Words by Damian Parker
This is the first in a three-part series from two people who rode to the North West 200 road-race this year and documented their incredible journey to let us all know how easy it is to get to this event and have a life-time experience.
And So It All Began…
The alarm on the clock sounded, and the display read 3:30am. It was that time to get up and ride the 287 miles to Holyhead, and all by 8:45am. I knew then that I was going to be on my way to the North West 200 Road-Race in Northern Ireland; man was I excited!!
I met Clinton at the petrol station by the Ace Cafe. We filled up the bikes and set off at 4:30am on the long ride towards Wales. The TomTom told us we should arrive at 8:49am, so Clinton and I had to make up some time, the roads were clear, we opened our throttles, and why not!
We kept up good speed in an effort to get to the ferry on time, unfortunately so fast that I couldn’t hear the music on my iPod over silly-mph, I suppose that’s what you get for having a god damn loud exhaust! (It wasn’t me Officer!) Things went fine; we filled up the bikes every 110-120 miles depending on how economical we were with our right wrists. We took the M1 to Birmingham, M56 through to Chester, and M6 through to Wales, and then jumped on the A55 straight to Holyhead.
About half way up the A55 we noticed a parked police car on the verge of the grass. We made an effort to come down the revs as quietly as possible, without him realising what speeds we were actually doing, Luckily, all he did was angrily point his finger at us as and let us get on our way! Thankfully he didn’t pull us, as we would have definitely missed the ferry.
We finally got to the ferry port with 10 minutes to spare, we boarded with ease, strapped our bikes down and took a big deep breath and laughed to ourselves.
So, 287 miles down, a two hour ferry ride across and back on the throttle for another 173 miles to Coleraine, Portrush to make it in time for the second practice session of the week.
The ferry took us to Dun Laoghaire and from there we headed toward Dublin trying to get through the heavy traffic of all the bikers making their way up to the NW200 road race! Making our way to Belfast, fatiguing took place and it seemed as though the journey was endless, knowing we had to rest we found a spot were a few bikers were gathered at a McDonalds in Banbridge and chilled there for a moment. After our break we got hyped up for the last 80 miles and made it to Coleraine in good time!
We found our way to Portstewart to get the keys for the house where we were staying, and then rode back to Portrush to a massive three-storey house with six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a huge kitchen and utility room. There was a mammoth lounge and a gigantic hallway, that when Clinton lay down there was only a small gap between his feet and the wall; and he’s 6’4”. We weren’t the only two staying in the house; there were two guys from the Goodwood bunch, who were really nice, apart from that we had it all to our selves… Thank you LB and Samantha!!
Practice Session
By the time we'd got our stuff off the bikes and settled in, we made our way back to the racetrack the roads had already been closed off. They were preparing for the practice sessions to begin, and because of this we were unfortunately unable to obtain our paddock passes and press bibs until the next day.
As slightly annoying as it was, we still managed to get a good position at Metro Pole and take some decent shots. A few of the racers were well late braking into the corner, but just managed to keep it shiny side up, other than that everyone was keeping it cool and very fast through Metro Pole!
We had heard that someone had crashed badly during the sessions; at that time we didn’t know who it was. We headed back to the house and got our heads down for the night.
It wasn’t until the next morning that we heard the sad news that the man who had passed the evening before was the legendary Robert Dunlop; the father of three had obtained critical injuries to his chest and passed away around 10pm that night before.
He was said to have been be doing around 160mph as he approached the Mather’s Cross section of the nine mile course, the bike seized, hurling him over the handlebars. Rider Darren Burns tried to get out of the way but couldn’t avoid hitting Dunlop, resulting in him crashing also; Darren suffered a broken leg and concussion but was stable later in hospital.
Robert Dunlop, who was from Ballymoney holds the record of 15 NW200 wins. He was very well known and respected by everyone, not only at the North West 200 road race but also by most of the people in Northern Ireland, so this was a huge tragedy for all. Sincere condolences to all of Robert Dunlop’s family and friends from all of us at Londonbikers.com.
Plans Cancelled
As a mark of respect to the Dunlop family, Coleraine Borough Council cancelled all of Friday’s events which included; the family entertainment at the Paddock, the live music and fireworks at the Crescent in Portstewart and they even cancelled the Air display on the Saturday morning which was planned for before the start of the big racing event.
Clinton got up early and went to ride the racetrack, he left about five minutes before I’d got up, so I got myself ready and headed toward Paddocks to see what I could find. There was a definite sad look on most people’s faces all around, an easy sign that Robert Dunlop was a huge character there and was on everyone’s mind that morning.
I got chatting to the HM Plant guys as they were building the race bikes getting ready for Saturday’s race, I got brave and started asking them a few questions, then I went exploring and taking in the atmosphere.
Eventually I caught up with Clinton and we decided to head out of town to the North Coast of Ireland to see what the roads where like and to take in the breath taking scenery we had heard so much about. Both where absolutely exceptional and much more amazing than we could both have imagined.
The roads were that twisty and tight that Clinton literally used the kerb like rails and luckily kept the bike standing through out our trip. We reached an open spot near River Bush and decided to stop. We stayed for a while and messed around with our bikes taking photographs, we then decided to walk down to River Bush (snigger! it must be a boy thing!) and the instinct kicked in… we decided to play skim the stone, “If you don’t go big, go home!” Please check out the photo gallery to see how silly it got!! We had a wicked afternoon out and about, ragging our bikes all around, and up and down the coastal roads, they were absolutely incredible! We were completely knackered and headed back to the house. But, that wasn’t the end of our day, we decided to head out in the evening and find out what the local nightlife was like… Another article about our night out to follow… watch this space…
Race Day!
