Angus Greenall is a 53-year-old self-employed joiner. Not exactly the ideal resource base, you would imagine, from which to build a fleet of no less than four bikes for the Classic TT. But that’s exactly what Greenall achieved this year, with impressive results.

The 46-year-old Austrian, Horst Saiger, took Greenall Racing’s Kawasaki ZXR750 to third place in the Superbike race, while team newcomer Derek Sheils, 34, brought his ZXR into eighth place. And Steve Ferguson rode Greenall Racing’s Hondas into 13th and 12th places in the Junior and Senior events.

“Three riders, four bikes, four finishes,” Angus Greenall stresses. At the Classic TT it's an achievement to get a bike through practice and on to the starting grid. To get four machines into top 13 placings, with a podium in the premier race thrown in, would be a powerful result for even the best-funded of teams.

So how do you do that?

“I love road racing, always have done,” Greenall said. “I was involved in it 40 years ago. My dad started Greenall Racing, and by the time I was 13 I was building engines and bikes to go to the Isle of Man.”

He prepares his own engines and complete bikes. The first ZXR was entered four years ago, and the second Kawasaki came together a year later. The stability of the Classic TT’s rules helps bike builders. They know they can run a machine for season after season without it being rendered obsolete. Greenall says of his stable: “They’re the same bikes as last year - the same setup, the same engines, apart from being refreshed.”

After last year’s kerfuffle when some Kawasakis were disqualified for having engines of 750cc, the rules were amended for this year to allow the ZXRs to run a 2mm overbore to give them a better chance against the XR69s. The Greenall bikes now have 800cc engines, develop more than 145bhp, and weigh 175-180kg.

Sheils might have done even better this year if his bike hadn't suffered from handling problems at the rear end. He was on Dunlops while Saiger was running Metzelers, but at least now the team knows what to do for next year.

Yes, Greenall Racing is already committed to the 2018 Classic TT. Just three days after the final races at this year’s Classic TT, two of the four Greenall bikes were already stripped down to start the preparation process for next year. That's how deep the Classic TT addiction runs.