Race reports and next steps

The weather is much better now. And I'm leaving. And probably not coming back until dad wins lotto and brings me over in a couple of years' time. It turns out the government isn't as benign as all that: I got all dressed up to go to job agencies, and the second one I go in to asks me if I have a visa. I say no, and they say I need one. "I thought it was different here", I say. "Yes," says she, "you need a permit as well as a visa." Bugger.

The last races were excellent. I'm a bit confused as to what happened in the superstock - I thought Anstey won it, but I wrote that he won the... oh man, stupid 'super'ness. Anyway, he won one race, and it was the 600s, making four of those in a row. As to the others... meh. I wrote a report of the big one, the Senior TT, and sent it to dad, so you can all have a copy of that. It's even indented for you non-motorbike-people's skipping convenience.

Well, what an exciting race. Anstey took out his Superbike, the one that had had the problems in the first race. In an interview at the start line up, he sounded happy with the bike, saying that he just wanted to do two laps (you pit at the end of the second) and see how it went, and that "it sounded good on the dyno last night". When the interviewer came back with a comment about the dyno and the race track being two different things, Anstey came back with a typically optimistic Kiwi "she'll be right".

So, at 10.45, (actually on time!) the race got underway. McGuinness flew ahead early on, passing the two riders who left ahead of him before the first commentator point(!), Anstey not far behind, then Guy Martin, Hutchinson and Lougher etc. Not long later, Anstey is starting to flag. He slips down to fourth, then down to 11th at the Ramsey hairpin, where it is reported that he is looking over his left shoulder at something on the bike. At the end of lap one, he pulls in to the pits. When the trackside interviewer gets hold of him, he says that "the bike is moving all over the place- it's not handling properly". His race is over.

Not long later, we get the news that Daniel Jansen, from Pukekohe, is out (retired) after having totally rebuilt the bike in the wee small hours of this morning. I think I should go shake Paul Dobbs' hand - the only Kiwi to complete all the races he entered!

In the meantime, John McGuinness has stretched out his lead over Guy Martin to 21sec and gets an astonishing average lap speed of 129.853mph on the first lap! The second lap sees little change on the leader board with McGuinness leading Guy Martin from Ian Lougher and Ian Hutchinson, I'm not sure in what order. Conor Cummins puts on a brilliant show, battling with one of the Ians for 5th place!

Coming in to the pits at the end of the second lap, John McGuinness does what we've all been waiting for: his foot goes down in the stop box and the a great cheer goes up from the crowd as the commentator yells "He's done it! It has been done! John McGuinness has broken 130mph - 130.354mph!". Everyone claps and cheers as he comes flying out of the pits for lap three.

Guy Martin follows a while later, having taken a small but appreciable delay in the pits, as is now usual, and proceeds to do a blisteringly fast lap, closing the gap between him and McGuinness to 16s! McGuinness's pit board obviously reflects this as he pulls up his socks a bit and extends his lead again to 18s over the next lap.

The rest of the race passes in a blur of fairing and early chicken-counting, with the final result being McGuinness a triumphant 1st, Guy Martin a tenacious 2nd, and Ian Lougher a dependable but slightly chagrined third.

So a good race, but I was really disappointed about Anstey; I think we might have seen the 130 broken more than just the once if he'd been pushing the others along. I bet I'm not half as disappointed as Anstey though. Oh well, I'll just have to come back next year to watch it. Hah.

I depart by ferry for Heysham Port today, arriving at 11.15 (at least, that's the scheduled time!) and from there I hope to find a way to get to Lancaster, or some accomodation in Heysham, I'm, not really sure (eek). Then on the 12th, in two sleeps' time, I get a coach (as they call them here) to Inverness, where I will hopefully be able to stay for about a week, or more if it takes my fancy. I then plan to wander my way down through Scotland - not sure how long where at all - and then to my castle, then probably back to London, either direct or via some places.

I am talking with Tony and Jamie about going to Morocco, Sweden or Portugal with the former, and Ireland (for just a weekend! Hehe) with the latter once I finish Scotland, funds willing.

I hope everyone is well; give me e-mans or msns or comments or something, say hi! I'm off to Scotland!