By Venturing throughout the TT paddock on a warm, sunny Tuesday afternoon, I was fortunate to catch up with 2016 Senior Manx Grand Prix victor Tom Weeden.
Since MGP success he’s gone onto collect an array of solid, consistent TT finishes.
Holding presently a best TT lap speed of 122.89 mph, opening race action looms soon for the Maidstone racer, with the opening four-lap Monster Energy Supersport race, taking place on Saturday.
Before chatting about this topic, former Triumph Triple Challenge, European Superstock 600 Championship participant Weeden candidly discussed Monday’s opening practice, qualifying stints aboard Bruce Cobburn’s ER6 Kawasaki, the Club 77 R6 Yamaha.
“Absolutely awesome, it’s so good to be back.
We couldn’t ask for more could we, brilliant blue sunshine, open roads, just really good to be back, you are waiting all year for it aren’t you and then all of sudden winter seems to drag and then all of a sudden were here.
It was phenomenal to get back out there. Pull some wheelies, no pressure because we had the free practice initially so that was nice to spin a few laps, get back into the swing of it.
Then we did two laps on the 600, the bike’s feeling sweet already, engine wise we know we’ve got a lack of power but handling wise she’s bang on.
Done a lot of work on the suspension during testing and were there or thereabouts, so it’s all looking positive.”
He continued:
“We were slightly too short on the gearing at first and gone a little bit longer and think we’re going to end up going longer again eventually.
But suspension wise not touched a thing, she’s ready to go. This bike now is beginning to feel like home, like my Triumph did when I jump on it and know what I’m doing.
We did a lot of testing in Spain, messing around with suspension and finding we’re she works and how she works, feel like I’ve got there now.
We’ve now found out that power wise, were down on power since Spain. So, the engine when it was refreshed was 132 bhp, we did a lot in Spain, she got a little too hot in Spain because we ran a little rad and think the horse power has dropped.”
“We got it dyno ran up here, came out at 122 BHP (break horsepower), we’ve lost 10 BHP, we are pretty much running a stock power remit, the plan is we’ve got a guy sending some materials over, there should be with us tomorrow to do a bit of a partial refresh on it.
Steven’s been working hard the last couple of days to put the standard engine back in, now it’s just a waiting game, waiting for the parts to turn up, the other engine is getting picked up, it will get refreshed and fingers crossed we’ll gain some BHP back.”
Looking towards aforementioned middleweight class racing on Saturday, he stated:
“First race Saturday, it’s a case of I know where I am going, I know the bike’s decent, get a bit more power in there and for the race situation, I’ll find that bit extra.
No pressure, I’ve got two races on these bikes on these bikes, if we’re not there set-up wise by the first race, second race, we will be having four extra laps, so, it’s all good.”
The final part of our chat, discussed if it still an eye opener, the first time you speed down Bray Hill, circulate around the 37 and three-quarter miles long Mountain Course.
“It’s not so much an eye opener but I just have a massive smile on my face, I can’t believe we are still allowed to do this, in this day and age in a cotton wool society, everyone wants to wrap you up in cotton wool.
I was literally chuckling to myself, I was laughing, massive smile on my face, it was actually heading towards Crosby, we are still allowed to do this in today’s bloody society, just a massive smile on my face, having fun, that’s what it is about.”
Photo credit: Nick Wheeler
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
