Walderstown Report

 Hi Everyone,Sorry for being late with this report but I think I have a good excuse this time!,

as I am sure most of yous are aware that

I've been in the wars yet again! but I will touch on that later in the
report.
 
This year at the Southern  100,everything seemed to click together and we were
pretty much on the pace on every bike.  As Baylon mentioned in the last
report I had to retire from race one, my gear box let go on me after
Irongate, nevertheless it was still good to be up there in the company of
Farquhar, Lougher and Cummings at that stage of the race.  I ended up with
two  x 5th places on the 250, one of which was just behind Mickey Dunlop. On
the 600 I was lying 6th when the steering damper broke, leaving me 9th after
a race long battle with Chris Palmer, I gotta admit, I really enjoyed that scrap with Palmer 

The last race of the week was theSolo Founders race, and after getting a replacement

gearbox I was confident of agood result. 

Even though weather conditions were poor I was finding lots of
grip and by the end of lap four I was up to 6th position.  On lap five I got
past Mark Buckley to move into 5th but soon after that the red flags came
out.   Victor Gilmore came off pretty badly at the end of the start/finish
straight.  Thankfully he's not as bad as first thought so from all the team,
we wish him a speedy and full recovery.
 
At this stage I would like to thank John and Roberta Mckeown for their kind
and generous hospitality at the Southern 100.   Roberta looked after us
superbly with great cooking and even better wine!!!
 
It was back home for us all on Friday morning and then off to Walderstown on
Friday afternoon.  Walderstown is one of the best meetings of the year it's
a really well run race, with no messing about.  Everything went well in
practice and we were on the front row for the open races.  In race one there
were four are five of us fighting for 2nd place, I ended up in third after
getting past John Walsh on the last lap.
At the riders briefing on Sunday morning Clerk of the Course Sean Bissett
warned that if there was any dangerous riding he would be issuing yellow
cards to the rider, so it was good to be involved in a clean racing back
home for a change.  When certain riders rode to their true ability they
didn't seem as quick round fast balls out corners....!!!
 
Unfortunately for me I was to crash out of the 250 race on lap two.  I
didn't seem to do anything different from the lap before but the front just
tucked as I started to peel for the corner, from what I have seen in
photographs there was cement dust on the circuit from a previous race,
perhaps there was a little oil still on the surface but either way I've
ended up with a broken collarbone and will have to miss the next couple of
meetings.
 
On Wednesday past I made the trip over to Ipswich for some laser treatment
on my collarbone with Brian Simpson.  It helps speed up the healing process.
Hopefully I'll be ready for the UGP and the MGP the week after. 

That's really it for now.  I'm gutted that Im going to have to sit out of
the next few rounds of the Irish Senior Championship, I was up to fourth
and had my sights set on another top three for the third year running, but
that's racing!  We're heading down to Kells this weekend.  I'll experience
racing from the other side of the hedge this weekend.

Before I go, I would like to say Thanks to ALL those who sent texts, phoned etc,

after my spill, your  thoughts are much appreciated

JB#16