Manx Grand Prix Adventures

My son, Rob, and I have been fairly regular visitors to the Isle of Man for both the TT races in May/June and also the Manx Grand Prix / Classic TT races in August, but it was 5 years since we both last went. So a plan was hatched that Gloria's first big adventure would be the 2022 Manx Grand Prix. 

Rob's daily rides tend to be big sportsbikes but, to keep things fair, he came on his little Honda 125 "Grom". The bikes turned out to be pretty evenly matched up to about 55mph, then the G5 still had something left in reserve. But the Grom's luggage capacity was nil and Rob had a huge backpack load on the way there and back.

Gloria was prepared and waiting as Rob travelled the 2 hour journey up from the Midlands to Chester.

We managed to grab a couple of hours sleep before quietly sneaking out into the road and setting off at 1am, bound for Liverpool Pier Head and the IoM Ferry.

Gloria made it onto the ferry without incident and was tied down with the other bikes for the 2.5 hour journey.

We got to the campsite at Douglas Rugby Club before 7am and very quietly set up our tents before snuggling down into sleeping bags to catch up on a couple of hours sleep.

There was supposed to be a practice session and the first race on our first day, but variable weather across the island meant that the racing was postponed and then cancelled. We had a great day over on the west side of the island though, heading out to pay our respects to the fairies before exploring around Castletown, Port St Mary and Port Erin and included taking in a couple of laps of the Southern 100 road circuit.

The "roads closed" time for Saturday racing was postponed by a couple of hours, so we took the chance to do a lap of the 37.74 mile course. We've done that many times over the years but this was the first time on smaller bikes and we both loved it being able to have a blast without ever feeling like you were riding beyond the bike's limits. Gloria had the upper expanses of her rev range tested out and passed admirably - made me laugh later when Rob referred to them calling a good thrashing an "italian decoke" when they are struggling to set bikes up at work.

Finally, we made our way to our first vantage point at the bottom of Barregarrow, a fast left hander with a vicious dip on the bend to unsettle the bikes. 

We watched the "practice lap" for Senior GP and Classic Superbikes followed by the postponed lightweight 250 race from here and then made our way up the lanes on the inner part of the island to get up onto the top of the mountain part of the circuit, at Brandywell for the Junior (supertwins) race. I find the variety of scenery on the course stunning and it was lovely being up there in the sunshine for the first race.

And to round off our "spectating from places beginning with B" day, we then made our way back down the lanes to Bradden Bridge. I adore spectating from there - it completely sums up the madness of the place, sitting on a stone wall 10' above the circuit, with an ancient oak tree plonked in the middle of the chicane, and a churchyard full of spectators opposite! To see, hear and smell the Classics racing through there is most definitely one of my real happy places in life. Rob is the 3rd generation of Shearers to spectate from there, as my mum and dad also used to go there in the 50s.

A wonderful day, with excellent riding, company and weather, was rounded off in the Rugby Club bar, where we shared a pint with a lovely French couple, Evelyne and Francis, visiting for the first time from Pau in the Pyrenees. What an adventurous pair, backpacking around England and Ireland (and wherever else took their fancy!) in their 70s.

Sunday was a non-race day and we did more exploring. We went up to the Grandstand and explored the pits; then went down into Douglas and were again struck by how bizarre the IoM is as a horse drawn tram trundled past our row of parked bikes on the prom.

While we were parked up, Rob spotted that Gloria was having an OCD moment...

We also did another lap of the circuit and I was chuffed that one of the photographers got a couple of good shots of us approaching and taking the Gooseneck, as we headed up onto the mountain.

We took the back road from Douglas out to Laxey and had ice creams on the beach and then made our way up to the Point of Ayre in the remote North Eastern part of the island where, for a minute or two, we were the most northerly people on the island!

On the way back, we swapped bikes for a while. The Grom was great fun - tiny and very flickable and surprisingly good acceleration for a 125, but I was glad to get back on Gloria 😁It did give me a chance to see what she looked and sounded like though while Rob was riding her.

The last day of racing was the bank holiday Monday. Three new vantage points for me today, the first being Ramsey Hairpin for the practice lap. One of Rob's work colleagues was racing (see next two videos) and it gave a really different perspective to understand the financial and time commitment that he had made to be there.

Next we moved a short distance up the circuit to the Gooseneck to watch the Senior race (which was where we had been "papped" the previous day 😄) .

And then for the final race we decided to head to Windy Corner on the way down from the mountain. It looked on the map like we could get quite close on the bikes and then walk the final part, but the last part of the track was on a goat track up the mountain! We ended up walking about a mile and a half in leathers up a 700' climb. It took us so long that we missed the first lap and just saw the second lap coming around, but then we also got to see the last 2 laps. Again, spectacular scenery and we were kindly offered a lift back down to our bikes by a couple of island residents in their Jeep.

That evening, we headed into Peel for fish and chips and then back to the campsite for a couple of pints of Bushys Ale. I found this plaque in the bar that they were selling and presented it to Rob in recognition of a fantastic few days!

So, our last day finally arrived and we had the morning spare before heading for the afternoon ferry. After packing up our gear, we headed off to Jurby Airfield where the VMCC had organised a race / track parade. As always, it was as interesting looking around the bike park, as it seemed that every visitor on a motorbike had descended there!

We then raced back to the campsite to pack the tents away and headed down to the ferry terminal, arriving with minutes to spare before the official check-in time! 

So, to sum up, a wonderful few days in motorcycling heaven. Gloria performed flawlessly, other than the iffy float valve that I've been working around and will fix in due course. In total, we did just under 400 miles and I really started to get to know her character and how best to ride her. There were some hills where some extra power would have been nice, but none that we couldn't make it up by changing down a gear and taking it easy! A lot of the time, it was me trying to ride her like the big bikes I've had in the past and relying on raw power!

Roll on the next adventure.