Woo Hoo!!! We got up pretty early considering the night before… decided to just head out of the house, get through to the Paddocks and get breakfast on the move. We parked up our bikes and began to look for a good spot to see the opening race; and this was in the time-scale of 20 minutes! Not bad I thought to myself.
There were heavy restrictions on where we were allowed to go, I think it was because of what happened to Mr. Dunlop. The officials weren’t taking any chances, so this was making it hard to get in a better position amongst all of the crowds.
Our bikes were parked in Mill Road, so we though we would walk to Galvally, we then realised that it wasn’t the greatest place to be!! So, we then trekked back up to Mill Road, up to York Corner and then finally got to Primrose Hill before the warm up lap of the first race, phew... We stayed there for a bit and we both took some fast action shots. When the first race had finished, we got back to York Corner and into a great position to get some good photos with great angles of the riders coming round and out of the hairpin. A rookie crashed out and luckily came out of it with no injuries, other than that everyone kept their race-faces on at York, it was all very intense.
Half way through the day we found our way down the circuit and into the Paddocks. We were kindly invited and had lunch in the North West 200 Ducati Team; the hospitality was greatly received and very good. So good in fact that we decided to stay there for the remainder of the races, well can you blame us!?!
Race six was an outstanding race; there was this amazing battle between Michael Rutter, Steve Plater and Bruce Anstey... Rutter had made it from third to first on the last lap, and a crucial mistake gave Plater a way through to finally win the race, with Cameron Donald coming second in an astonishing turn around. I will always remember this race and moment!
Guy Martin had a major crash and thankfully came out with only a few bruises. All in all, it was an amazing day and some incredible racing from all of the guys… If you think you’re quick, think again, these guys are fucking quick!
We were completely exhausted, but we still had another night and had to get up early the next morning and get the ferry home. We decided that going out to get a last taste of the place, atmosphere and the friendly and warm people.
Clinton and I eventually got back to the house and crashed into bed. Stupidly early in the morning we got up, packed our things and strapped them to the bike. Oh, I forgot to mention that Clinton not only has his usual luggage to get back home to London, he acquired Michael Rutter’s nose cone off his North West 200 Ducati BSB race bike, this also had to fit on his K4-600!! We got the Gaffer Tape out and taped it to his bike (not needed this that early in the morning! LOL…); looking back we said good buy to the amazing house and the memories that we will take with us.
The Ride Home
And so it was time, for the long journey home! We made just a FEW, rather large mistakes… At around 20 miles into the ride, both of our petrol lights came on, we looked at each other and did the obligatory point at the tank, uh oh! What petrol stations are open at 4:30am in the countryside? ERRRRR, NONE!
We eventually managed to flag down a car down, he must have seen the desperation in our eyes, he knew where there was a 24 hour garage in Ballymena Town centre. The kind man lead the way, so we followed him there and with just the possible minimal amount of petrol in out tanks, we only just made it.
After filling up we were on our way again, the TomTom decided it was a good time to break, Woo-Bloody-Hoo! We flagged yet another car down, who then directed us in the right way towards the port. We thought that all of our bad luck had finished, but we got lost again and had to backtrack some of the way back to get back on the right road! We finally made it to the M1 straight to Dublin, which is where we needed to get on the ferry.
I know what you’re thinking; well what could go wrong now?? Well, our sodding petrol lights came on again and the hunt for another garage started! After about 20 miles of looking, we needed to flag another car down to ask for directions, no one seemed to know anything!
With an even smaller amount of petrol in the tank we found a deserted station, but it wasn’t open. At that moment we both knew we would never make it to the port in time. All we could do was wait and hope that someone would come and open up, we made a few phone calls and luckily there was another ferry at a later time. The owner came; we filled up and set on our way, from then on it was plain sailing all the way to the docks, and onto the ferry. We took the time to have a well-deserved rest until we docked at the other side an hour or so later… not far to go now!
Thank God, we had no more problems through Wales. We got to Birmingham and without delay down the M40 straight home… When I arrived at my house, my 16-month-old boy was shouting out the window, I have never left him for any amount of time before and was choked to see him! But instead of heading straight for me, he headed for were Clinton and I had parked, he was more interesting in sitting on the bike than me!!! Typical…
What an end to a terrific ride to the North West 200 Road race and back!
I would like to thank Samantha Lawson, the North West Ducati BSB Team and Londonbikers.com for this amazing opportunity. Our thanks also go to all of the great people we met at our time at the Kennedy International North West 200.
Part two and three coming soon!
The NW200 80th Anniversary: 2009 - Next year marks eighty years of the NW200 road-race, an incredible feat, make no mistake. This will be a prime chance for everyone to experience such an amazing event, regarless of whether or not you're a race fan. We're thinking that next year we'll go up there with a large LB contingent. Fancy it? We sure do!
Related Galleries
NW200 – The Ride, Race & Total Experience #1
NW200 – The Ride, Race & Total Experience #2
Related Articles
NW200 - 2008, My Roadtrip Diary
Related Links:
www.northwest200.org
www.nutttravel.com
