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

Ireland Tour 2015 Diary - Day 2 - Belfast to Antrim via the North Coast Road

If you haven't read Day 1 of this tour diary click here to read that first! That post explains about our trip and our plans for it also.

Friday 7th August

After being awoken by a Geordie lady being blasted into our cabins at 5:30am, we disembarked at 6am to the start of what looked like a beautiful day in Belfast. Having had no breakfast on the ferry, we started our journey north primarily in search for somewhere that served a full English/Irish - so basically, anywhere with bacon was grand.

We headed up the North Coast Road which truly is a great road with some stunning scenery as you are literally right next to the sea. It's definitely a must for anyone wanting to ride in Northern Ireland. Not sure if you're on the right road? If you're heading North, look right - if you can't see the sea, you're on the wrong road!

Eventually, we arrived in Ballycastle at about 8 o'clock and we were definitely all ready for some breakfast. We found a small cafe right by the harbour called Bay Cafe which was manned by the loveliest people you will ever meet and didn't mind 21 hungry bikers descending upon them in the slightest. They asked us about our trip and what we were planning - they even gave us some handy tips!

After breakfast a few of us decided that, whilst at the seaside, it would be rude not to get an ice cream and handily enough, there was one just opening across the street from where we had breakfast so we had our pudding overlooking the bay before setting off again towards the Giant's Causeway.

Breakfast in the Bay

Once we arrived, we split into smaller groups with some heading to the Causeway and some heading to Bushmills on the train in search of a distillery they had heard about.

Most of the bikes all lined up neatly in the train station car park

The Giant's Causeway really is a bizarre geological site, it is definitely weird how perfectly it all seems to have formed and I actually understand most of the basic science behind it! It does, unsurprisingly, provide some gorgeous views especially when it is as warm and sunny as it was when we got there.

The Giant's Causeway

The rocks were almost perfect

A gorgeous day to sit on the rocks

Built by a giant or by natural Earth movement?

We asked one of the the National Trust guys to explain how it all formed in both the scientific "proper" way and the more entertaining giant story. he did so very cheerfully and was again very friendly and unbelievably knowledgeable, but, then again I suppose that is his job!

Story time on the Causeway

As logically implausible as the giant story is, although much more entertaining, they do say that generally in science, the simplest version is most probably the correct one! So I'll leave that one with you...

As we had most of the afternoon left and not that many miles left to do before we arrived at the hotel for the night, we decided to go back to Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge that I had spotted signposts for along the way and fancied doing. A few other people ended up coming with us after we said where we were headed.

The rope bridge was a bit off as it was basically a 1km walk with a rope bridge at the end to a little island. The original bridge was built (with way less stability) about 350 years ago by salmon fisherman to help them carry their catch back to the mainland and they could leave their boats at the island. The bridge has taken many forms over the years until the current bridge was built in 2008.

A fishermans' cottage

Through the bridge down into the sea

On the island of Carrick-a-Rede at the other end of the bridge

Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

We then headed to Port Rush for what we hoped would be a cake and coffee stop but ended up being more of a mini meal at a packed pizza/pasta place. After filling our bellies and  quenching our thirsts built up from walking in the sunshine in bike kit, we headed to the hotel where we would be staying for the next two nights.

After sorting the rooms out as the hotel had managed to much a few up (annoying but fixable and anyone involved with the mix-ups did get a free drink out of it!), we all headed up to get showered and changed before going across the road to the local Brewers Fayre pub for our actual dinner.

Again, showing up and saying "Table for 21 please" caused a few worried faces from the staff but they got us all sorted and did a brilliant job of getting us all fed at a pretty similar time.

The gorgeous weather lasted all day and made for a cracking ride through some of Northern Ireland. Day 3 is Ulster GP Road Race day so keep an eye out for the next instalment of my Tour Diary.

Until then, ride safe
TFB

Ireland Tour 2015 Diary - Day 1 - Home to Liverpool/Belfast

At the start of August, the Ulster GP Road Race was on in Northern Ireland and I, along with 20 other bikers, went along to watch and do a mini tour of Ireland in the 5 days we had over there. The is a tour diary/ride report of that trip.

This was my first time abroad on any bike and the first big trip on my SV650. I had previously done a 1100 mile round trip on my old 125cc bike to do the 3 Peaks Challenge but that's a post for another time! There were 21 of us altogether on 18 bikes and it was most people's first time to the Ulster GP and it was definitely set up to be a good laugh.

We planned the trip around the Ulster GP which was on the Saturday mainly and decided to do a route that took us up to the North Coast Road to the Giant's Causeway on our first day and then coming back down to Antrim which wasn't too far away from the circuit for the second day. We then went down into the Republic of Ireland for the final 3 days and took in some of the views there and rode on some ace roads - keep an eye out for my future posts for more!

