Today sees the end of the 2015 Isle of Man TT, with the prestigious Senior Superbike race.
The Isle of Man Senior TT is the most awe-inspiring, heart-in-the-mouth motorcyle race in the world, but this year was a little bit more special because the team we used to work with won 2 races. Team Traction Control won the two Supersport races with Ian Hutchinson onboard, the first time Hutchy has won TT races since returning from the accident that nearly caused him to lose a leg.
While listening to the race on the radio, I got to thinking a bit about the fun times we had a couple of years ago in the team.
For 2.5 years we worked with Keith Flint’s Team Traction Control, when we were a club-racing based team. In that time we went on to win the Clubman Endrance Championship, followed directly by the National Endurance Championship. During those years we had a brilliant time, travelling the country for races, spending a lot of time standing in the rain and making some great new friends. Probably the best thing that came out of the whole experience was the new friends we made, a lot of who we still see, but the whole thing was pretty special. It felt a bit like a family, which is where being called ‘race mum’ by the team came from.
Endurance racing ran over a 3-hour period, with 2 riders and 2 bikes. The riders for the National Championship were Steve Mercer (also competing this week in the IOM) and Ben Neeves, and mine and Madge’s role was to set the strategy for the race and manage the timings – not as easy as it sounds when just anything can happen – including rain, safety cars, crashes and breakdowns. Sometimes all in the same 3-hours! Every two weeks, throughout two and a half summers, I experienced the most stressful 3 hours of my life, and have never been so wet! No one wants to be responsible for the decisions that could cost the team the race or make a mistake and get us a penalty, so it was maximum concentration at all times. I learned a lot from how the team functioned and the trust the riders place in the contact they have with the pitwall – the ‘ship to shore’. When you are part of a team like that everyone has to absolutely trust eachother, as one slip could at minimum lose you the race/championship and at worse, be a lot worse – and you all have to pull together and be solid in front of the other teams.
We were super-organised, even having our timing sheets pre-printed and spending ages working out different scenarios, which we ran through at the team meeting ahead of the race. Even though we were an amateur team we all took it very seriously, not least because it cost a lot of money, but because we had a massive amount of pride. It really was a case of ‘if you’re going to do something, do it properly’. But in the end, you can’t predict what’s likely to happen on track and any of the many variables could play a part. Best-laid plans quite often get scuppered! There were moments of hilarity but also moments of high-drama and protest and I do miss the team spirit. The work on the day was serious, but there were quite a lot of classic moments outside of that, that will have to stay with the ‘what goes on tour…’ ethic!
Part-way through the National season we also had a little trip over to Northern Ireland for Steve to compete in the NW200 – though unfortunately the weather once again stepped in and there was a lot more drinking than there was racing!
Following winning the National Endurance Championship the team has gone off in a different direction, now competing professionally in BSB and of course, at the Isle of Man. And life got in the way a bit, so we haven’t been around race bikes so much this year. But we still feel a small part of the team and always follow TTC on the BSB card, and this week on Manx Radio and the ITV4 coverage. At some point we’ll get down to a BSB race, but part of me is quite enjoying watching the racing from the warmth (and dryness) of my own home 🙂
Most of the fantastic photos in this set are by Jordan McLachlan. Tea-making and stand-in riding honors often went to Michael Neeves and the glamour (and Pot Noodles) of the team was regularly brought by Emily Riches. Paul Berryman gets the blame credit for getting me into it in the first place. Happy times 🙂