ABC Tour – Cameron Donald, Cruising the Course

FRIDAY

Friday is the last day before racing finally starts and the island is really getting busy.

It had been arranged by Dave Milligan and Grant Roff (Groff from Two Wheels magazine) for the Aussies to meet at the start/finish line to meet Cameron Donald and go for a ride around the course together.

There was quite a contingent of Aussies present, many wearing their “Get Routed” tee shirts.  Cameron came along on his trials bike and signed lots of clothing and helmets.

I had a cap signed, and Mick had his tee shirt signed.

It was impossible for everyone to keep together as we went for our ride, but I got some pictures as we went along. Here is the hedge we sat on at the first day’s practice.

I don’t think the little wire fence would have saved us on Tuesday at Ballacraine.

Here is Ballaugh Bridge and the Raven Pub from the road.

Meanwhile, normal traffic still shares the race course.

Ginger Hall is where quite a few Aussies are staying and where we watched the final practice on Friday.

The plan was to ride around the course and then had lunch at Peel.  Unfortunately, the mountain section was closed due to a traffic accident, so we left the group at Ramsey and went to Point of Ayre at the very north of the island.  We try to get up here each time we visit, as it is a beautiful spot.

It was a glorious afternoon to just sit in the sun and take it all in.

As we have done each time we have visited, we wrote  our special message with the shingles.

No sand here.

Then it was to Ginger Hall to wait for the start of the final session of practice.  Our Kiwi neighbour, Bruce Anstey, set the fastest lap so far this year, averaging just over 131mph (not kph) around the course.

The side cars finally had a good practice session.

Now everyone is ready for a big day of racing on Saturday.