End Of Season Report
Final Standing,
2013 Irish Road Racing Championships
Supersport 400cc Class
17th Place!
Well, that’s the season over and it has
flown by, I can’t believe it was six months ago, April, that I
did my first race of the year.
Many years ago I read about the Irish road
race season and how you could basically race every weekend
with racers driving from one meeting to the next during the
week, then racing again at the weekend.
Sadly there are far fewer meetings in a
year than there used to be, but it was still my dream to do a
full season, so after many years of pondering whether to do
it, I made my mind up that this was going to be that year.
My ambitions for the year were to finish
and enjoy it, I did both of those, so everything else was a
bonus.
I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the
racing, despite not setting the world alight with my finishing
positions, but then again I was told on many occasions, that
it takes three years at a circuit before you can start
pushing. Obviously some can but they are few and far between,
and signed by big teams.
I went at this as a professional amateur,
as in I like my bikes and set up to look professional but
funded entirely from my own pocket, and just out to enjoy
myself.
Throughout the year I’ve met some fantastic
people and had some great races so it was worth all the money
and hours driving up and down the M6 to the ferries. I’ll miss
stopping at Warwick Services on what seemed to be a weekly
basis, so much so we stopped on the way back from Scarborough
just for old times sake.
So apart from making a huge contribution to
Opec by buying more than my fair share of diesel, what have I
achieved?
Well the two main points, finished safe and
enjoy it.
I’ve met loads of great people and it was
sad to leave the paddock at Killalane saying goodbye to
friends who I will next see in April next year, all being
well.
It really is like a travelling circus,
seeing the same people at all the races. None more so than
when I left Belfast for Isle Of Man for The Southern 100. It
was as if the entire paddock from Skerries had moved to
Belfast to catch the ferry.
What else did I accomplish? Well my lap
times improved throughout each meeting and was 2 seconds a lap
faster around The Southern 100 course than I’d ever been so
that was a huge moment for me. Sadly the lap times at
Killalane didn’t improve from last year, but that’s just
racing.
I was also pleased to see that on the 400 I
finished 17th in the 400 Championship, out of over
30 riders. This was especially good as through weather and
mechanical problems I missed 4 rounds, so I basically raced
half the season, so to finish in the top 20 in my first
attempt was a great confidence boost.
Now, my plan at the beginning of the year
was to do a full season for a year and then I could say that
I’d done this. My goals changed to, just go back and race at
the circuits that I enjoyed.
Well that basically means all of them.
Realistically this won’t be possible as it
has cost me a huge amount of money, luckily I have six months
to pay it all off just in time for the new season to start.
I’ve have been offered a bike to race next
year at one event, so if this happens this will dictate what
else I can do next year, I’ll keep you posted as to what
happens.
I’ve also had the offer of leaving my van
and bikes in Northern Ireland. This will of course save on
ferry costs and also time off work, which is a huge help.
So if I had to choose which circuits I’d go
back to? Well if I can do them all here are my favourites:
Cookstown
Tandragee
Skerries
Southern 100
Armoy
Mid Antrim
Killalane
I really enjoyed Cork, however it was an
awful lot of driving and money for a weekend, whereas the
others are close to one another so only one ferry for two
races, although Killalane is on it’s own it’s only 30 minutes
away from Dublin, and I really enjoy the circuit.
Walderstown was ok but not a brilliant
circuit and being on the end of Skerries and The Southern it
was a long week so didn’t give it my best.
Saying that if the offer of a bike comes to
fruition and I keep the van over in Northern Ireland, this may
change.
So that was my dream year of Irish racing
and it was great and would happily do it again. I’m pleased
I’ve done it and could kick myself for not doing it sooner,
still I did finally do it.
There are so many people who I have met and
have helped, it would take another blog just to thank them
all.
But my special thanks goes to all the
organisers of the meetings, the spectators and the racers who
I’ve met and helped me. John, Stafford and James for helping
me out. But outmost thanks goes to Kyra, Ann, Sandra, Adrian,
Jack, Joshua, Gordy, John and Nanni for looking after us so
well and making us feel so welcome when we've visited.
When I say us I mean me and Steve, who
without I wouldn’t have been able to do half of this.
Steve really has been a star. He’s helped
with booking travel arrangements, looking after the bikes,
cheering me up when I need it and keeping everything in
perspective. I really can’t thank him enough for everything
he’s done for me this year, I truly wouldn’t have been able to
do it without him.
Hopefully this is not the last you'll see
on my Blog as throughout the Winter I plan to build a
Supertwin which I will race next year. I'm not sure if it will
replace the 400 or the 600, I will have to wait to see what
classes are running next year before I decide on which to
replace. So hopefully I will chart the build progress of my
new bike, which maybe a complete road to race bike conversion,
or just a strip and check of a ready built race bike.
But
until then many thanks for reading and hope you've enjoyed it.
Cheers Stuart
