Right then! I have in my sweaty little palm a newly issued 2009 National ACU racing licence! It seems my Renal consultant and the ACU decided it was entirely correct that I should be able to race motorcycles, something I've been telling them for years but they still insist on making life difficult...

So! We're all systems go! I've managed to cram my leathers, gloves and name tags into an unfeasibly small case that just about conforms to Flybe's draconian hand-luggage spec's. This is because that although I'm only heading over to the Isle of Man for an afternoon's testing I intend to leave my gear over there to help with baggage costs and general ease of travel. I wont be racing in England this year. The caveat being that if we are 100% confirmed for the Manx GP I may need to do a few club rounds to top up my signatures for the Mountain course licence (6! needed this year..)

The action begins on Sunday afternoon at Jurby Airfield where hopefully all the keen young things on 600s will have finished throwing their steeds enthusiastically at the Manx scenery and we can start setting a good baseline for the little post classics's season data. The little Benelli 2C is a parallel 2 stroke twin with fairly basic technology so hopefully wont be to much of a challenge for a first seasons racing for the TS//2C racing team. The biggest challenge, as I see it will be keeping abreast of the complex regulations for whatever class the Benelli's manufacture date straddles, with whichever classic club we happen to be riding with.

Fairly loose targets for this year are to get 'reasonable' finishes for the bikes class in the classic championship on the Airfield circuit, attend the two closed road races on the Jurby South circuit. And if things are going well it would be rude not to enter the Pre-TT classic at Billown and the Southern 100 Classic races. The Manx GP would be a really good score but realistically in our first year with me having no signatures for the season start it will be a bit of a stretch...

I'll report back after the testing on Sunday...