Practice was called off Monday evening with steady rain all afternoon. It was a bit of a downer as the bikes had been prepared and loaded in the vans but all we could do was walk around the pits and catch up with people. It’s always a little bit frustrating dealing with intermittent weather on the Island, but having experienced the thick fog on the mountain in the past, it just has to be done for safety’s sake.

PIC: With not much else to do, the team retreated to the O’Kells Tent

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While walking the pits, Royce caught up with fellow Aussie and TT legend Cam Donald. Cam is competing in the Classic TT, which is run in conjunction with the Manx GP. They both had a good chat and Royce was eager to take on-board any tips from the highly experienced racer.

PIC: Cam Donald will pilot an original 1950 works Norton, the only one in the world, in the Classic TT

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In the meantime, we hope the weather improves today (Tuesday) so we can continue work on the Triumph.

PIC: Crew member, Tim ‘The Toolman’ Donnon, prepares the Triumph

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Just having the one session on Saturday so far, Royce had this to say about his return to the Isle of Man, “Getting back on the track after such a long period away from road racing was a bit daunting – it felt great to blow out the cobwebs! We have a few things on the Triumph to work on as we were flying blind when setting up the bike for local track use, let alone the Isle of Man course. I have high hopes for the Trumpy and also the Duke.”

We caught up with a mate of ours in the pits, ‘Stockers’, (Colin Stockdale from Whitby Yorkshire, a Classic 500 Honda rider), who has looked out for us over the last few years. He stocked up the pit fridge with some supplies from South Australia to make us feel at home. We think this idea of a ‘pit fridge’ should definitely be adopted for meetings back home.

PIC: We just need Coopers to sponsor our ‘Green Machine’ and the fridge will be forever full!