Athea Report
 Hi Again, What a weekend it turned out to be for our camp! Rachel and I headed off on Thursday night on the long journey to Athea. I thought it best to be there early on Friday morning to guarantee a reasonable spot in the paddock for both Stewart (Smith) and myself. My thanks to JJ and the rest of the Athea club for looking after us so well over the weekend.
After all the heavy rain on Friday, it was nice to wake up to dry roads on Saturday morning. Practice went fairly well especially on the big bike, as I ended up 2nd, just 0.4 of a sec off the pace behind a certain Mr Farquhar!
We got a couple of laps pre practice on the 600 which was a blessing in disguise! as the rear shock had bust and there was no rebound damping on it so at least ,we had a bit of time to get a replacement shock for it. Thanks to support rider, Caoith Lawless, he came to our rescue and gave me the loan of the shock , after he completed his support practice, he promptly came over to our awning, and the crew were able to swop over shocks before my practice! so many THANKS to Caioth, only for him we were in big trouble.
After all that I ended up 6th fastest which was OK. After the 600 practice the shock had to be returned to Caoith , and fair play to him, he kindly offered it to me again for race day! But in between time, word had got out about my problems, and in steps Shane Murphy! For yous who aren’t familiar with the name, Shane bought my Yamaha a couple of years back, and nothing would do, but he went home that night, and brought back with him the next morning , the shock out of my old bike! Many thanks to both boys, cos without their help I don’t know what I would have done. What other sport would you get that kind of help? Thanks again lads.
 The 250 practice was a complete disaster, it refused to pull 6th gear and we ended up in 8th place, not exactly were I wanted to be. Over the weekend, Ryan Farquhar was working out of my lorry, and thanks to he and Stewart Smith, they got stuck in and eventually found the problem!! Ryan has good experience and knowledge of two strokes, so his helping hand was definitely very welcome. Fingers crossed come the next 250 race I’ll produce a better result for Stewart.
Race day was nothing short of a disaster, I believe I should have had two podiums on the Superbike. In the first race I came from seventh on lap one to get up to second at the start of lap three, but just as I peeled into the first corner Keith Amor left his braking too late and he put me on the grass with nowhere to go! I had to push the bike back out and start all over again!! I was back to seventh when I rejoined, the frustration was starting to kick in and as I made my move for third behind John Walsh, then he missed his braking marker and put us both wide. My race well and truly ruined with little to no laps left, I ended up sixth and extremely disappointed and frustrated.
The 600 race was a hot pace front the start with Keith Amor setting it from the front; we ended up in fifth at the flag, after the problems we had in practice with suspension i was happy enough.
The 250 race got of to the worst possible start as when they lifted the ‘engage gear’ sign our engine was not even running! It was all down hill from there as we set of in last position. On the positive side, the wee bike was going the best it’s been all year so hopefully that is a positive sign for future races. On lap five the bike broke a ring but I was only keeping going to get some sort of setting on it for the rest of the year.
The Grand Final was next, we got a reasonable start and was lying fourth at the end of lap one. I knew I had plenty of pace in hand to make it up to second but as I made my move for third I was forced onto the grass yet again at about 150 mph and had to let my brakes off and head up the slip road!! To be fair this time it was 50/50 my fault but from my race experience I thought it best to give the boys the inside and I’d go the long way round but it didn’t quite go to plan. From now on I’ll have to adopt a different approach, if there’s a gap there I’m going for it.!!
Anyway, that was my weekend from Athea. This weekend is the Skerries road race, always a very popular meeting, it is not one of my favourite tracks, but nevertheless it is usually a very well run meeting, so the best of luck to Francis Everard and his crew for this coming weekend. After Skerries, We are of to the Southern 100 on Sunday morning and then back for Walderstown at the end of the following week… so hopefully plenty of racing to report on!
Don’t forget, drop into the awning at any of the meetings, you are always welcome!.
JB#16
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