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The 2006 Manx Junior Classic GP

THAT'S RACING

The Hales Honda Team headed by Tony & Suzi had three goals at the 2006 IOM Manx Classic Junior Grand Prix, to achieve an elusive hat trick with Manxman Chris McGahan, to get Bolton-le-Sands Alan Oversby to an elusive finish and to get TT circuit rookie Sean Leonard from Ireland to receive an elusive finish medal. But in a tough week only one out of three dreams would be achieved.

Junior Lightweight Classic A Practise week 21st – 26^th August 2006
After breaking his shoulder just three weeks before in a Jurby track crash, Chris underwent intensive Hyperbaric treatment courtesy of Dave Downey and physio therapy from the luvely Isla Scott as recommended by chris's mate 11 times TT sidecar winner Dave Molyneux.
Despite some obvious pain and having to wear his Mini Mix Concrete Leathers instead of his tighter Hales Honda leathers he looked good for the defence of the Junior Classic race.

Chris’s practise week involved engines in and out constantly as gearbox & Ignition problems left legendary top mechanic Sammy Crossett with little time to enjoy the traditional Manx Atmosphere. Chris eventually posted the overall fastest practice time of the week at 99.64mph and bizarrely topped the leader board on the Tuesday night with a time of 62.38mph.

Meanwhile Alan’s practise week was not running smoothly either, mechanic Cyril eventually cured the smoking Hales Honda with replacement rings. His only decent lap time was on the extra Saturday practise with a time of 87.60mph

Sean was enjoying himself, learning the tricky track slowly but surely and continued to improve his practise times every lap and his only gremlin was a faulty tacho, eventually getting 87.51mph into the record books.

Junior Lightweight Classic A 30th August 2006

Conditions were good for race day and the race started well, Chris had set off with Roy Richardson at 9 & 10, Roy had led last year until the bike expired at Ramsey, Alan set off at 12 with Derek Whalley a former Senior Classic winner.

As Chris and Roy passed Union Mills, Roy had pulled out a good lead, but Chris always a cautious starter had clawed it back by Kirk Michael and things were looking good for the Hales Team with Chris in second and Alan in third position. Again they passed the Union Mills garage but a worrying top end misfire was clearly audible on Chris’s bike and he was losing precious seconds for the next two laps. Manx radio reported Chris touring at the Bungalow and he was black flagged on lap three as the ignition problems reappeared from the practise week. The misfire however was only at the top end and only two bikes were quicker than Chris. After a “chat” with the Marshall,

Pictures courtesy of Russell Lee @ Sport-Pics

Chris continued but decided to call it a day and retired to the pits.

Alan’s unbelievable bad luck returned as the 350 Honda blew an oil seal at Ballaugh on lap two just as the Lancastrian was getting into his stride.

So it was down to Sean to try and keep the team spirits up, and he didn’t disappoint recording a race average of 87.43mph the same as his best practise time in a time of 1h 43' 33.91" taking 25^th position.