Thursday 6th August

Our ferry was in the evening from Liverpool so we started the trip nice and easy, taking a scenic route from home in Derbyshire to the Liverpool docks because it's far prettier than just hitting the motorway and going in a straight line at 70mph.

My SV650 packed up and ready to go!

All 21 of us met up for dinner at a pub in Chelford which I think surprised the waiters a bit and definitely annoyed the local punters who had just popped to their local for a nice bit of pub grub only to be descended upon by a large group of bikers who were all catching up with each other.. Whoops!

After dinner we headed, in convoy, to the docks where we checked in just before last check-in (on time as ever!) and boarded almost instantly ready to set sail at 10:30. We all met in the bar on the ferry where we annoyed even more punters by sitting in a huge group and generally being a noisy bunch of bikers. After a few drinks, we (my mum, my dad and I) headed to the cabin to get a few hours kip before disembarking in Belfast at 6am.

Waiting to board at the Liverpool docks

18 bikes, 21 people - Ireland 2015 is a go!

Bye England..

 Day 2 - Belfast to Antrim via the North Coast Road is coming soon so keep your eyes peeled!

Ride safe,
TFB

MotoGP 2015 - Round 12 Silverstone (III)

This post is part three of my MotoGP weekend write up and contains the highlights from Sunday. To read Saturday's please click here and to read Friday's click here. As mentioned before, if you haven't watched the coverage from the weekend and you intend to, this post does contain spoilers.

Sunday 30th

Moto2 started the proceedings today and following a wet warm up, the race was deemed, unsurprisingly, a wet race. Sam Lowes had a crash during warm up but luckily was unhurt and got back up very quickly. At the end of the warm up Alex Rins came out on top followed by Johann Zarco and Tito Rabat, defending world champ. Following his crash, Lowes was down in 19th but everyone was hoping that the race would prove better for the home rider who had done so well yesterday.
The Moto2 race was full of overtakes with some riders seemingly swapping positions in every other corner! However, during the race, the track was drying and with the main racing line drying quickly it looked to be becoming a game of chance with trying to work out the best time to come in to change bikes and go out with slicks. Much to my, and the other spectator's, surprise, none of the riders came in and decided to continue to ride on their wet tyres until the end of the race which absolutely destroyed their tyres by the end of the race but with no major crashes, the plan definitely seemed to work out in Zarco's favour who finished over 3 seconds in front of Rins who finished 2nd. Lowes, struggling in the trickier conditions, finished 6th after battling with Folger and Alex Marquez.
After the race, the riders came back round again and as Luffield is the last corner before the entrance to the pits, Zarco stopped and got off his bike (after signalling madly at the marshalls to get them to come over) to complete his routine back flip after winning. It's definitely impressive to watch, I couldn't do a back flip normally, let alone in a full set of leathers and a helmet!
Lowes also stopped at Luffield, not to do a back flip though, he chose to throw his gloves and boots into the crowd. Nowhere near me though! He then had to complete his ride back to the pits in just his socks which was quite funny to watch.

Zarco, Folger, Kallio, Rabat

Sam Lowes fighting his way to the front of the pack

Rins leads from Rabat, Alex Marquez, Folger and Zarco

Sam Lowes lining up an overtake on Nakagami

Zarco moving up to the front of the pack, battle for 1st place

The MotoGP warm up was largely uneventful with the riders practising swapping bikes in case of a flag to flag race and ended, much to the fans delight, with Valentino Rossi at the top with Petrucci, Marquez, Crutchlow and Lorenzo rounding out the top 5.
Before their race, some of the MotoGP riders were visited by Brad Pitt who was just wandering up and down pit lane with one of his sons. With the race declared as dry by race direction, the riders headed out on their sighting lap, only for them all to discover the track was wet after it had rained after the Moto2 race and every single rider went straight back into the pits to switch to their wet bikes. It was absolute chaos in pit lane with all of the riders switching bikes as fast as they could to try and ensure that they could be first out of pit lane first and on to the track. Race direction seemed to notice this chaos and red flagged the race and allowed the riders to switch to their wet race set up and re-form on the grid after delaying the start of the race. This then allowed us to watch as the riders tried to U-turn in pit lane to go back to their respective garages which was quite amusing.
Once the race finally got underway, you could tell it was going to be a good race. With Lorenzo leading off the line, it was going to be a hard push for Rossi, starting on the grid in 4th, to get back up to the top which he needed to do if he wanted to continue leading the championship. The rain always levels the playing field in MotoGP but also leads to more crashes than normal and Hernandez was the first to go down after a flying start following an impressive qualifying on Saturday and unfortunately for him, his race was over.
With Rossi and Marquez fighting their way to the front to ensure Lorenzo didn't get too far in front, they overtook both Pedrosa and Pol Espargaro in quick succession with Marquez following Rossi through a rapidly closing gap on Espargaro. Jack Miller, who had gotten the best start I've ever seen him have, then took out teammate Cal Crutchlow after also trying to get past Pol Espargaro and going in too hot so being unable to stop for the corner. Cal did come back out on his other bike but as it was still raining, he wouldn't have been able to get back in the race on slicks so instead went around the track waving to all of the spectators who cheered and clapped him as he went by as we were all so disappointed for him, especially in his home race.
Danilo Petrucci was having no such problems on the Pramac Ducati who had overtaken Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Dovizioso to get up into third position and was holding Dovi off very well on the factory Ducati. However, Marquez had a huge fall trying to chase down Rossi so Petrucci moved up into 2nd place, leading from Dovi, Pedrosa and Lorenzo. With Lorenzo struggling in the wet from what turned out to be a misted up visor, Rossi managed to open up a substantial lead over the next group of riders.
With 4 laps to go, Pol Espargaro had a similar fall to Marquez, ending his race also. Petrucci and Dovizioso continued to battle swapping places at what seemed like every other corner before Petrucci was able to pull a bit of a gap. Lorenzo also managed to get back past Dani Pedrosa which meant his championship standing wasn't damaged too much.
As Rossi crossed the line with a 3 second gap, the spectators in all grandstands cheered and yelled as he proved once again that he is a master in tricky conditions and kept his cool to retake the championship with a 12 point lead from Lorenzo who finished 4th ahead of Pedrosa, Redding, Smith, Iannone, Aleix Espargaro and Bautista. The Brits put in an impressive performance fighting with each other for 6th place.

