Back over to our Loughshinny Motorcycle Supporters Club rider blogs and today its Vinny Brennan’s turn. Vinny races a CBR600 Pre-injection class. Im in work staring at the clock and counting the minutes to be free so I can hit the road to Mondello for the weekend. Finally I am free...so I head home to grab the van, hook up the caravan and off we go. Got down to Mondello around 8.30pm on the Friday evening and looked around for a good spot in the paddock. Bumped into me old pal Paul Swords and he offered his hospitality in his set up so I jumped on that offer and put the bike in the awning off his truck (Thanks Paul). So Saturday morning comes and we get free practice. I went out for a few laps and all was ok, the bike felt good and I felt good. Then came qualifying and about 4 laps in I started to get big slides out of the corners on the power. I rode as hard as I could with the slides and managed to qualify 3rd on the Pre-injection bike. Later that day was race 1 so we did a few suspension tweaks to try get rid of the problem. Went out for race 1 and what a close race it was. I was leading for a few laps but the bike started sliding again. I was trying to ride it hard but the same time stay on. I fell back to 2nd then back to 3rd. I had it in my head that 3rd will do and as we exited the last turn on the last lap I was out dragged out of the turn and was piped on the line by .007. I was absolutely sick about it..ha. so 4th it was.! Sunday morning and again free practice. I just went out for the spin and didnt push the bike too much as I was worried about my rear tyre wear. Race 2 came and again I started 4th on the grid but 3rd Pre-injection. Lights go out and we are off. It was horrible, the bike was sliding and spinning up so I did what I could and just tried to finish the race. The front runners just pulled away from me and I got 4th in the end. One more race left of the weekend and I was seriously thinking about putting the bike back into the van and to just forget about it. I knew I needed a rear tyre but to be honest I didnt have the budget to get one that weekend. So down arrives my girlfriend and my kids and she could see I was not a happy camper. Next thing out comes the bank card and she gives me the go ahead to buy a new tyre. I dont think I ever took a rear wheel off a bike so fast and ran up to Ernie Coates to get a new tyre. So race 3 and I am mad for action now. Boom... lights go out and I got a savage start and I am up to 2nd on the road but the first Pre-injection. I put my head down and rode the bike as hard as I could to try stay in front. I didnt see another 600 from start to finish but I knew they were right behind me. We came up on back markers and I was praying they didnt get in my way or slow me down but it all worked out OK. I caught up on the 250 that was ahead and even beat him into turn 1 but his corner speed was too much for my bike. I didnt really care about him as he is not in my race but it would of been nice to win outright. So last lap flag is out and at this point I am getting nervous just waiting to see what move Mervyn Griffin was going to make on me but no sign of him. I knew I was strong on the brakes but I also knew he has savage corner speed. So out comes the flag and I finished 1st. Ive never been so happy to win. Its been 4 years since I raced Mondello and that was only my second race since I came back so I was chuffed. I was so happy for my kids as it was their first time to watch me race and they were so proud of Daddy and they never let the trophy down all that night. Well thats pretty much it. Thanks for reading and I will see you around the paddock. Vinny #79 Many thanks to Vinny for taking part and we are delighted for your win at the weekend. A big shout out to your Missus, she’s a keeper lad. We all wish you the very best of luck for the rest of season and we hope the kids get to lift a few more trophies this year. Photos courtesy of Darren Jarjar Orourke and John Burke
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 10:33:06 +0000
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