FEATURE I 2023 ISLE OF MAN TT: PART 1
P80
Rennie pushes on
through Union Mills on
Thursday. About 30
seconds after this shot
was taken, the Honda's
gearbox ate itself.
unit breaking on Wednesday,
and no laps at all on Thursday,
there was still one night of
practice remaining if I could get
a new team, with a new bike,
and run within the 110 percent
cut-off time to qualify.
It sounds impossible. For all
intents and purposes, it is.
But I'm not ready to quit. I've
put too much into this Isle of
Man TT endeavor to see it end
with a lunched gearbox on an
old CBR.
The Friday morning dawns
and I'm up with the sparrows
and in the pits at 7:30 a.m. with
the journalist husband and
wife team of Simon and Maddi
Patterson. I may as well try, so I
get my best salesman on.
First, I meet with the Dafen
-
bet Kawasaki team. Their
rider, Matt Thompson, crashed
earlier in the week and broke
his leg and arm, and the bike.
The chassis is snapped in half,
but they have a rolling chassis
that could possibly be rebuilt
but not before final practice
tonight, so they're out.
Next, I meet with the head of
Honda UK's racing department,
Havier Beltran. I know the team
has Nathan Harrison's factory
CBR1000RR-R SP Fireblade
just sitting there after Harrison
smashed himself up at the
North West 200 two weeks
prior.
Havier explains that although
he'd love to get me on that bike,
