Cookstown 100

Arriving in Larne on the Thursday it was quickly apparent that the Derek's FatSpanner Renualt had a sticky handbrake and just a few hundred yards up the road one of the rear brakes was roasting hot and stinking. So we stop at the first petrol station off the ferry and Derek asks for directions to a tyre, brake, exhaust place close by. Instead of giving us directions the shop attendant in the petrol stations stops what he's doing casually picks up his car keys and says "follow me". A wee while later we've seen lots of the lovely Irish countryside and been led to a garage in the middle of no where. £10 and twenty minutes later and the vans running free again. So the adventure started early and we've not reached the "circuit".

Once in the paddock Derek, Ewan and Robbie get to work putting up the awning and just as we're about finished the rest of the support crew (cheers Al and Dave) turn up to help out. Soon the bikes were in the awning and the van unpacked and we went for a stroll round the circuit. Timed perfectly as it turned out as the Classics run was on as we were walking round Mackeny's so we were holding on to hedges, trying not to drop beer and balancing inches from the bikes going past.

With Derek and Robbie being out in different races and classes each have done their own race report.

Derek's race report
Went out for novice practice then qualifying on the Friday afternoon on the 400 after being driven round for a lap and given direction from the experienced riders and clerk of the course. To say I wasn't comfortable was an understatement. Kept looking at the trees, houses, telegraph poles etc. etc. Then there was a jump followed by a blind summit. It's nothing like circuit racing so any illusions I had re times and finishing places were quickly forgotten.

Wasn't nervous at all through the weekend, instead another racer Bobby McMullen was nervous enough for both of us but out qualified me by half a second. Over the last couple of years Bobby and I've pushed each other on a bit at East Fortune. So Bobby suggested "Don't do any daft manoeuvres on me and I'll do the same"....... and we agreed to it!!

We were in wave B of one of the support races and lined up with some experienced road guys. The boy in front of me had done at least the last three years of the Cookstown. Sitting on the starting line and still quite calm but thinking this wasn't for me until... the flag was dropped and Bobby and I f*cked off and left our wave behind!!! (Inc the guys that were in front of us) any of the concerns with tree, falling, houses, hitting people, blind summits just fell away and we just went for it. After three laps we had the length of the start/finish straight between us and the next folk in our wave, we were tyre to tyre up these country lanes and I'm mighty annoyed now as I could've slip streamed and moved out on him on one of the straights but with it being our first time out I though better to play safe. So after six laps of leaving the ground, wheelying over blind summits and reaching 140mph+ we finished again with two hundredth of a second between us in 8th and 9th. The guy in 7th Derek Allan is a very experienced roads racer and was only three seconds a head of us. So all in all we did excellent for a first time out and now two weeks later still on a high. Can't wait for the Armoy at the end of July!!

Robbie's race report
Friday, Qualifying
Junior support
First time out on the zxr400 that Dave had kindly lent me .The bike was good from the off. The course however was covered in cement dust making first corner being a bit tricky. So a slow start with best lap time of 1.44.798 putting me 9th on the grid for the A race but the 1st 400cc.

SS400/Moto450
with the track being better by this time and having done a few laps I clocked a time of 1.40.2 Putting me 2nd 400 on the grid.

Super sport 600
First time on the R6 after fitting the new motor so was relived there was no issues with it. Best lap of 1.38.5 putting me 12th in the B race.

Senior support
After getting a bit more used to the 600 after limited time on it. I started to get a bit more comfortable and managed a time of 1.36.746 putting me 4th on the grid so was well chuffed with that.

Saturday, Race Day
Junior support
After a half decent start I was 1st 400 by a bit. I started to get frustrated with two Supertwins in front as felt they were holding me up round the back of the course but was unable to pass as they always pulled a few bike lengths on acceleration. So set about trying to out brake them at 1st corner but not accounting for the extra speed I was carrying after slipstreaming them. I left my braking too late and ran on. In a haste to re-join ended up hitting kerb and dropping the bike. And it would not fire up again even with a bump from the marshals so parked it. Best lap 1.41.075

SuperSport400/Moto450
They started the Moto 450s in the 1st wave. So a decent start and i was leading into 1st corner but after being too cautious I was soon bumped down to 2nd.With Andy Farrell taking the lead then at McAdoos corner he crashed right in front of me and after just touching him with the front wheel I was left with a lot of work to do as Vic Allan and James McCann both had pulled a good gap on me so just got my head down and started to push on. After catching them on the last lap I managed to pass James on the brakes into 3rd last corner then got good drive and managed to out brake Vic into 2nd last corner knowing there was no way back past me to the line so took the 400 Win and 3rd overall with Ryan Farquhar taking the overall and moto450 win. My best lap 1.39.110

SS600
Now I knew this was going to be tough; lots of SuperSport machines vs. my SuperStock R6. After a steady start it took me a few laps to get to grips with the 600 again. After losing a few places at the start I managed to put a few passes in. Finishing in 10th place with a best lap of 1.34.7

Senior Support
This was run back to back with the SuperSport 600 race so after a quick refuel and drink of water (Cheers Derek/Allan)I was off again this time starting in 4th. After a few laps it came apparent it was going to be a battle to the end with 2nd, 3rd and 4th places changing every lap with Gary Miller having the power to pass me every lap on the long straight on a 750. With Callum Laidlaw very good on the brakes at Gortin corner I had to settle for 4th place in the end. Best lap of 1.33.699, I was a bit frustrated but pleased with the way the weekend had gone.

Chill out time

After Robbie's Senior Support race we had a chance to watch some racing and chill out with a couple of beers then; sick of BBQ's we headed to the Braeside Bar for propper food and we were rewarded with not just one decent meal each but the majority of us pigged out and ordered a second main course before calling it a night.

Five am and Derek's been awake for hours and bored of listening to Robbie farting in his sleep gets up and starts dismantling the awning. A couple of hours later and we're all in Larne enjoying a decent breakfast before heading back to normallity leaving the mad stuff over in Ireland. Great fun and totally bonkers. We'll be back for the Armoy.

Thanks to Al, Dave and Ewan for coming over and helping out. Big thanks to all the sponsors in particular to Dave Workman, Ian Robertson, RBG and Tayplay