30pm crossing with another minor detour round the terminal before being retrieved by some very amused P&O staff. This time the crossing was a bit choppy to say the least and Lee turned a whiter shade of pale much to the rest of the teams’ amusement! It was a long haul home arriving back in Dores at 1.30am.

We had an absolutely amazing time. The teams over there couldn’t be more welcoming or helpful and the craic was superb. Thanks are due to Gary, Paddy and Scobby for helping us with entries and arrangements and particularly to Phil Thomson Transport for helping sort out our crossing. We would also like to thank the Douglas Racing Team: Rhys, Lee and Collette for coming with us and making it such a good trip. Roll on the next one!