Ireland Tour 2015 Diary - Day 3 - Ulster GP Road Race

Hi!

If you haven't caught up on Day 2 yet you can read that post here. Today's post goes through our day at the Ulster GP Road Race.

Saturday 8th August

Saturday is the big racing day at the Ulster GP, with 6 races on this year during the day. Unfortunately for us, Guy Martin, who was on pole for the big superbike race, crashed out during the Dundrod 650 race on Friday but with big names such as Bruce Anstey, Conor Cummins and the Dunlop brothers still racing, it was sure to be a day filled with some excellent racing.

Mum, Dad and I decided to start off on the Start/Finish straight where there was a big TV screen showing the race along with being able to see the pits and of course, all of the Paddock stands selling all sorts of merchandise. When we were heading to there, we got to ride on a section of the circuit before the marshals closed it all off. Admittedly, it was at a lot slower a pace than that the racers would be running later in the day.

The bikes setting up on the grid for the 1st race of the day

The atmosphere on the Start/Finish straight was electric however it wasn't the ideal place to watch the race due to the bikes being able to hit scary fast speeds on what is, for the most part, a public road. After the first race, we decided to move places to the hairpin where we correctly assumed the bikes might be going a bit slower.

The end of the 1st race, won by Lee Johnston with Peter Hickman in 2nd place

We spent 3 races at the hairpin because it was an excellent viewing spot although there wasn't a TV so we couldn't tell what was happening elsewhere on the circuit. We met up with a few other members of our group there also which was nice.

The hairpin was a much better viewing spot

We did see a few bikes slide off though..

Race 4 got red-flagged and all of the bikes stopped right by us

The riders used this time to have a bit of a chat and a catch-up

Discussing why the race was red-flagged

After the third race had been red flagged for reasons unknown, we decided to move to a different viewing spot at Lidl Leathemstown just down from the Flying Kilo and Rock Bends where there was also a TV screen to give us an idea of what was happening elsewhere. The racing was delayed however, presumably due to the same reason that the previous race was red flagged.

 We found out through spectator gossip that a rider had crashed and hit a pole so the delay was caused by getting him and his bike off the circuit. Unfortunately, the rider that had crashed died from his injuries and race direction were speaking to his family about whether the races should continue as their son was due to be racing.

The family said it was okay to continue and the riders set out on their warm up lap only for it to begin to rain which delayed the start of the race yet again as all the riders switched to their wet bikes. It was at this point we decided to leave as we were going to get soaked if we stayed much longer and we were only in our jeans rather than bike gear.

We got back to the hotel after riding through about half an hour of rain to find that most of the others from our group had the same idea we had once it had begun to rain. We all decided to get dry and changed before going out to the Chinese/Steakhouse for dinner.

I went to the Chinese and, after rearranging the restaurant so that 12 of us could all fit around a table, we were served the most insane amount of food which definitely left none of hungry in the slightest.

At the Chinese with one of many plates of food

Day 4 sees the group heading from Antrim to Dublin through some beautiful scenery on some fab roads so stay tuned for that!

Ride safe,
TFB