Manx 2012 memories

One evening I was asked to marshal a practice lap at Westwood at the 13th Milestone as they were short. I went to Westwood 2 which is a fast downhill blind
entry lefthander through a tree tunnel into an uphill left hander out to the straight leading to Douglas Rd Corner and Kirk Michael. It is inaccessible to spectators and we were in an entrance lane to holiday chalets protected by dry stone walls lined by recticel barriers. One of the first riders through was Ryan Farquhar on the Paton. You could hear but not see him coming until he burst into view, knee skimming the road as he took both bends in one smooth curve and was gone. Others were visibly slower with some taking a couple of bites at the two bends. By chance I stood next to the builder and owner of the Honda 4 cylinder 500 ridden by Chris McGahan. This was the bike featured on a website designed to document progress on the build but which site fizzled out. Apparently the owner had predicted this but bowed to enthusiasm by the erstwhile webmaster who of course ran out of time to update it. Anyway the concept is to build a 4 cylinder 500 for £20k ready to go by comparison to £150k for an MV relica or, here it comes, £100k for a pattern Paton. The bike is configured to bark not drone but is a work in progress. So we awaited the arrival of Wingnut McGahan with interest. Then here he was barking his way round as predicted. A little while later a mobile rang from a team spotter who had him stopped with a dead bike. Then another call this time from the rider to report an oil leak. Ah said the owner we keep increasing oil pipe diameters but the joints don't hold.
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