Team Shand Racing.
Team Shand Racing have had a torrid time the last two weeks.
The team wanted to get some extra track time with the bike before setting off for the Isle of Man TT races, the team driver Gordon and passenger Phil went to a race meeting at East fortune, unfortunately they had a crash resulting in Phil having to undergo hospital treatment and a lengthy operation to a fractured pelvis. Thankfully all went well with the operation and Phil is back home recovering, however he is very disappointed that he will not be competing at the TT races, the team wish Phil a speedy recovery and hope he will be back soon.
Things did not look good for the team with the TT races only one week away. Gordon worked all hours to repair damage to the Honda powered “Shand Chassis” sustained in the accident at East Fortune, and he had to see if there were any passengers available to replace Phil. The team set off for the Isle of Man on Wednesday night the week before the races were due to start, still with no passenger.
After arriving on the Isle of Man, another team from New Zealand helped setting up the Shand home for the next fortnight, it turned out that the “Carl Cox Motorsport” garage for the next two weeks had not turned up and they had no place to work on their machine, “Team Shand Racing” to the rescue! The offer of sharing the Shand garage was swiftly taken.
Still with no passenger driver Gordon was getting a bit concerned that the races would not happen this year. On the Sunday night, a young lady from New Zealand arrived on the Isle of Man for two weeks holiday to watch the races. Astrid Hartnell, has been racing sidecars in New Zealand for eight years as a passenger, and has been the New Zealand F1 Championship winning passenger for two years, and she was here to support the “Carl Cox Motorsport” team. After being asked if she could help out, and yes being the answer, it was all go to get paper work sorted, leathers, helmet, and to get to know the famous 37 three quarter mile race track.
On Monday morning the team set off to Jurby for some testing, things were looking good and Astrid enjoyed being out on the track, she got on well with the unfamiliar track and bike, driver Gordon was really happy too. However disaster was to hit again, on the Tuesday morning, Astrid had problems with an old racing injury, and with disappointment she had to pull out from the chance of a lifetime to race the Isle of Man TT races.
It was back to the drawing board for “Team Shand Racing” Thing were not looking good for Gordon to find a passenger at such short notice. Yet again a bit of luck, Belgian F2 sidecar driver and leading the Belgian F2 championship, Jef Driesen who is mechanic for “HC Race Developments/Fuchs-Silkolene” race team of Sean Hegarty and James Neave suggested his passenger Frank Claeys, who was on the Island and races solo motorcycles and passengers back in Belgium. He agreed, so it was all on again.
The first night of practice for the team was a sighting session for Gordon and Frank, plus Frank had never been on, or even seen the “Shand Racing” sidecar. They both completed two laps with no problems and on the second lap they set a time of 99.619 mph. Frank came back into pit lane smiling all over saying “Awesome, what an experience. I have no problems with the bike and Gordon is a great driver, I am really looking forward to the rest of the fortnight.
Thursday nights practice got under way with dry and bright conditions. The team had made some small adjustment to the bike before this practice and it was decided between Gordon and Frank that they would up the speed and see how they got on. Gordon and Frank completed two laps with the fastest being of 103.461 mph. The team were really happy, and Gordon said “Frank is doing a great job, we can go a lot faster, but we just want to take it easy just now, get more laps in, and let Frank get more familiar with the track. We will be making some more adjustments to the bike before tonight’s practice, just small changes, and I hope it will be good”.
