...I've always done a little story afterwards bout my TT visits on another forum, thought it might be good to do the same here for only the sidecars, it was great to meet up again with all my sidecarfriends, my thoughts and sympathies are with the families and friends of Bill and Kevin...
...my this years TT, my tenth TT in succession, leaving home on mondaymorning 30th of may very early, with car to the trainstation at Assen, train brought me in three hours to Schiphol airport Amsterdam, easy flight to Liverpool, bustrip through Beatles city, fast comfy ferry to the Rock, arriving round two in the afternoon, good man Colin waiting for me, driving up to collect the van, the old famous red one was gone towards the historical battlefields and I even never got the chance to kiss and say goodbye to her, but even then, a new white one was ready and waiting for me, brought her up to the grandstand firstly to indroduce her to her new fortnight world, parked it beside the policestation and walked up to see my friends, did my signing in at Simon's pressplace, the bikes were allready brought up for the first scrutinering, happy to be back...
...stayd near the paddock for the first practice, went to St. Ninians crossroads firstly, took this photo of Bill and Kevin in their first practicelap out, not knowing the good men lost their lifes the next day...
...after a few sidecars I jumped in the magical white van and rode a little bit further up to a place called Selborne Drive, a place just after Ago's Leap I always use to call "Robert's leap", named after the late great Robert Dunlop, who was on his rotary JPS Norton screaming totaly straight up at the place, magical, but, some story to follow, just to give you firstly an impression of the place, the chairs were still going, rearshoting time...
...after a while standing there, taking photo's, talking to the marshall's who were standing on the other side of the road, a man showed up behind the barriers next to me and started to ask questions, after his first question we allready knew he had a drink too much that day, he asked if the BSA's were still going, the man had some more high profile questions, the marshalls tried to answer them all kindly, we had a great laugh, while I was thinking, it's good to have this man standing behind a barrier instead of standing behind a hedge somewhere around here, cause of his balance problems he could fall through it, after a while the man walked, or he tried to walk, away...he walked into the garden of the first house, later it showed out his sister was living there and the man was on the Island to visit her, from were I was I could see the man walking through the garden towards the big hedge in front of the house, arriving there he started to say things again, all in a funny way, I kept continue for what I was there, taking the shots, then it happened what I was afraid off, we heard a big bang, the man fell, crashed through the hedge, landing on his head on the pavement next to the road...
...the shouting started, "MAN ON THE ROADDDDDDDDDDDD", the marshalls crossed the road to take away the man, calling the police, the ambulance, the man was calling out himself he was ok, the sister showed up and was embarrassed and did apologize...when I met a few days later one of the marshalls I asked him how his back was...first practice night out...
Reminds me of 1962 TT, I was marshalling at Quarter Bridge on the inside of the corner just above the river when a solo rider dropped it. IN what is an unusual happenstance both rider and bike instead of sliding gracefully (?) to the outside kerb when suddenly a bump or something intervened causing a change of direction to both parties Standing next to me was a photographer who decided that it might be a good idea to relocate sharpish as both bike and rider were headed straight for him. Obvious place of safety was behind the wall so he jumped over - straight into the river No harm done apart from a twisted ankle as there was less than a foot of water below ...
It is true about the sidecar family - you can stop racing but you can never, ever leave!
...then we had that dreadfull tuesdaynight in practiceweek, I went like I did last year to Sulby Bridge...in the second part of the practice I heard the sidecars screaming, braking heavely and passing just in front of me, the first ones were John and Andy, then it was very close together Conrad and Mike, Tim and Gregory, Klaus and Dan, after them passed Gary and Jamie, just in front of Tony and Darren, then I heard another outfit screaming towards me on Sulby's straight,the bike sounded well, when they braked, crossed the bridge, went into my sight, it tried to accelerate in front of me, the engine started to sound sick, no revs and it started to smoke, it parked up at the Ginger...it was Simon and Jason, I knew they were out that night to do a steady lap to find out Jason was fit enough to continue after his falling out the chair the night before...afterwards we know we lost two good friends, Bill and Kevin, we know the story about the oil, we know the bike of Simon was taken for investigation, we know Simon packed in and went home...but what I know is that something happened to the engine of Simon what was a very rare thing to happen, and that Simon, Nick and their whole team felt very very sick about what happened to Bill and Kevin and that they will miss their friends...
winnie 
Standing next to me was a photographer who decided that it might be a good idea to relocate sharpish as both bike and rider were headed straight for him. Obvious place of safety was behind the wall so he jumped over - straight into the river 
