Victor Gilmore - Cookstown and Tandragee races and the trip to the Czech Republic

With the start of the season now upon us I just want to thank a few people who give up their free time to help me get the bikes ready for each meeting: Lindsey, Peter , Davy, Philip, Robert and Alison. I also want to thank Peter for setting up this website and Trevor for his continued support.

Cookstown - the first outing of the year. I'd hoped to get a track day or two in first but work commitments meant that wasn't possible. Therefore, whilst I was looking forward to the start of the season, I would have liked some time on the bike first. Practice went ok other than the fact that between us we managed to forget to put the transponder on for the 600 qualifying so whilst my time should have put me 4th on the grid, I ended up having to start from the back as I had no official lap time. That'll teach me! I also took out the 600 for the Open practice and qulaified in 7th which I was happy with.
Race day appeared and unlike practice it was dry...which meant that the 600 wasn't able to keep up with the big bikes. In the first race my arms started pumping up early on and my shoulders still aren't 100% after the accident at the Southern 100 and I overshot at McAdoo's, pushing me to back of the field. The 600 race saw me at the back of he grid but once I managed to get past a few riders I worked my way up from 22nd to 13th. Would have been higher if I'd had a clear track!
The Grand Final saw me battling with Paul Cranston on his 1000 Honda but as usual Paul made it as hard as possible to get past him. I enjoyed the race but lost a few grid places as the wee 600 couldn't keep up. Finally, I just want to say thanks to Trevor Lindsay for providing me 3 new sets of tyres (which will probably have to do me until the TT!)

Tandragee - I took the R1 out for a lap behind the 250's in practice but wasn't happy with the bike so again I rode the 600 in all races. Practice went ok... felt I could have done better but the faster track made it difficult for me to get up to speed. I qualified 12th in the Open and 9th in the 600 race.
In the Open race I got caught up behind James Redpath onthe Raymond Lilley 1000 Suzuki. I managed to pass him a few times but he came past me on the straights and I couldn't get a clean lap. I finished 12th and somewhat frustrated as I knew I could have finished higher. On to the 600 race where I had a great race with Davy Morgan and John Burrows, finishing 9th though I found myself unable to keep close enough to the back of John to make an attempt to pass at any of the corners. Maybe my 2006 R6 is just too long in the tooth (it's definately not me!)
My last race of the day was the Grand Final....which ended up not so grand as I ran out of fuel on the last lap with less that a mile to go. Maybe I should go back to school to get some practice in maths calculations!
For those of you who were at Tandragee, you will have seen I was sporting a set of new leathers, sponsored by Pet Store of Monaghan and Sligo, owned by Ali North (otherwise known as Alibaba) I also want to thank Gilford Carwash for again helping me out at Tandragee and Davy for supplying me with a new chain for the R6.

Nest Wednesday 13th May sees us heading across country to the Czech Republic for the race at Horice which sees many spectators to this friendly and well run weekend. Details of the race can be found at
www.roadracing.webnode.cz
I'll let you know how it went once we get back.

All the best
Vic#70