Lorenzo leading from Pol Espargaro and Rossi

Rossi and Marquez are coming through!

Pedrosa, Petrucci, Smith, Dovizioso.. the battle is on!

Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone

Lorenzo in 3rd followed by Petrucci, Dovizioso and Pedrosa

Pol Espargaro leading from Iannone and Redding

Tech3 boys at play with Smith leading from Espargaro

Marquez sitting close behind Rossi applying the pressure

Lorenzo slipping back into 6th as Dovizioso leads the 2nd group

After Marquez's crash, Rossi has some breathing room and keeps his cool

Petrucci gets in front of Dovizioso and they pull a gap from Lorenzo

The Moto3 riders were last out on the track this morning with Danny Kent topping the session and he looked very strong for the race happening later in the afternoon despite having a crash with 10 minutes to go.
Moto3 was declared a wet race and with a flying start from Hanika but at Turn 2 he falls followed by Jorge Navarro, pole-sitter, leaving them both out of contention for a spot on the podium. Turn 3 also saw falls from Jorge Martin, pushing Kornfeil wide, Binder who was chasing a podium finish and Vinales who was leading at the point.
Fenati later fell at Turn 7 who has running well in third with clear track behind him. The following laps saw crashes for many of the other riders but luckily with no major ones, all riders were okay.
With all of this going on behind him, Danny Kent, the Brit leading the Moto3 championship, kept his head down and rode a smooth ride, quickly dispensing of the people in front of him and then pulling and maintaining a gap of almost 8.5 seconds. He crossed the line in first position with the whole crowd cheering behind him after riding an near perfect ride minus one wobble between Luffield and Woodcote which worried everybody with two laps to go.
It was fantastic to see a Brit on the top step of the podium and to hear our National Anthem being played in honour of the deserving winner on the British GP who now leads the Moto3 championship by a whopping 70 points from Bastianini.

Kent keeping his cool after passing two riders including his teammate Vazquez

The Moto3 riders switching and swapping places corner by corner

Kent leading from Kornfeil coming up to lap Vinales

Danny Kent pulling and maintaining an 8.5 second lead

Fenati running 12th after an early fall

A crash on the entrance to Luffield

Kent takes victory in his home race

Danny Kent on the top step of the podium after a near perfect ride

Race 2 of the Red Bull Rookies Cup saw them face very different conditions to yesterday with the track now being wet and the temperatures were also lower than they were yesterday too. This played very well into British lad, Rory Skinner's hands and he put in an impressive performance throughout the race and finished 4th, just behind Bo Bendsneyder who was yesterday's winner. This was Skinner's best performance of the season so far, improving on yesterday's finishing position.
Watching them race around Silverstone on the KTM 390s gives a really good insight into what it takes to get into the leagues of Moto3 let alone MotoGP but some of these riders, the Dutch Bendsneyder in particular definitely look like they are on the cards to start getting offers to move up into the GP classes sooner rather than later.

It was a great weekend of racing and I thoroughly enjoyed it all. I'll be keeping an eye out for 2016 tickets to hopefully go again.

My next post will probably be the start of my Ireland Tour Diary from when I went there at the start of August for the Ulster GP. Hope that you've enjoyed my MotoGP highlights posts, if you've got any comments or feedback please let me know either below or check out the Contact page if you want to send me a message that way.

Until then, as always, ride safe.

TFB