The Manx Grand Prix

The Manx Grand Prix, 21st August - 3rd September, 1999.

• Congratulations to Keith McKay
  Keith, a Scotsman living in the Netherlands (pictured above) entered the Manx GP Newcomers race in August 1997. However bad fortune struck before the event when he lost the use of his laverda 668 race bike. However not being prepared to miss out on the Isle of Man TT circuit it left him with the option of riding on either his Jota or SFC1000. He chose the SFC1000, which was absolutely standard(!) and had a good go at qualifying - BUT missed out by 30 seconds :-((
  For 1999 he turned up under the banner of Aardvark Racing with a H*nda CBR600 race bike which for good measure was painted Laverda orange. Qualifying was disrupted by the weather - cloud on the mountain. But a time of 24min 52secs qualified Keith for the Newcomers and the Senior.
  

• Monday 30th August, 1999: Newcomers Race
  Crossing Ballaugh Bridge (lap 1)
  
• Keith on the approach to Ballaugh Bridge:
  An end, a result of 17th out of the 84 entrants was sweet success :-)) ... from all accounts few beers were quaffed that night by Keith and Team Aardvark Racing.
  

• Laverda 668
  This is apparently a former Three Cross race bike and ridden by Andrew Wilson from Nelson in the North West of England.
  ... crossing Ballaugh Bridge
  

  The 668 was down on power compared to many bikes in this race. Andrew's tyre choice of Michelin Pilots was the let down as they're a good tyre for the dry BUT on the day the Mountain section was wet and being unable to carry it's high corner speed the 668 struggled in difficult conditions but success in the Newcomers Race is to FINISH - well done.

Links

• The Isle of Man index page
  
• Italia Connection's Home Page