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A week in the Life of a Grease Monkey by Ferodo Vaselini ™ 

 
Isle of Man Manx GP September 2004
 

Well what an exciting week last week was for me.

Firstly I entered my first golf tournament for 4 years and although I have not played more than a couple of times in that period, I had the good fortune to win it.

It was more precious as the cup was donated and presented by the sister of one of my motorcycle racing hero’s Bill Ivy.

I have been a mechanic for Hales Honda Team in the TT and MGP for 5 years or so. The bike is the Hales Drixton CB350 Honda, which is supplied by possibly the nicest sponsors in the whole of motorcycle racing, Tony and Suzi Hales.

The Hales team has scored some fine results, all but the elusive winners podium.

On paper, due to one or two top riders not being in this years line up, our rider Chris had a more than average chance and so it turn out to be with the fastest lap by over 40 sec.

There were some drama’s whoever. Mainly to do with gearbox selection problems.

Luckily the engine turner Ken Garfield was at hand. On stripping down the selector mechanisium Ken noticed a slight problem that we solved by reprofiling the selector arm.

The next drama was being stopped in the scrutinering bay on the morning of the race. My concern was to have the bike scrutinised, just in case there was a fault to rectify. This took some negotiation but finely they aquested. We called Chris from his bed to see the race office. But after some confusion, we should not have been stopped at all, apparently it was due to a clerical error.

So we breathe again and warm the bike up. The pairs start at 30sec intervals, being No# 9, I push the bike forward with the engine ticking over at about 4000 RPM. To Chris’s and my great concern the bike drops into gear all by it self. Luckily because of the low RPM no damage was done. We tickled the carbs and push start it again, obviously the adrenalin is now really pumping.

We had no further problems with the gearbox, it going into gear, must have been caused by not selecting neutral properly.

As you can see above, the excitement is mounting along with the noise. The Hales Honda is probably the sweetest sounding bike there, being run on open mega’s.

As Chris roar’s off into the distance, Tony, Ian Lawton and myself man the Pits. The public address system is useless in the pit lane, so we have to try and figure out his progress by the indictor system and lights and snippets of news.

We gathered that he was 16 sec in the lead by Ramsey Hairpin, which he held over to start lap two. The bike did not sound as sweet as in the past and was also a little slower through the radar.

At the start of lap 3 the lead had grown to 20 sec, but the bike sounding no worse.

Chris went through averaging just under 100mph with a similar lead. This is the worse time for me. The mind starts to imagine all sorts of things. Did the bike sound worse, did you double check that nut, is there any thing that was starting to crack, that you missed before the race and by now is about to fall off.

After what seems like much more than 22 minutes Chris roar’s into view and punches the air as he crosses the line, with an unassailable lead of 45 sec to win the Teams and his first MGP.

The rest is a whirl. I have always imagined what would it be like to taste the Champaign and my god its tastes sweet.

No rest for the Mechanic however, along with Ian and Ken Garfield, we have to strip the top half of the engine to be measured. A quick drink at the Beer tent to toast the Team. This being done I have to put the whole bloody lot together with Tony polishing, although we left the fly splattered fairing as it was, for the presentation at the Villa Marina that night.

Load the bike into the van, a quick wash, run it down to the Villa Marina, drive back to the paddock, then walk to the Team Meal at Angloino’s.

Then the presentations

The rest of the night was all headache!

A few thanks are in order those not mentioned above.

Michael, Irene & Hilda and in memory of Peter of the Welbeck Hotel, This was their first win in 26 years of sponsorship!!

Dennis of Signpost Corner, Ashford

Galbraith Bros Engineering

Anglonino’s Restaurants

Elsan

BFC

NGK

Silkolene

Steve Monahan Engineering IOM for producing the gear linkage parts ASAP

Alan from Stroud. Who has supported through thick and thin

John (Noddy) for his tireless smile and photo record (his are better than my effort above)

Tony (Big Ears) for keeping Chris down to earth and every one in order.

Cliff (Captain Confusion) For his dotty professor way of looking at life.

Andy Kershaw for his support and sign work on the course.

Sandra Cottam for putting up half the team and supplying the other half with
tea and in some cases crumpet.   more local crumpet

Gearbox Eddy

Ernie Coats for his extended credit.

Cheers

Ferodo Vaselini ™