Monday Mornings for the first practice session,
Were always a Joy,
But at the same time, a little jittery,
Bearing in mind, that back then you had the Jurby road meeting on the Saturday before hand to get dialled in and sort the bike out,
Even if everything went well at Jurby,
You still had to spend all day Sunday, checking the bike over,
Plus going up to get signed on, Riders briefing etc, Nip into the TTSC to get your goody bag !! lol
It was a packed day of things to do,

Sleep Sunday Night,,
What Sleep !! as my Ex used to say to me, you have changed gears so many times, in your sleep,,,, You might have been out there on the Bike,,

And as somebody else has said, to pay that extra bit of money to be able to ride your bike to the Grandstand was worth every penny !
Whether the neighbors thought so is another matter ,,,
Arrive at the Grandstand, knowing full well that the Girls will have got the TTSC tent already on the go,
Coffee or a soup,, Decision time,,, If it was tomato soup, that was my choice !
Those girls deserve a medal for what they did to support us all in those days, Sadly missed by all accounts,

Up into the then very new Scrut Area,
Who never seemed to have enough plugs to plug there kettles in ! lol ( Bearing in mind this is very pre pc days,, )
And wind them up, not too much, over the fact that there is a nice hot drink just a stones throw away,,

But whilst all this is going on,
You get annoyed that somebody has had the cheek to fire a bike up, and spoil the total quiet,
It was a really surreal place to be !

5am i think,
And the Tannoy went live,
With the road conditions for the morning, and a possible start time,
At least with early morning practices, we didn't get the delays due to somebody parking on the sliproads,, Nobody else was up !

Then the start time for the practice was announced,
What was peace and quiet,,
Was shattered by over 100 bikes firing up to get ready to go, for all classes ,
Thats a sound, that i wish you could bottle and sell on,
2 Strokes of all sizes, 4 strokes of all sizes, it was Mayhem,
But great fun to be part off,

You weren't just Joe Bloggs to some of the top Guys, and looked down upon,
You were treated as an equal, because you earned that right to go out and race on the TT Course,
And being as Daft as they were, you Got up Early to do so,
Without any Factory Mechanics working hard on your bikes overnight,
You did it all yourself !!

Iam pretty sure that a lot of Riders who read this, and who were about it that Era will echo this ?

Dont worry, got Tales to tell as well,,,,,, Lol

Benjies Dad