79
Having visited the Island every year of my life for the TT with my parents and grandparents I can't tell you how much I craved the opportunity to ride the course on my own bike. That finally happened in 1980, when I travelled to the Island as a seventeen year old for the MGP on my RD250E along with my friend Tom (RD250B) and Craig (Suzuki X5 200).
It's not something I'm particularly proud of, but how we survived those next sevens days of Manx madness I really don't know. It was certainly a case of luck rather than judgement.
The drama started as soon as we got on the boat at Liverpool bound for Douglas. In those days restrictions about when you could and couldn't go onto the boat car decks didn't seem to really exist. As soon as the faintest of outlines of the Island came into view it seemed like all two wheel folk made a bee line for their bikes and thought it would be better to get them fired up just to make sure they would start.
To say the air was thick with two stroke fumes would be an underestimation. Having been exposed to what must of been a near fatal dose of Carbon Monoxide that Manx air sure tasted sweeter than ever as we finally
got to ride our bikes up the link span ramp and onto hallowed Manx terra firma. We headed straight for the Quarter Bridge and our first taste of riding the course.
The three of us spent every waking moment of the next seven days riding the course - only interrupted by the
roads closing for the racing proper. I spent the time waiting for races to start by doodling in the race program.
Little did I know at the time that the photograph of Jack Wood I was busy defacing was the face of the Clerk of the Course who would appoint me as travelling marshal 13 years later!
I remember watching Gary Padgett (brother of Clive, owner of the famous Padgetts of Batley concern) win the Newcomers Race and thinking to myself, hell or high water, one of these days I'm going to have a go at that.
"Even the likes of Carl Fogarty started their Mountain Course careers in the Manx Grand Prix Newcomers race"