Dundrod 150 and U.G.P 2008 Pics.
The middle of August saw me traveling the 80 miles or so north to
Dundrod for the Dundrod 150 and the Ulster Grand Prix. I arrived on
Tuesday night about 11.30. The Dundrod 150 races are on the
Wednesday and Thursday with the main UGP races on the Saturday.
Wednes day was a bit dodgy. There were wet roads for some practices
and dry for others. I got mostly wet roads for the 1000 practice
sessions and a dry road for the 400. Thanks to Anthony for the use of
the 400 again.
I never even looked at the practice times for the 1000 because there
was to be another practice on Thursday. I qualified the 400 about the
6th row on the grid. The bike is a work in progress so I just went out
and rode it and didnt mind where I qualified.
Thursday morning came and I looked out the window at the rain. I
wasn't in a rush to get up. It was a bit of a non-descript day really. The
'150' races were due to run in the afternoon and the road dried up so I
went out in the one and only race I had for the 400. I got a shit start as I
am still not good enough off the line on that bike. There was also a lot
of faster machines around me.
But it was good fun passing people. Its like slow motion when your used
to riding a 1000. Even slip streaming seems to take forever!
But my luck ran out on the last lap. I forgot to change to battery for a
fresh one before the race and the bike has no charging system. So I
spluttered round for the last half a lap for a finish. I didnt want to be
stuck on the other side of the track. Its over 7 miles around it.
We were due to go for the '150' superbike race about 5pm but the
weather got the better of the organisers and it was too wet to run the
big bikes.
I put the tools away and got a lift home ( thanks to Miles Byrne ). There
was no racing on Friday and I was due back at work. The friday at the
Ulster GP is the day for the big teams to show off for the fans and hand
out posters. None of that crap at Connor Racing!
We arrived back up Friday night and the forecast wasnt good for
Saturday. When we got up on Saturday morning the rain was lashing
down. There was a hurricane wind as well. We got soaked just bringing
the bikes to scrutiny. It was not looking good but I put the wets on the
1000 anyway. To cut a long story short the rain never stopped. It got
worse and for the first time on about 70 years the UGP was cancelled.
So in 4 days, I did one race on Anthony's 400 and about 8 practice laps
on my 1000. Not your ideal race meeting really.
The biggest adventure was getting home. I was driving the big van and
Kenny was following in my car. We went through several huge floods on
the road home with cars stuck in the middle of them. The only way
through was for me to part the waters like Moses with the van and
Kenny driving right on the back bumper in the car. If we stopped in the
middle of the floods the car would have got stuck with water in the
engine.
Next stop Killalane.
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