Skerries Report

Hi all

Apologies for the delay in updating site but it’s been a busy old couple of weeks.

First off we were over to Skerries, so after a day of tinkering we set off South from our Northern Ireland base.

We awoke to a slightly damp Friday morning, however it soon dried and I was out for practice on the 400. It was the first time I’ve really been out on the 400 due to various problems, both mechanical and weather, and it felt really good.

So good in fact I knocked 3 seconds of my fastest ever time around the circuit, so was really pleased with that.

Sadly practice came to a halt after an accident, which cost Dr John Hinds his life.

Dr. John was a travelling Doctor who attended road race meetings both North and South and was certainly no slouch when it came to riding a bike.  Luckily I never met him in a professional capacity, but know others who have, and wouldn’t be here today if it were not for him. He will be greatly missed and was very upsetting to hear this terrible news.

Saturday was again another lovely day and the practice sessions missed on Friday were first out. As I’d qualified I didn’t bother taking my 650 out as time was tight to get all those out that hadn’t practiced.

My first race was on the 650 and got an ok start. John McCann, my race buddy got a better start but I managed to get passed him into the second corner. I then set off after the next rider and got passed him, which I then did to the next rider also.

The bike felt really good and to be able to pass then move to the next person and pass them was a very good feeling. John commented after that even if the race was 20 laps long there was no way he would catch me as I appeared to be on a mission.

Next up was the 400 and this also went well, improving my personal best by a further 2 seconds faster, so 5 seconds faster in total, than last year. It was commented on that you could see, even from trackside, that the 400 power had improved. 

It was back to the 650 for the last race of the day and once again went well. Sadly I haven’t seen any times for the 650 race as not enough timing sheets were printed, so will have to wait for the website to be updated.

For those who have seen photo’s of my bike at Skerries you may well have seen a new sponsor on the fairing. This is Moto Merchants in Armagh, run by my good friend John McCann, so many thanks to John for his support.

With Skerries all done and dusted it was off to The Isle Of Man for the Southern 100.