Welcome to the beta version of the new Women & Golf website. Our web monkeys are still hard at work and welcome your feedback.  

Advertisement

2017 Classic TT: Secrets of Padgetts soaraway success

Padgetts Racing boss Clive Padgett is jubilant this week after an incredible Classic TT in which he and rider Bruce Anstey won the Lightweight race on their Honda RS250, finished second in the Superbike event on their Yamaha YZR500, and achieved much more.

“We had two lap records, set the first 120mph lap by a two-stroke - it's also the fastest ever two-stroke lap round the Isle of Man - had the fastest ever classic bike around the Isle of Man at 127.496mph, and broke the race record for the Lightweight race,” he said.

“Conor Cummings also finished sixth on our OW01 Yamaha on which Rob McElnea finished third in the 1989 World Superbike round in Hungary. Every one of our three classic bikes finished every lap of practice and every lap of the race.”

Advertisement

Padgett denied suggestions that a slow pit stop cost Anstey victory in the Superbike race. “We probably put in around seven or eight litres more fuel than the four-strokes,” he said. “It's around one and a half seconds per litre, and in the pit stop we were 14 seconds slower than Dean (Harrison, the winner on the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki). The boys didn't have a slow pit stop. The bike just needed more fuel - it's a two-stroke.”

How did Anstey manage to break the lap record in the Superbike race - had they found more power from the reed-valve V4 in their Batley workshop? “You can't tune it - it's impossible,” Padgett said. “It's got what it is. It's a 1992 motorbike that Yamaha designed, and it's impossible to tune it. It's a mammoth task just keeping it going. To come to the event we put new pistons and rings in, we checked the cranks, she had some new reeds, a new clutch - just normal maintenance.”

Could Anstey have won the race with a better start? “He'd sussed the course conditions,” Padgett said. “There was oil down, and there were some flags out. Dean said that being out in the earlier race helped him - he knew where the conditions were poor. Bruce rode to the conditions on the first lap. On the last lap he knew where it was good and bad, and just opened the gas.”

How does a team owner feel when he puts a rider on the grid at the TT Mountain Circuit? “Anxious,” Padgett admitted. “Scared would be the wrong word, but nervous, hoping that we’ve checked everything and ticked every box. The day that anxiousness goes away, we should stop, because then we won't be at the top of our game.”

Over his shoulder, his dad Peter, a patriarch of the Padgetts racing dynasty, said: “ We don't sit on uzz backsides.”

Articles you may like

Advertisement

More TT and Road Racing

Advertisement
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram