Another trip to Ireland, Southern Ireland to be exact. This time to watch some Road racing at the Skerries, Just north of Dublin.
The Races are called the Skerries 100. They practice on Friday then Race on Saturday.
Went with Dave, Nicky and Stuart. It was a fly drive, Stanstead to Dublin with a hire care. We all stayed at a 4 star B&B in Rush, about 10 miles away from Skerries.
The Landlady at the B&B was, well shall we just say eccentric. She told you to make yourself at home, but then went on to say you weren’t allow to take food or drink into any of the bedrooms. It was compulsory t o take you shoes off as soon as you entered the building and walk around in your socks or bear feet. No matter what time you came back to the B&B she was always there to check you did take your shoes off. It all made for a very strange atmosphere in the place, which we found really funny. Simply because we knew we would only have to put up with it for a couple of days.
The Thursday evening we when along to Skerries Mill. There was a Charity run, that anyone could enter. The run followed the old Skerries race circuit. The car park was full of bike. Refreshingly if wasn’t all modern Sports bikes. There were a few RD’s, LC’s (including an LC500), an X7, A few Ducatis, a CD185, several Step throughs. It was clear that they were all biker’s and not just rich kids who went out and brought the latest bike. Many of the bikes were clearly keep on the road with very tight budgets. It reminded me of when I was younger. When people rode bikes because they wanted too and not just as a fashion accessory. In typical Irish style, the roads were sort of closed run. There were a load of people with big flags stopping the traffic whenever the Bikes came round to there bit of the circuit. Amazingly enough, it all went smoothly. They only lost half the entrants. Luckily no one seemed that worried too much. All in all it was a real good evening. Seriously, far better than my diary paints it.
Then Friday arrived. Practice day. Entry to the stands were free. We brought a program, and in true Irish style, they didn’t even attempt to keep to the schedule. The order and times were all over the place. The program was however good for one thing. Nicky was reading through the entries only to find a name she recognise Marie Hodgeson, listed as being from Essex. Nicky used to work with a girl of the same name, who was well into Motorbikes. What a huge co-incident. Nicky hadn’t seen her for years, and had no idea she was racing at the Skerries. Luckily, we managed to track her down in the pits, on Saturday. So Nicky got to catch up.
Saturday arrived. It was tipping it down. But the gods smiled very kindly. As we arrived at the circuit, the sun came out, the roads dried, and the rain didn’t return until after the racing. Which was nice.
The racing was really good. The people at the front were very quick. To be honest I have no idea who won. The announcements were over a tanoy system and very hard to hear / understand.
Unfortunately, the last race of the day was red flagged because of a bad accident, and it wasn’t restarted. The racers were described has having minor injuries, but a spectator was critical. He had been hit but debris and burnt by petrol as a bike landed in his garden. Other than the crash in the last race. The weekend was well worth it. We were incredibly luck with the weather and the racing was excellent.